Atkins in, Wright out?

Another momentous day in United's history, and there have been so many of them over the past three or four years, saw Ian Atkins appointed as Director of Football for the rest of this season, and essentially taking over most of Mark Wright's managerial responsibilities. Atkins has had managerial spells at Exeter, Chester, Carlisle, Northampton and most recently Cardiff City, with mixed fortunes. He has not been universally popular with supporters due to his insistence on playing unattractive long ball, defensive football, however he has a lot of experience at this level and knows how to get the best from very limited resources.

Atkins was only approached by Kassam last night, which indicates a possible panic motive, although he was mentioned in connection with the managerial vacancy at United following Malcolm Shotton's departure. He trained and spoke with the players today and in a statement announced that he was going to rely on Ted McMinn and Mike Ford's opinions on team selection for tomorrow's clash with Cheltenham. However he did declare that he would immediately be switching to the 4-4-2 formation favoured by many United supporters.

Meanwhile Wright is facing a disciplinary hearing into the allegations of racist abuse toward referee Joe Ross next Friday. The appointment of Atkins makes Wright's future as Oxford manager pretty untenable, whatever the hearing determines, although Wright has declared that he has no intention of resigning. It also makes our predictions yesterday somewhat pointless, as we obviously had no inkling of the events about to unfold. We therefore request your indulgence whilst we alter our forecast to the tune of a 1-1 draw, being somewhat ambivalent about Atkin's appointment.