DENIS Smith has a major balancing act on his hands to haul Oxford United above the Division 2 drop zone.

The new U's boss has highlighted the squad's imbalance as a major reason for them struggling this season.

After seeing the players first-hand in their 1-0 home defeat by Blackpool and in three training sessions, he said: "There's no balance to the squad and it's a big problem for us.

"In any football team you need a mixture of quick players, big players, dribblers, tacklers and so on, and we don't seem to have that.

Smith pinpointed four problem areas for United:

Not too many defensive midfielders

No natural pace up front other than Jamie Cook who's still quite young

Not enough big men in the side

A lot of left-sided players.

United have slipped into serious relegation trouble because the goals have dried up and Smith feels there's one obvious reason why the team have not scored in five successive games.

"Up front we have target men (with Steve Anthrobus, Kevin Francis and Derek Lilley) but not many who can play off the target men." Smith says he hopes to address the imbalance as soon as possible and would love to sign a player before this weekend's Division 2 derby against Wycombe Wanderers at Adams Park.

But he knows it's rarely as easy as that.

"There's nothing happening at the moment," he said last night, "and that's despite agents ringing me at all times of the day and night suggesting this player and that."

Smith already has one new face, the Trinidad and Tobago midfielder Kerwin Jemmott from the wonderfully named club Joe Public, who has arrived at the Manor Ground for a trial.

There were hopes that he would play in the reserves' Avon Insurance Combination game against Bristol Rovers at the Manor tomorrow, but in training yesterday, he lasted only ten minutes.

"He got a knock so didn't last very long. I think he found it a bit cold," Smith said.

"But he's from a decent side over there and has apparently played for the national side, so I'll take further looks at him."

Smith added: "As Richard Knight is with us, I can only bring one more player in on loan, so I've got to be careful. I can't go back. I have to make sure it's one I need.

"But the good news from my point of view is that Steve Davis came through training yesterday and for me that's a positive piece of news because I'm obviously without Mark Watson and Ross Weatherstone."

Watson has flown out to Los Angeles for Canada's Gold Cup games.

Even if his country are knocked out in the first round of the FIFA-recognised tournament, Watson wouldn't be able to play in United's next home game against Chesterfield because he is suspended.

Story date: Tuesday 08 February

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.