Bourne to draw

United picked up a point at the Fitness First Stadium (yes, Dean Court really is called that now) although with a bit of adventure they could easily have had all three against a spirited, but not very good, Bournemouth side. The home side went ahead three minutes before half-time when another defensive lack of concentration allowed a harmless looking cross reach the head of Derek Holmes, who nodded the ball past Andy Woodman. United equalised two minutes into the second half when Steve Basham, looking suspiciously offside, turned to shoot home right footed. In between, right at the end of the first half, David Oldfield set up Dave Savage, whose curling shot came back off the foot of the post. United dominated the first ten minutes of each half, but after that they surrendered the initiative to the home side, who peppered Woodman's goal to little real effect, both teams relying on the long ball onto the waiting heads of the central defenders.

United made just one change from the side that lost to Southend, Dean Whitehead coming back into midfield, with Oldfield pushed up front alongside Basham (until ten minutes into the second half when he returned to midfield to leave Bash up front on his own) and Andy Scott relegated to the bench. Scott replaced Basham as the lone striker with about fifteen minutes to go and Bobby Ford came on for Whitehead with just seconds remaining, and certainly not long enough to make it worth his while getting changed.

Referee Clive Penton had a 'mare, booking seven players, including Scott McNiven after a Danny Thomas dive, Matt Bound, James Hunt and Savage, and showing a straight red card to Dave Waterman after a comical mix-up between him and Oldfield allowed a Bournemouth player to sneak the ball away, causing Waterman to lunge into a pointless, but fairly harmless tackle. The attendance of 4,842 included a useful 895 from Oxford. A match report can be found here.

As a result of this point United move up to 13th in the table and Bournemouth remain fourth from bottom. The two other Division Three games saw Darlington, watched by Faustino Asprilla, beat Carlisle 2-0 and Bristol Rovers registered their first win of the season, beating Swansea 3-1.