The Bulls travel to the Kassam Stadium on Saturday for a League Two match.
The two sides have only ever been paired in the same Football League Division once before, the old Division Three in 1977/8, and the Bulls have not visited the relatively new three-sided ground before with the Bulls regaining their FL status at the same time as Oxford lost theirs. Earlier in the season the U's visited Edgar Street and won 2-0 in a game that remains Sam Malsom's only start of the season. The Bulls have only recorded one win over Oxford in seven games so far, a 2-1 win at Edgar Street in the two clubs' first FL meeting in 1977.
Oxford are only goal-difference shy of the play-off spots after a steady, but unspectacular, campaign so far. The double-figure hauls of strikers Tom Craddock and James Constable have helped them into the frame, but they have scored in total only four more than the Bulls and it is down to a more frugal defence that they are at the better end of the table. They have conceded just one goal in the last four games but have also failed to score twice in that run.
The Bulls travel to Oxfordshire with only one defeat in the last ten League games and having won their last three away games. Despite home form that has seen just three points arrive from four matches, the formerly 'unlucky' orange shirts have secured maximum points in 2011 after four straight losses at the end of 2010. With a six point safety cushion, and a couple of games in hand, the Bulls' main objective now is to match the bottom two point-for-point and stay out of immediate danger.
Oxford United vs Hereford United, Kassam Stadium, Saturday 26th February, 3.00pm.