David Oldfield, fresh from winning the North-West Masters tournament for Manchester City (alongside Paul Simpson and Wayne Biggins), has just been made Ian Atkins’ number two at United. The announcement ends weeks of speculation as to who the club would appoint, with Oldfield always one of the favourites due to his rapport with the players and the fact that he took charge of the reserves for a short period last season after Mike Ford’s sacking.

Oldfield’s appointment will also be a popular move amongst the fans, currently disgruntled following Bobby Ford’s departure. Significantly it means that he will be able to counterbalance Atkins’ defensive mindset, being an attacking midfielder. Hopefully this will in turn lead to more positive performances from the side, especially at home.

In tomorrow’s friendly at Oxford City, United will be giving trials to three midfielders, with Danny Brown and Andy Mumford being joined by Tommy Widdrington, who won promotion with Hartlepool last season. Widdrington is 31 years old and used to play for Southampton before moving to the arctic circle (via Grimsby and Port Vale). It is unlikely that we will see Phil Whitehead between the sticks for City because, despite training with them recently, he played for swindon town in their friendly at Gravesend on Saturday, thus becoming only the second player, after Adi Viveash, to have played for all three Thames Valley Triangle clubs.