United youth enter Merit League 2
The first half of the season is over for Oxford United's under-18s, who finished in seventh place in the Football League Alliance South West division.The second part of the campaign sees the south-west and south-east divisions combine, with the top five teams from the South West and the top seven from the South East merging to form Merit League 1, while Oxford and the other four bottom-half teams from the South West (Bristol Rovers, Cheltenham, Torquay and Newport) join the bottom six of the South East to form Merit League 2.
This ensures that United will have games against a number of teams they won't have met competitively before, including Leyton Orient, Northampton, Cambridge United, Gillingham and Dagenham & Redbridge. The U's commence this new venture this Saturday, with a visit to AFC Wimbledon.
Coach Chris Allen has a full squad from which to choose his team, with left-back Freddie Grant fit again after a few weeks on the sidelines.