Coming up: Morecambe

The drop

Is this a game where things go back to normal? At least for a little bit. Morecambe doesn't stir much emotion at Oxford - and presumably nor us for them. It's just what we need at the moment, I suspect.

It's been a brutal few weeks with away games against Bristol Rovers and Northampton, followed by last week's bruiser against Portsmouth. Each one had it's own challenges aside from their competitiveness on the pitch - TV, old manager, biggest club in the division. How have we done? 4 points in those three games. Applying Jim Smith's principle of winning at home and drawing away. On that basis we might have hoped for 5. And that's to win a title, so in context, not bad.

Morecambe begins a sequence of games with a different challenge - they're characterised by their normality. That's not to under-estimate the challenge; as with many 'normal' teams in this division, the fact they appear to be well run makes them competitive. Last week I said that a 'selection' had been made looking at the current top 5. I stand by that but it's easy to miss that Morecambe are equal on points with us. None-the-less, York, Accrington and Wimbledon lie in wait. With an epic double-header against Leyton Orient and Plymouth, not forgetting Swindon, coming up, now it time to bank some big points.

Old game of the day 

Just over 9 years since this one from our first season in the Conference. It was the first league game between the two sides and at the time, they were just cannon fodder to swat aside. We did, on that occasion, but we've never put clear water between us and them since. This is the 13th meeting with them since. We were never supposed to be a club that played Morecambe regularly.

From the blog

"Some fans are now so entrenched that defeat is almost celebrated; it is proof of the hypothesis that Wilder has failed. So, when Harry Worley equalised against Morecambe on Saturday, there was a degree of disappointment. Except, if football if a results business, then picking up points is success and therefore Wilder is a success and the naysayers should back down. But they don’t."

Read on.