Oxford United travel up to Northwich Victoria tomorrow for their final league game before Christmas.[@opponent]Northwich Victoria[/@opponent][@connection]Northwich Victoria[/@connection] This gives the game a significance that it might otherwise lack, as United will want to set themselves up for the busy festive period. United then face three successive cup ties before returning to Conference duty on Boxing Day, at home to Crawley. This will be Oxford's second game against the Vics this season, as United beat the Cheshire side 3-1 in the FA Cup first round just under one month ago.[@news]2217[/@news] That match was Darren Patterson's first in his new session as Oxford manager, and it will be interesting to see how much has changed in the interim. Oxford remain unbeaten so far under Patto's tenure.

Patterson has one or two selection headaches, especially in midfield. Phil Trainer apparently picked up his fifth yellow card of the season against Southend United last weekend, and so he joins Carl Pettefer and Rob Duffy in the sin bin. This leaves United a bit bereft in central midfield, with just Eddie Hutchinson fit, while Danny Rose is still recovering from a thigh injury and Michael Standing has moved on. The possibility remains of either Luke Foster or Barry Quinn playing in midfield, but Patto will be reluctant to break up the central defensive partnership that has kept three consecutive clean sheets. Mickey Corcoran or Matt Day could be asked to either fill in at centre back, or even do a job in midfield. Another option might be to play 4-3-3, as in the second half against Southend. This could then pair Yemi Odubade with both loanee strikers, Matt Green and Ashley Barnes. A third (or is it fourth? we've lost count) possibility is to bring in Declan Benjamin or someone else from the youth side, and both Aaron Posey and David Malloy have been added to the squad to make the trip up north.

Northwich are currently propping up the Conference, with just one league win all season. That came in their last home game, when they beat Rushden & Diamonds 1-0, with Lee Steele scoring the goal. Since then, the Vics picked up their first away point of the season with a 0-0 draw at Stafford Rangers, so they are slowly improving, and their confidence will be up. In addition, they have just been taken over by a consortium, and had a winding-up order from the Inland Revenue rescinded, while caretaker-manager Dino Maamria is likely to be offered a long-term contract. All this means that Northwich won't quite be the pushovers we were all expecting and, indeed, hoping for. Last season they beat United 1-0 at their place, during the season's d