By Mark Gelder

On Tuesday night Oxford United travel to Southend United for the first time since December 2007 when we also played on a chilly Tuesday night in an FA Cup second round replay. At the time, Southend were a League One club, and Oxford were in the Conference with the newly appointed Darren Patterson in charge. Southend duly won 3-0, despite Billy Turley saving a penalty.

The home fixture in the current season was on New Year's Day and the Us were pretty much outclassed and were defeated 2-0.

Last Saturday Chris Wilder named an unchanged squad and bench for the visit of Cheltenham Town, and yet again went a goal behind before half-time. After levelling via Tom Craddock, Ryan Clarke parried away a late penalty and so with the disappointment of not being ahead, the team finished the day relieved to have one point rather than none.

Last week