Oxford United's management may just have had an eye on protecting teenager James Clarke against Kidderminster tomorrow because of what happened on his debut.

The young right back (pictured) crashed to the ground after a collision with Harriers striker James Constable in the league game at Aggborough on November 24, which United won 2-0.

The referee sent off Constable, to the fury of home fans, but video replays showed he did nothing wrong.

Some Kidderminster fans have heavily criticised Clarke's role in the incident, but again TV replays showed he, too, was blameless.

Nevertheless, there was a lot of ill-feeling between the two teams, and boss Darren Patterson may just have been thinking about this when he rested Clarke this week, and put him on the bench against Crawley on Boxing Day.

The Aylesbury-based 18-year-old came on as a late sub in United's 1-0 win over Crawley, but it would be no surprise if he was again left out of the starting line-up tomorrow, just in case there is any 'spill-over' from the first game.

Patterson said: "I think Kidderminster have got a better away record than they have home, and they'll obviously want revenge, they'll want to turn us over.

"They have got some very good players, especially going forward, and we'll have to be on our mettle. It will be a tough game.

"It wasn't aggro at their place, it was just bad refereeing. There was no aggro from us, we were excellent on the day, and we were fully committed.

"The referee made some bad decisions, wrongly sent their player off, wrongly sent Carl Pettefer off and that was the problem.

"We are looking after James a bit, but also Matty Day's come back in and done well.

"We've got a responsibility with our younger players that we don't put them in to fail. We've got to make sure we put them in at the right times, and take them out at the right times and we'll do that because James has come in and done ever so well.

"He's signed his first new deal, and we will put him in when we feel it's right.

"Matty Day's been unfortunate in that he's picked up a few injuries, and he's finding his way back in.

"People forget about that. The Duffys and The Twiggs haven't played many games and they're finding their fitness as well."