Mark Gelder

In a week with two fixtures against table topping Southend United, the first sees Oxford travel to Roots Hall in the league. Last week the Kassam Stadium hosted one of its more entertaining games of football, with something for everyone apart from the Port Vale fans. A Michael Duberry headed goal to start, a well worked Vale equaliser, Peter Leven's wonder goal from the centre circle, a Duberry conceded penalty extremely well saved by Ryan Clarke, as well as resilient defending to yet again deny Port Vale even a point from their last two visits, despite them drawing level each time after conceding.

Southend have been a bit of a bogey team in recent outings. In the away fixture in February 2011 at Roots Hall the Yellows were defeated 2-1. James Constable fired the Us ahead, before goals from Ryan Hall and Bilel Mohsni saw Southend ahead at half time and taking all three points. One has to look back to the Ramon Diaz era and April 2005 to find our last victory (2-1 in Division 4). That team included Lucas Cominelli, Chris Hackett (now at Milwall) , Craig Davies (Barnsley), Tommy Mooney, Emiliano Diaz, and Juan Raponi. Davies and Mooney were the scorers for United, and Freddy Eastwood (Coventry City) for Southend.

Team news
Robert Hall has been recalled early by West Ham during the second month of his loan, and earned a place on the subs bench midweek for them. Jonathan Franks meanwhile, who is on a 6 month loan from Middlesbrough until the end of December, has now returned to United following his recovery from the shoulder injury incurred during his first behind closed doors friendly. Tom Craddock is also now back in training. Damien Batt will hope to regain his place at the expense of Andrew Whing, and there will be competition to replace Robert Hall from Franks, Daniel Philliskirk and Deane Smalley.

Southend news
Apparently Southend have a November curse, having won just two of their last 22 league games played in November. Despite leading the division and gaining 13 points from 15 in October, Paul Sturrock has though missed out on the manager of the month curse, which instead went to Crawley's Steve Evans, who had five league wins and a draw in October. Mohsni will miss the Saturday clash, following his fifth caution of the season, and goalkeeper Glenn Morris is still injured, with loanee Luke Daniels from West Bromwich Albion expected to fill the space. Ryan Hall is top scorer with six in total, and Liam Dickinson has five. Hall is also the most dangerous in attack, with 23 shots on target and 15 off in the league

Other news
Paolo Di Canio's West Ham connections seem to be turning sour. Having been loaned striker Cristian Montano for a month, PDC has publically questioned Montano's commitment, and stated he is dropped for their game against Port Vale.

Plymouth have signed defender Paul Bignot on loan, who will be remembered from his Kidderminster days. From there, he went to Newport County for a year, before signing for Championship club Blackpool for 2011/12

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