Mark Gelder
Saturdays's visitors to the Kassam stadium are 8th placed Port Vale. Last Saturday saw the end of United's seven match league unbeaten run at Gillingham, despite a ten man advantage for most of the second half. Midweek was a return to business with a 5-1 defeat of bottom club Plymouth Argyle at home, where the Us are now undefeated in 12. The stylish football which Chris Wilder has been trying to bring to the club has finally paid off, with what was reported as a game with good goals from Robert Hall, James Constable and Peter Leven, although Wilder hopes that Leven's skilful chip goes unnoticed by higher league clubs. Rumours of 20 scouts out watching Robert Hall probably put paid to that.

Last year's match at the Kassam stadium had everything that makes watching football enjoyable, and of course a reminder not to leave early to avoid the car-park queues. Tom Craddock put United in front on 61 minutes with his first home goal, then late into injury time on 90+2, Gareth Owen pulled back an equaliser This prompted a mini pitch invasion by the Vale fans, however there was still time for Matt Green to set Craddock up for a last minute winner.

United team news
Damien Batt is suspended after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season, so Andrew Whing will probably take his place. At Gillingham, Deane Smalley started with Constable on the bench, however it was back to Constable starting and Smalley on the bench for the Plymouth match, and Wilder will probably not upset a winning line-up more than necessary.

For contract news on Alfie Potter, see news story to the right. United have also agreed that Wembley hero Matt Green will join Mansfield Town permanently in January for an undisclosed fee, where he has been playing on loan since the Summer, scoring nine goals in 16 starts.

Vale news
Old boys Ryan Burge and Lewis Haldane are both unavailable for Micky Adams's Port Vale, Burge with an injured knee, and Haldane out with a broken leg. Last season Haldane was also out for months, following a bite on his ankle from what was presumed to be a Blandford fly during pre-season, which left him hospitalised and unable to eat for a week, and losing almost three stone from his fighting weight of 13-and-a-half stone.

Vale chalked up a 3-0 away win over Bristol Rovers on Tuesday, but lost 4-0 on Saturday at home to Morecambe. The week before they had won 3-0 at home against Northampton. In what appears to be a similar set of results to United this season but with more goals, they are picking up points against bottom half teams, but struggling more with teams at the top. Top scorer is Gary Roberts with five (despite being suspended by the club after breaches of discipline), Tom Pope has most assists with four and most shots with 32. Anthony Griffiths has most yellows with four and also most fouls with 23.

Other news
The Plymouth Argyle takeover by James Brent's Akkeron Group has finally happened today, with some last day brinkmanship by apparently requiring the administrator and solicitors to agree to a reduced fee. Sacked manager Peter Reid, who famously sold his FA Cup runner-up medal to help pay staff wages, has now had a replacement issued by the FA, possibly paid for from Oxford's two recent