Apologies for yesterday's news' failure to appear – server problems at Freeserve. Hopefully it should all be sorted now.

Kids for a quid

You can have mine for half that (ho-ho)! United have finally grasped the nettle and shown their mettle and decided to settle for allowing children under 16 into the Carlisle game on Tuesday October 23rd for just one pound sterling (the price of a Rage On) provided they're accompanied by a consenting adult. As an additional bonus the North Stand will be reopened for that game (for kids and their parents only) and will be fully reopened for the York game on November 3rd.

It is also anticipated that for the Scunthorpe game on October 20th United will have a real honest-to-goodness scoreboard at the west end of the ground. It won't be your state-of-the-art Tim Midgeley TV screen job, but it will be big enough to let us know how many goals United have conceded. The big, unanswered, question though is will it have a clock?

The Crowe road?

United are apparently showing an interest in Stoke City's diminutive striker Dean Crowe, currently on loan at our arch-nemesis Luton Town. Crowe turned down an opportunity to extend his loan at Plymouth earlier this season to join Luton who, he claimed, were a “bigger” club. Hopefully United won't pursue their interest in someone who is quite clearly so mercenary, not that he would want to come to little old Oxford anyway!