Kettering Town manager Mark Cooper has tipped Chris Wilder's Oxford United as the team to watch this season in the Blue Square Premier.

The season gets underway this weekend with the Poppies at Forest Green.

"Oxford are going to be there the way they finished the (last) season - it was like a train," Cooper told BBC Radio Northampton.

"I think if they start well, they'll be a real threat. How they react if they lose a couple is a different matter."

Without doubt Luton. They didn't come down through lack of points only for the fact of the minus 30 Rushden manager Justin Edinburgh on his tips for the title

Oxford lost only three games in the second half of the season following Chris Wilder's appointment as manager and would have finished in the play-off places but for a five-point deduction for fielding an unregistered player.

Justin Edinburgh, manager of Kettering's Northamptonshire rivals Rushden and Diamonds, points to Luton as his title tip.

The Hatters were relegated from League Two last season by virtue of a controversial 30-point deduction after failing to satisfy the Football League's insolvency rules, and for financial regularities.

"Without doubt Luton. They didn't come down through lack of points only for the fact of the minus 30," Edinburgh said.

"Mick's (Harford) there. He's got good knowledge. He came and watched a few games at the end of the season at this level so he knows what it's about."

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