Mark Gelder
For the second successive Tuesday, Oxford United won 2-1 at home. This game was won the hard way against Barnet, going a goal down, before Rendell and Constable put the Us ahead, with Ryan Clarke saving the day with a late penalty save. This was his 8th save of 17 penalties faced for United. Swindon moved top of the table with a comeback victory against Shrewsbury. The rest of the top 5 all dropped points, whilst the chasing pack for the play-offs also dropped points. This leaves United on their own in seventh place – six points from 6th, and five points ahead of 8th.

Macclesfield Town are Saturday's visitors, against whom United drew 1-1 in the away fixture way back in October, where Robbie Hall rescued a point with an injury time equaliser. Sadly, Hall is apparently now out for the rest of the season with a torn cartilage.

Last season's Bridle Bonanza game over the Christmas period saw a 2-1 victory in front of 9,440, with goals from Simon Heslop and James Constable.

United Team news
As expected, Chris Wilder changed the shape of the team for the Barnet game, although the Bees did not start ouyt as defensively as expected. United returned to the tried and tested back four of Batt, Wright, Duberry, Davis. Whing moved forward with Leven in midfield, Holmes and Johnson were played out wide, with Constable and Rendell up front. There seems to be little to suggest any changes for tomorrow. Whilst Kerrouche may be challenging for the team, he is not allowed to play in United's next game, and so it may be wise to keep him on the bench so the rest of the players get more experience together.

Silkmen news
Macclesfield have the worst form in the whole of the football league, having lost eight successive games, and sit just three clear of the drop zone. Their last victory was on New Year's Eve, 2-1 at home against Port Vale, when they were in midtable, 14th on 30 points.

Of those eight defeats, three were to the form sides of Swindon, Torquay, and Cheltenham, and apart from a 4-0 defeat to Accrington, six of the other seven games have been decided by a single goal.

The Silkmen are also suffering a real injury crisis, with Jose Veiga (goalkeeper), Tony Diagne (defender), Ross Draper (midfield), Nathaniel Brown (defender), Paul Morgan (defender), Elliott Hewitt (defender), Dwayne Mattis (midfield), and Lewis Chalmers (midfield) all injured, although Hewitt may be fit for the game. Manager Gary Simpson has though brought in Ireland U-21 international defender Mark Connolly from Bolton Wanderers, and ex-United player Ben Futcher from Bury.

Top scorer is Ben Tomlinson with six, and George Donnelly with four goals. Aside from the injured players, Donnelly is also top of the disciplinary charts with 27 fouls.

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