United break new ground tomorrow when they play at The Globe Arena for the first time.

The new £12m stadium became Morecambe FC’s home at the start of this season.

As well as providing a great arena for the club and their fans, the Globe Arena incorporates state-of-the-art all-weather facilities for a range of community sports activities.

It also has sumptuous function rooms available for dinners, banquets, conferences and weddings.

The ground’s main stand houses 2,173 spectators, all seated.

The home stand accommodates 2,234 standing spectators, and the away area, where Oxford United’s fans will be, has space for more than 1,400 standing spectators and also has its own bar and catering outlet.

There is an open terrace opposite the main stand.

Oxford United only played once at Morecambe’s previous ground, Christie Park.

That was just a month into their first season in the Conference, in September 2006, when goals from Phil Gilchrist, Steve Basham and Andy Burgess brought them a comfortable 3-0 win.

But while Oxford started like an express train that season, it was Morecambe who finished it at breakneck speed, with a run of wins that lifted them to third in the table.

They then won the play-offs, in the final beating Exeter City – who had broken Oxford’s hearts in the semis.

Last season, Morecambe’s last at Christie Park, they finished fourth, qualifying for the play-offs, where they lost heavily to Dagenham.

The U’s have been allocated 1,485 terrace spaces and 448 seats for tomorrow, so there will be plenty of space, with the long distance involved inevitably putting off some fans.

But what a great turn-out of Oxford fans it was at Stevenage in midweek, with nearly 800 travelling to Hertfordshire.

For them it’s the start of a run of journeys up the M6 with games to come at Stockport, Port Vale, Bury and Accrington Stanley.