United’s pre-season friendlies programme is now complete with the news that Chesterfield will visit the United Stadium on Saturday 29 July. This is currently the Spireites most prestigious pre-season fixture, although they do still have one more home game to add to their programme, while for United fans it is unlikely to compete with either the Portsmouth or Manchester United games in terms of audience appeal. It will perhaps be made interesting should Tcham N’Toya be spearheading United’s front line that day, although as far as we know the striker has yet to decide whether or not to sign the contract that Jim Smith has offered him. It is a shame that United don’t have games against FC United of Manchester, instead of their more illustrious counterparts, or AFC Wimbledon.

Former United striker Craig Davies has been released from his contract by Italian Serie B side Verona. Davies, who scored a hat-trick for Wales under-21s on Wednesday against Estonia, as Wales won 5-1 in Wrexham, has been called into the senior squad for a friendly against Trinidad & Tobago in Austria on Saturday, and could make his full debut in that game following the withdrawal of Ryan Giggs and Craig Bellamy. Davies had failed to settle in Italy, and his release will allow him to return to the UK to find a club where he can understand his team mates, possibly. Meanwhile Davies’s former United colleague Chris Hackett is also having an unhappy time, having played just twice for the Hearts senior side since his move to Edinburgh in January. The pacy, formerly ROS, winger has been frozen out since Graham Rix’s dismissal at Tynecastle, and must be wondering whether he made the right decision to move north. He flew down to watch United’s game against Orient, which was nice.

Meanwhile, in a piece of old news that we’re using purely as a spacefiller for our obligatory third paragraph, in the first odds that have been announced for next season, SkyBet have installed Oxford as favourites to win the Conference title, at 5/1. Halifax are second favourites at 8/1. It is as yet unclear how the bookies think that United are going to win the division with a squad of just a dozen or so professionals, but anyone who releases odds this early is playing a dangerous game. Of course, anyone who gambles on them is being equally imprudent.