Yemi Odubade is set to take over from the injured James Constable at Kidderminster today, while new signing Paul Evans will make his debut in midfield as Eddie Hutchinson recovers from his knee injury.

Odubade replaced Constable in last Saturday's home game against Kettering, and got the breakthrough goal after some forceful play from Jamie Guy.

Manager Darren Patterson hadn't completely ruled Constable out, but said the four-goal leading scorer was "very doubtful" because of his abductor strain.

Until yesterday's capture of the vastly experienced Evans, who has signed a deal until the New Year, United's manager was toying with the idea of playing Sam Deering from the start at Aggborough after the youngster's promising showing as a sub seven days ago, but Deering will probably now remain on the bench.

Hutchinson wanted to play, despite being still in some discomfort, but Patterson says it's too big a risk at the moment.

"He wants to play even though he's injured, which shows great commitment," said the U's boss.

"I've got to say, his attitude has been 100 per cent better since he got back into the team and since the transfer window closed. He has been coming and knocking on my door saying he'll go through the pain barrier.

"That's the attitude I want. He's a definite asset to this football club with that kind of mindset and is one we won't be ready to offload."

"But the trouble is, as I've told him, his injury is one that we have to be careful with. If his knee goes, we're talking three to four months, and we just can't afford that.

"We've also got Sam Deering who came in and did a very good job against Kettering, and Richard Groves, who was outstanding against Brentford on Tuesday.

"I've got no worries, if I need to put them in, I'll put them in."

Patterson got his team to watch a re-run of the 1-1 draw with Kettering on Thursday afternoon to analyse what they can do better.

He said: "What disappointed me last week was our first 20 minutes. I was a bit shocked by it.

"We haven't got 6ft 4in players, we need to be direct when we have to, because we've got good pace, and we're looking to put quality balls in behind defences to stretch teams. But we can't smash it.

"Our fans wouldn't want that anyway, they like watching football played on the floor, which is what we try to do. And whether they did or didn't, I wouldn't change how I do things anyway.

"I was just a bit shocked at some of the decision-making in the first 20 minutes. We've got to be braver and pass the ball better against big, physical sides who smash it forward and see how it develops with a fight and a scrap.

"We want to be better than that and I've got better footballers than that.

"Weimproved slightly in the second 25, and greatly when we changed it around at half-time because of one young boy (Deering) who was brave enough to get on the ball, plus our wingbacks were better and pushed on a bit more.

"We've got to make sure we can physically cope with what's going on around us, but at the right times get it down and play.

"That's why we got the players back to watch the Kettering game, to be under no illusions what we want and really nail it down. We're definitely a different side away from home, we look a bit freer and more relaxed."

Kidderminster: (from) Bartlett, Lowe, Jones, Creighton, Baker, Brittain, Ferrell, Penn, Smikle, Richards, Barnes-Homer, Bennett, McDermott, Knights, Coleman, McGrath.

Oxford Utd: (from) Hinchliffe, Willmott, Quinn, Osborne, Reid, Murray, Burnell, Evans, Carruthers, Odubade, Guy, Haldane, Deering, Day, Clarke, Groves, Turley.