It’s Oxford United’s favourite competition on Tuesday night, with the visit of Colchester United to Grenoble Road for a League Cup first round tie.

There’s lots to debate around this one – United need to show some sort of response to Saturday’s defeat by Portsmouth, but on the other hand they can ill afford to risk more injuries to senior players. So how does Gary Rowett balance these two opposing imperatives?

There is clearly a need to rest some of those players who looked to be a bit off the pace at the weekend – whether through fatigue or possibly carrying a knock. I suspect this means that Elliott Moore won’t be involved, while possibly the midfield pair of Will Vaulks and Cameron Brannagan might be deemed restworthy. I would also not be surprised to see some rotation at the top end of the pitch, with Tom Bradshaw possibly starting, although a lot of the team selection probably depends on whether players such as Brian De Keersmaecker and Shemmy Płacheta are fit enough to play a part.

I also wouldn’t be too surprised to see so-called ‘fringe’ players such as Louie Sibley and Matt Phillips included, with Matt Ingram in goal. With the inclusion of four or five of Saturday’s starters retaining their places, you’d have thought that this would be enough to get past Cochester and into the hat for the Coventry away game in the second round. Except…

Colchester United will be up for this one. They drew 1-1 at Oldham Athletic at the weekend, having taken an early lead and, on their first visit to the Kassam Stadium, they will want to put on a decent display to reward their travelling fans. They will not lie down, that’s for sure, and with Oxford’s ability to underperform when they should be doing better (most recently in the pre-season friendly against another fourth division side in Bristol Rovers), this is far from a gimme.

You can see Oxford’s record against the other U’s HERE.

Matt Murphy misses a penalty against Colchester in November, 1999

Colchester will be without Oxford loan striker Will Goodwin after he apparently did his groin in a training session, although they do have former Oxford midfielder Jack Payne, who came off the bench for them on Saturday. They are managed by Danny Cowley, so will probably be tough to beat and we can expect to see a fairly direct and physical style.

Once again, I won’t make a prediction, but I do expect us to scrape into the second round. It might not be pretty though.