Mark Gelder
Saturday saw a United side, depleted by injury and suspensions, gain a valuable 2-1 victory over Rotherham United, effectively counting them out of the play-off chase. AFC Wimbledon are tonight's visitors, and whilst they will bring a decent following, again it seems the league fixture computer is conspiring against United, as the Wombles would surely have brought a lot more on a Saturday. This is AFCW's first visit to the Kassam Stadium in the football league, although they did play here in the Conference years in Feb 2010, losing 2-0 to a James Constable double. Other members of that team still at Oxford are Ryan Clarke, Adam Chapman, Damian Batt, Jake Wright, and Anthony Tonkin.

United News
Damian Batt and James Constable are available again after finishing their one and three game suspensions. Peter Leven has announced that he will play through the pain of his shoulder injury to see us through to the end of the season. Up front, choices are between Constable, Scott Rendell, Oli Johnson, Cristian Montano, Dean Morgan, and possibly Jon-Paul Pittman. Asa Hall has scored three in four games and will be unlucky not to play. Andy Whing will presumably move just forward of the defence again.

Wombles News
This match is obviously dominated by the Jack Midson connection. Midson left Oxford in the Summer, after spending most of the first half of last season out on loan. With Constable preferred as centre-forward, Midson had been tried on the left, but it was clear that his style of play was more suited to an up and over type of game where he plays as the lone striker, similar to what we saw from his Histon days. Midson is now top scorer in League 2 with 18 goals, Christian Jolley next up for AFCW with seven goals in total this season.

The Wombles had a mid season rocky patch, losing five league games in a row from the start of December, however this did include Oxford, Southend, and Swindon. More recently, they have beaten Dagenham & Redbridge, and Bradford City, before a narrow 1-0 defeat on Saturday at Bristol Rovers. Currently in 15th place, AFCW will see this as a solid start to their football league career.

Other News
Andy Scott was sacked by the Rotherham on Sunday, and Darren Patterson takes over temporarily for their match against Macclesfield, where Brian Horton has now been appointed manager.

The bottom of league 2 is looking crowded, with seven teams separated by just five points, with nine or ten games remaining each.

Tonight also sees some exciting clashes: Swindon Town (1st) vs Torquay United (2nd); Gillingham (8th) vs Crawley (6th); Shrewsbury Town (4th) vs Cheltenham Town (5th), whilst Southend face Aldershot, who drew against Crawley last Tuesday and beat Bradford City on Saturday. [@opponent]AFC Wimbledon[/@opponent][@connection]AFC Wimbledon[/@connection]