These are strange day up the Manor. Relegated to play in the bottom division for the first time since 1965 but with a brand spanking new stadium just over the horizon. Seven games of the season remaining, of which none matter at all apart from attempting to rescue a small portion of pride.

There are still a couple of ambitions remaining for this season. United’s attempts to finish above Swansea should be realisable as the Welsh team is on an even worse run of form than United and the seven point gap isn’t too great. In addition Oxford still have to play Swansea and now that relegation has been confirmed the U’s could well display an upturn in form.

The other ambition is of course to see swindon join us in the basement. They are three points ahead of Bristol Rovers who have three games in hand on the men from Wilts. United can help achieve this aim by losing at the Memorial Ground on April 21st although the way this season has been going Oxford shouldn’t have to try too hard to do this.

Off the pitch it would appear that not even an (alleged) arson attack can stop the completion of Minchery Farm. Hopefully no more legal challenges will raise their ugly heads and so the only thing that might prevent United playing in the new ground next season is Firoz Kassam’s dodgy ticker. Needless to say we trust this won’t be a factor.

As we look forward to next season in a new ground, in a new division, Rage Online trusts that we will also have a new manager to try and guide us back into Division Two. David Kemp has shown himself to be tactically clueless and to have all the personality of a rottweiller. He has failed in his mission to rescue United and he should go the way of all failures – to Luton.

Whether his replacement is Mark Wright, John Aldridge, Steve Cotterill or someone else is currently of little consequence. The most important characteristics of a new manager are that they should have a proven track record of working at a club with a low budget and they should be approachable and honest.

If Kassam can appoint someone with these competencies with enough time to bring in some decent Summer signings the signs for next season are promising. If Kemp remains in charge then U’s fans should start looking up the routes to Boston and Leigh for 2002.