More woe for United

8:00am Monday 8th September 2008

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Oxford United's nightmare run of injuries and suspensions continued with leading scorer James Constable hobbling off with a groin strain in the 1-1 draw at home to Kettering.

Four-goal Constable seems certain to miss this Saturday's clash with his old club Kidderminster, and the early prognosis didn't look promising.

The U's should learn today, following tests, the exact length of time he will be sidelined, but manager Darren Patterson admitted after the Kettering match: "It looks a bad one, it could be long-term."

It's been a very long time since United have had such a spate of bad luck with injuries and bans.

So far this season, which is still in its infancy, James Clarke has been ruled out for three games and Luke Foster for five because of suspension, while Billy Turley, Phil Trainer, Chris Willmott, Jamie Guy, Jake Cole, Eddie Hutchinson and now Constable have all been unavailable through injuries, some for many games.

Hutchinson was ruled out at the weekend because of a knee injury, and he too may need recovery time.

So it was understandable that Patterson revealed some relief at not having another midweek game.

"It's nice to go week to week for a change because the number of injuries is killing us," he said.

United conceded a last-minute equaliser as last year's Blue Square North champions Kettering made it eight games without defeat this season by snatching a 1-1 draw at the Kassam Stadium after Constable's replacement, Yemi Odubade, had fired them ahead.

"In the first half we didn't play well, but had a reshuffle at half-time and were much more positive," Patterson said. "Sam Deering came on and was excellent, and he made the goal.

"But we scored and then stopped, which is very disappointing. We need to turn these performances into 1-0 wins.

"Had we got the three points it would have been a real good week for us."

The U's extended their unbeaten run to four games, but were left to think of what might have been . . . although Kettering were an impressive outfit.

"Nine points from eight games is disappointing at this stage of the season," said United's manager.

"We'd been hoping for a much bigger return."