Carlisle preview

United welcome Carlisle to the Kassam Stadium tomorrow evening for a game that both clubs would consider to be a must-win match. Carlisle actually did win on Saturday to lift themselves off the bottom of the table, but the cash-strapped Cumbrians won't relish the long trip to Oxford, where they may well face a United backlash after the U's created chance after chance against Scunthorpe but failed to score.

United will also be aware that following tomorrow's match they will be going into a sequence of games with several first team regulars out through suspensions and so will be hoping to give themselves a cushion of three points to put some daylight between themselves and the bottom clubs. If Mark Wright has any sense he will stick with the attacking line-up which ripped Scunthorpe apart, although hoping that the strikers will be able to notch a goal or two without the defenders giving away soft goals.

Wright might decide to exchange his Sams, bringing in Ricketts for Stockley after Sam the younger replaced the former Barnet man and immediately made an impact on Saturday. There's also a possibility that, having played the full 90 minutes at the weekend, Paul Powell might be rested, in which case Ricketts will almost certainly come in on the left. We have seen nothing yet to change our policy of not predicting United victories, but for some unknown reason we maintain a smidgeon of optimism and predict 1-1 as the final score tomorrow.

The player hunt continues

Reports today allege that United are after taking a couple of strikers on loan. Names bandied about include Luton's Stuart Douglas who is currently spending most of his time warming the Luton bench, although a couple of years ago he was allegedly worth a couple of million pounds. Ted McMinn approached our old mate Joe Kinnear on Saturday to enquire about Douglas's availability and the man whose arse we will see in Harrods next Summer has gone away to ponder his response.

This loan move would be with a view to a permanent transfer, whereas the other player mentioned, Wolves' Colin Larkin is, as far as can be seen, a straightforward loan. The 19 year old is currently on loan at Kidderminster and has, in fact, just had his loan spell extended.