United on a Stag hunt

The Stags, now managed by David Holdsworth, have ex-U’s players Rob Duffy, Mich-ael Blackwood and Alex Jeannin.

For centre forward Duffy, who was United’s top scorer two seasons ago – in their first campaign in the Conference – it’s his first return to Oxford since being released last summer.

So the Welsh striker will feel he has a point to prove.

And Mansfield too are a different proposition to the one that the U’s beat 3-1 at Field Mill in a televised encounter on December 4, in what was Jim Smith’s first match as caretaker-boss.

The 0-0 draw with Kettering in midweek extended their unbeaten run to six games, and they felt robbed of possibly victory by not getting a stoppage-time penalty.

Duffy is the one that everyone will be focussing on, because he was a major player for United two years back.

Few Oxford fans will forget his memorable hat-trick at Forest Green, but he also seemed a difficult player to handle, and his lack of movement up front didn’t go down well with former boss Darren Patterson.

Duffy scored 18 league goals, which included seven penalties, for the U’s in 2006-7, but managed only six, includingfour spot-kicks, last season.

After his release by Patter-son, which followed a short loan to Wrexham, he joined Blue Square South side Newport County.

He had scored three goals in 16 appearances for Newport, who are managed by Dean Holdsworth, the twin brother of the Mansfield boss.

Duffy had actually started pre-season with Mansfield, but he opted not to put pen to paper for Billy McEwan, who was later sacked amid criticism of his outspoken management style.

Duffy said: “Mansfield now is very good. Mansfield in the summer? Not so great.

“It is now a totally different club to the one I saw seven or eight months ago.

“The set-up and the management, the whole thing has changed. It’s leagues apart. You can see that now in the results.

“When you go to a club you’ve got to feel wanted and as if you can be part of the plans.

“I didn’t think on a personal level I would have got on with the manager. There were a lot of unhappy lads in the dressing room even before the season started.”

Duffy scored on his Mansfield debut, in a 1-0 win over Crawley, and he also hit the match-winner, from the penalty spot, in a 1-0 victory over York.

Winger Blackwood has been out injured, but came on as a late substitute in midweek.

French left back Jeannin has had a scan on a foot injury, and an injection in the foot, and is unlikely to be involved.

Scott Garner, the Blue Square Premier’s player of the month for January, served a one-match ban against Kettering and is available to face Oxford.

United manager Chris Wilder is expecting the Stags to be tougher opponents, under Holdsworth, than they were for many teams earlier in the season.

He said: “They'll be fitter, more organised and more disciplined, and I think they'll be a lot more different proposition to what they were two or three months ago.

“And the results have shown that. They've won games 1-0, kept clean sheets and I'm expecting them to come and sit in, and want to kill the game, and run the game down, do things that professionally can get them a result.

“It's up to us to raise the tempo of the game, play quick and move the ball about, and be patient as well.”

But he will need his defence to be solid, as they have been generally in recent home games.

“It's important that the back door is always shut and we're nice and concentrated,” he said.

“We will, I would imagine, have the majority of the game. We've just got to make sure we're good enough in the final third to be clinical and put games to bed.”

Right back Damian Batt got a clattering in the ribs in training yesterday, but is expected to recover.

“He got a bang, hopefully he'll be OK,” Wilder said.

“We do whizz it about a bit, especially in the forward positions, but I wouldn't like to miss out at the moment because I think there are players out of the side who are desperate to get in the team.”