HE'S only played two games for AFC Sudbury, but goalkeeper Darren Gould has enjoyed an eventful time during his short spell at King's Marsh.Signed as cover for the injured Paul Catley, Gould has made a fine impression at the west Suffolk club in his two games so far, including saving a penalty in the local derby with Bury last weekend.

Mike Bacon

HE'S only played two games for AFC Sudbury, but goalkeeper Darren Gould has enjoyed an eventful time during his short spell at King's Marsh.

Signed as cover for the injured Paul Catley, Gould has made a fine impression at the west Suffolk club in his two games so far, including saving a penalty in the local derby with Bury last weekend.

But in a long career that spans spells at Clacton, Harwich and Maldon among others, Gould is now looking forward to the biggest game of his life tomorrow, AFC Sudbury's FA Trophy first round visit of Oxford United.

“I've only played a couple of times for Sudbury, but this is certainly one of the biggest games of my career.

“It is clearly going to be very tough for us, but hopefully we will get a good crowd and they will get behind us.

“We are certainly capable of producing a shock, why not?

“Even if we got a draw it wouldn't be a bad result and the thought of playing in front of perhaps 3,000 at their stadium is a good one.”

Oxford United have fallen a long way from the heady days a decade ago of playing in the First Division.

Current Ipswich Town boss Jim Magilton played for the Yellows and remains the club's most international capped player, while previous managers include Ron Saunders, Mark Lawrenson, Ian Atkins and Brian Talbot.

They are a League club in all but name and play at the impressive 12,500-seater Kassam Stadium.

Jim Smith is the man at the helm at the moment, taking over from Darren Patterson, who was relieved of his duties a couple of weeks ago.

It's not the first time Smith has stepped in to help out the club, indeed he is in his third spell.

Oxford United chairman Kelvin Thomas says that interviews for the manager's job are likely to start this weekend.

But the U's will not be putting a time-scale on when they are likely to announce a permanent successor to Patterson.

United's board - comprising Thomas, Nick Merry and Jim Smith, who is also the caretaker-manager - have studied all the applicants closely, and have now got a short-list of ten.

But all that will have to wait until after the weekend, as Gould and the rest of Nicky Smith's men will hope to have given the Oxford board even more food for though.

Oxford Factfile

The largest recorded home attendance at an Oxford United game was 22,750 against Preston North End in the sixth round of the

FA Cup at the Manor Ground in February 1964.

During October and November 1998 the backroom staff at the club went unpaid, due to United's financial situation, and supporters rallied round, delivering food parcels to the ground.

The largest amount of money Oxford have received from a player sold was £1,600,000 for Matt Elliot's transfer to Leicester in January 1997.

The largest transfer fee Oxford have paid for was £475,000 for Dean Windass' transfer from Aberdeen in August 1998.