Cobblers without 10 players for trip to Oxford United

Cobblers could be without as many as 10 first-team players for Tuesday's trip to Oxford United.

Three players are certain to miss out through suspension. Joe Martin faces a two-game ban following his second red card of the season against Crewe on Saturday, Cian Bolger is out for one match having picked up his fifth booking at Gresty Road and Shaun McWilliams serves the second of his three-match suspension.

Joseph Mills, Joe Nuttall and Scott Pollock remain long-term absentees while centre-backs Luka Racic and Alan Sheehan are injury doubts having missed the last couple of games.

Mark Marshall and Ricky Korboa were also not involved at the weekend, although Curle stayed true to form and didn't give away any specific details when asked about his lengthy list of unavailable players.

"There'll be an opportunity for others," he said. "When one door closes, another one opens.

"I think we've got 10 players unavailable for various reasons. When you've got a squad of 22, it's not too difficult to work out which team you'll be putting out! But we will be competitive."

Karl Robinson's men have struggled to live up to their billing as one of the pre-season promotion favourites, currently one place and two points below the Cobblers in League One.

"Oxford are a high-pressing team all over the park," said Curle. "They want to go and hunt the ball and not let the opposition have time in possession.

"They've got good players who are technically strong with pace in wide areas and two attacking full-backs and a centre-forward who can score a goal out of nothing."