Oxford United defender James Golding has left the club to go out on loan to a National League, marking his second loan spell on the season. His first was with Crewe Alexandra in League Two.
He would make 15 appearances in Cheshire, featuring just 12 times in the league. Of those 12 outings, only six were starts.
Crewe fans last saw the defender on the 29th of November during their match with Cambridge United. The Irishman was taken off after only 25 minutes with an injury and hasn’t played any football since.
James Golding was recalled by Oxford during the January transfer window, and he looks to be on the move again.
The Irishman will be returning to the National League as he becomes a Southend United player once more.
In December 2024, Golding moved to Roots Hall on a short-term loan which was later extended until the end of the season. He played 15 games during that time until injury unfortunately cut his season short in March.
As a result of this, he was sidelined for the playoff final at Wembley last year.
This deal has been rumoured for a while now, with Southend in desperate need of reinforcements at centre back.
With captain Nathan Ralph potentially out for the rest of the season with an injury, Kevin Maher now only has three centre backs at his disposal.
Due to postponements and other factors, Southend now have midweek games every week until mid-April so they need as many players as they can. Which is where a small amount of scepticism might creep in for Southend fans.
As fantastic as Golding was the first time around, if he can’t stay fit during this busy schedule then the signing is pretty pointless.
Golding will be keen to help Southend go one better than they did last year and return to the EFL. They currently sit in 8th place on 49 points.
However, they’re only two points off of a playoff spot with games in hand on the teams above them.
If there’s one thing that the last few years have taught us about Southend United, it’s that they don’t know when they’re beaten.
