The late Peter Houseman in action against Derby in a pre-season friendly in 1975

Football is back! After yet another interminable international break we have a game. Remember: it’s a 12:30 kick off, so don’t turn up at 2:30 as you’ll just block the exit for all the fans who actually did turn up at the right time.

Tomorrow’s opponents are Derby County, who fought out a 1-1 draw in the equivalent game last season, played almost exactly a year ago. That was the fifth of six games against the Rams in successive seasons.

The last time that United beat Derby at home was way back in November 1993, when goals from Jim Magilton and Matty Elliott secured a 2-0 win for Oxford. The U’s only other home win against Derby came two years previously, another 2-0 win courtesy of goals from David Penney and Trevor Aylott.

In fact, in the sides’ 16 meetings, Oxford have won just five, with four of them ending in draws. The U’s are averaging a goal a game against the Rams.

See United’s full record against Derby HERE.

Although Oxford have lost their last two games on 18th October, in 2016 against Coventry City and 2022 against Sutton United (that one best forgotten), generally that date has been kind to the Yellows, with seven wins and five defeats from the 16 games in the professional era.

Games on this date include a 4-0 win at Fulham in 1980 and a 4-0 defeat at Liverpool six years later. United also beat Bury 4-0 at Gigg Lane in 2003. Although the best result was the 6-1 win over Maidenhead in the FA Cup in 1958. Remember it?

Saturday’s game is just the sixth 18th October match played at home. All of Oxford’s results on this date can be found HERE.

The game

Oxford go into the game on the back of two disappointing defeats before the break: away at Watford and at home to Sheffield United, sandwiching what turns out to have been a pretty decent draw at QPR. This is just United’s fourth home game of the season, with a pair of 2-2 draws against Coventry City and Leicester City completing the set.

The good news is that both long-term absentees Ciaron Brown and Ole Romeny were called up for their respective nations, with Romeny getting several minutes with two substitute appearances for Indonesia, while Brown remained an unused substitute for Northern Ireland. Despite them both well along the road to recovery, it is doubtful that either will feature tomorrow.

United’s other players called into action for their countries include left-back Greg Leigh, who played the full 90 minutes for Jamaica in their 4-0 win over Bermuda on Wednesday, right-back Brodie Spencer, who featured for Northern Ireland against both Slovakia and Germany, and striker Mark Harris, who played in Wales’s games against England and Belgium.

Like Oxford, Derby have won just once this season and, like Oxford, it was on the road. They beat West Bromwich Albion 1-0 at the Hawthorns on 20th September. They followed that with a home defeat by Preston North End and their last three games have all ended 1-1, most recently at home to Southampton.

I dunno, but I reckon the smart money would be on another draw tomorrow, although were United to win it would take them above 19th-placed Derby and out of the drop zone. With two away games to follow, at Wrexham and the rather unfortunate Sheffield Wednesday, it would certainly be nice to get those three points.