Oxfords lose

United's reserves lost 3-1 at home (home being Oxford City's ground) to Bristol City. Ben Abbey scored United's goal.
Meanwhile Oxford City lost 1-0 at home (home being Oxford United's ground) to Wycombe Wanderers in the FA Cup 1st round 2nd replay (unique in these days of penalty shoot-outs?) in front of a crowd of 4,004. Former United stalwart Garry Smart still has the same commanding presence at the back, and still gets a nosebleed when crossing the halfway line.

Pentith update

It would appear that Nick Pentith is not actually appealing against the denial of his application to seek a judicial review against the decisions by Oxford City Council to grant planning permission for the multiplex at Minchery and the Government Office of the South East not to call it in. Instead he is reapplying to a judge to have a judicial review against the City Council's amendment to the Minchery Farm planning permission to allow a multiplex (confused? you will be).
Apparently the original case was dismissed because there were no grounds to hold a judicial review, but Justice Jowitt decreed that in any future application both OCC and OUFC should have the right to be represented by a barrister. The danger that this represents to United is that the Council may decide, after receiving legal advice, not to proceed with the transfer of land for the multiplex until this new judicial review is laid to rest, which could be March at the earliest and possibly July as Pentith has the right to reject a date if he can claim that he has not had sufficient time to prepare a case. Kassam could decide to take a risk and complete the stadium without completing the land transfer deal, but if it all went pear-shaped he risks losing large amounts of money. Hopefully the Council will make their decision soon, although no Strategy and Resources Committee meeting is planned until January.

Spackers – the fans' choice?

Nigel Spackman won the latest (and last?) Rage Online poll for who Oxford fans want to be the new United manager. His victory wasn't totally convincing, receiving 33% of the vote with Joe Kinnear in second place with 26%. Current caretaker manager Mickey Lewis scored just 13% whilst Northampton's ex-boss Ian Atkins received 7%. Harchester United's player manager Luis Amor Rodriguez polled 4%, which just shows how sad some people really are (and no-one voted for Cherie Lunghi, which is disappointing).

Former U's

A hat-trick for Paul Moody enabled Millwall to beat Reading 5-0;