It’s catch-up time at Rage Online. Although there are as yet no new players to report on at the United Stadium, there are a few recent bits and pieces to report on. United’s reserves, who have played on Wednesday afternoons at Oxford City’s Court Place Farm for the last four seasons, will this season be playing on Monday evenings at Didcot Town’s Loop Meadow. The switch is significant for a number of reasons, not least that it gives United a presence in Didcot, a growing town whose population is also within the catchment area of Reading and swindon. The change to evening kick-offs will be popular with those supporters who were unable to watch games during the afternoon, while moving games to Monday will give players extra recovery time should they be selected for first team duty the following weekend.

Although no new players have arrived, there have been a number of new faces at Oxford. Former Leicester City legend Bobby Roberts has joined the club as Chief Scout. Roberts has also been manager at Colchester, where he worked with Jim Smith, and Wrexham. Roberts was also Chief Scout at Derby when Smith was manager there.

Another new appointment is that of Jorden Milsom as a full-time Fitness Coach. Milsom is a recent graduate of Liverpool’s John Moores University (formerly Liverpool Polytechnic), which has an excellent reputation for its Sports Science studies. Milsom will work with the first team players in the morning on their fitness, prior to Jim Smith and coach Andy Awford working on tactics in the afternoon.

The United backroom team took further shape with the appointment of Shaun North as Reserve Team Coach. North was formerly at Portsmouth with both Smith and Awford. This leaves Darren Patterson free to concentrate on the Youth Teams, especially the new partnership with New Hampshire’s Seacoast United, a youth training set up with around 5,000 players ranging in age from eight to 18. It’s not totally clear how the relationship between the clubs will work, but it is, no doubt, a Good Thing.

A final (possibly) member of the behind-the-scenes crew at United was announced today. Nick Baldwin is the new full-time groundsman at the Us’ new training facility at Milton United’s Milton Heights. Nick was previously working alongside David Wedge at the team’s home ground, but has now transfered to Milton where he is maintaining the three training pitches.