United’s reserve game against the Franchise monsters, due to be played at Court Place Farm this afternoon, was abandoned at half-time because of a waterlogged pitch. The score when the match was called off was 1-1, Danny Morgan having put the Us ahead only for Richard Paquette to equalise for the evil ones.

As well as Morgan, United featured Mark Rawle, Barry Quinn and Mark E’Beyer, all on the comeback trail from injury. Jamie Brooks and Simon Cox also played, as did Lee Molyneaux, Michael Alexis and various others. We don’t know, or care, who played for the other lot.

United’s match at Grimsby, due to be played on Saturday 18 December, has been brought forward to the evening of Friday 17 December, because the Mariners believe that the Saturday crowd would be affected by Christmas shopping. Oblivious to the problems this will undoubtedly cause for the Oxford faithful, it strikes us as odd that the populace of Grimsby, or indeed Cleethorpes, would prefer to spend a Saturday afternoon in the local Woolworth rather than watching their footy team. Weird.