Hmph

United saw their play-off hopes virtually extinguished this afternoon at Glanford Park as they lost to a clearly more committed Scunthorpe side 2-0. United were outfought by an Iron side that had more desire and more power up front than the Us. In fact Scunthorpe 'keeper Tom Evans hardly had a shot to save despite the importance of this game. Scunny took the lead after Andy Crosby's lunge needlessly brought down Nathan Stanton on the edge of the United area after half an hour. A quickly taken shot beat Andy Woodman and came back off the inside of the post, landing nicely for Paul Hayes to shoot home. United then had the majority of possession but were unable to make it count and, as they pressed forward in search of an equaliser, they were caught by a sucker-punch counter attack which left substitute Paul Dalglish, son of Kenny, clear through on goal, calmly beating Woodman with his shot in injury time.

Matt Bound found himself dropped to the bench for this game as Paul McCarthy came back into the back three alongside Crosby and Dave Waterman. Dave Oldfield continued up front alongside Andy Scott. Manny Omoyinmi came on as a straight replacement for Dave Savage, who looked to be struggling with an injury, ten minutes after half-time. Jefferson Louis came on for Oldfield 13 minutes later, after which the Us reverted to kick and hope. In a final futile gesture Steve Basham was brought on for Waterman as Oxford changed to 4-4-2 with nine minutes left.

The referee was G Laws, brother of Scunthorpe manager Brian, taking charge of his first United game of the season (thankfully his last, too). He booked Crosby for the tackle that led to the S'horpe goal, and also took Bobby Ford's name for dissenting the quickly taken free kick. As a final gesture he showed a straight red card to James Hunt for a somewhat foolish late lunge on Alex Calvo-Garcia, although it was in the last minute and didn't affect the result. The attendance was 5,629, Scunny's second best of the season. A match report has been written by Rob Collier and can be found here.

United slipped out of the play-off places into eighth position, three points behind Lincoln who beat fourth placed Bournemouth 1-0 at Dean Court. United's superior goal difference means that United have to beat York in the last league game next Saturday and hope that Torquay, now with nothing to play for, can somehow beat Lincoln, which will be good enough to secure the Us a play-off berth against either Bournemouth or Bury, who won 2-1 at Southend. Scunthorpe stay sixth. The title chase remains between Rushden and Hartlepool, who play each other next week. Rushden stay top after drawing 0-0 at Orient, two points ahead of 'Pool who beat bottom club Shrewsbury 3-0. Wrexham secured automatic promotion with a 5-0 thrashing of Cambridge United.

York's play-off hopes are faintly alive, but they would have to beat Oxford by a shed-load of goals, hoping Torquay do the same at Lincoln, to have any chance. They were beaten 2-0 at home by Exeter, who would have been relegated had they lost. The Grecians are now one point from safety with one game left, while Shrewsbury are four points behind with two to play. They meet Carlisle, third from bottom, on Tuesday, with a draw enough to condemn the Shrews to the Conference. Carlisle stormed into a 3-0 lead at Torquay and eventually won 3-2. Swansea remain in the mix, fourth bottom and level on points with Carlisle, despite beating Rochdale 2-1 today. 'Dale are safe, just, despite their late season freefalling act.

Apart from Yeovil and Northampton, other teams that will definitely be playing in the Third Division next season are Huddersfield and Mansfield, who were both relegated today. The final relegatee will be either Cheltenham or Chesterfield (hopefully the former), both of whom won today. Nuneaton and Southport joined Kettering in relegation from the Conference.