A home loss to Torquay United, followed by away defeats to Burton Albion and Rotherham United have seen Oxford United crash out of the FA Cup 1st Round and slide down League 2. The dream of playing local rivals Swindon has, once again, diminshed. Moreover, Oxford find themselves being sucked towards the dreaded relegation zone.
How has this run of four league defeats come about? In Chris Wilder's eyes at least it is due to the youthful inexperience of the side. He has responded to this by bringing in three vastly experienced football league players on loan: central midfielder Paul Wootton from Southampton, the towering centre-back Ben Futcher from Bury and Steve Maclean from Plymouth. Despite handing starts to all three and restoring the collected, ever-responsible Simon Clist to the starting line-up, we still came unstuck in our last outing at Rotherham. Wilder has effectively ripped apart our promotion winning team, lost patience with his summer signings and has such turned to these wise-headed loan signings as the key to steadying the ship. Time will tell whether this gamble pays off.
With a greater blend of youth and experience, Wilder hopes to have found the tonic to catapult us up the table. Our next home game against Gillingham gives us the perfect opportunity to do so. The Gills have the worst away record in the whole Football League (they have not won away since May 2009) and possess a 16 stone striker in the (rather round) shape of Adebayo Akinfenwa up front.
Bring on Saturday.
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