United announced their provisional pre-season friendly list today, with five games lined up, three away and two at home. The first game is the now traditional pre-season opener at Oxford City on Saturday July 10th. Last season United beat City 4-0 at Court Place Farm, in front of about 660 spectators. The season before ended with a 1-0 win for the Us before a similar sized crowd, while the Yellow half (or nine-tenths) of the city won 5-0 three years ago.

The following Saturday, 17th July, United visit Aylesbury, where they won 1-0 two seasons ago. A visit to Havant & Waterlooville follows a further week hence, July 24th, which is nice and handy for Graham Rix, who lives in Portsmouth. Oxford last visited there in July 2000, and won 6-0.

The home games commence with a match against Watford on Wednesday July 28th, which is presumably the Oxon Benevolent Cup game. Then on Saturday July 31st Bournemouth are the visitors to the KasStad for the final pre-season work-out. The football season starts on August 7th, and we will know who we are playing on that date when the fixtures come out, on June 24th.