Moving on down

United have dropped down to tenth following today's results, although generally they were reasonably kind to United, who now have a game or two in hand on all the teams above them apart from Bournemouth (and Wrexham) who remain third after a goalless draw at previously bottom club Bristol Rovers. Hartlepool drew 0-0 at York, which takes the Minstermen to sixth, and second placed Rushden were also without a fixture this afternoon. United's opponents on Tuesday, fourth placed Bury went down 1-0 at home to a late Orient goal, and fifth placed Torquay also lost, 2-0 at Kidderminster. Wrexham are now seventh after comprehensively beating Southend 3-0, and Scunthorpe's 3-2 win over Hull saw them up to eighth. Lincoln's 1-1 draw with Darlington was enough to see the Imps climb above Oxford into ninth.

At the bottom of the table Exeter lost 2-0 at home to Boston, for whom Stuart Douglas scored the second, to leave the Grecians in 92nd place, just behind Bristol Rovers. Swansea beat Cambridge United 2-0 to climb above Macclesfield, Carlisle and Shrewsbury, none of whom had a game due to the frost.

Match off, again

United's game against Carlisle has fallen foul to frost, and been postponed, leading to yet more fixture backlog. The only other Third Division game to be called off is the clash between Shrewsbury and Macclesfield. Perhaps United should have played their game at Horspath Road, where Raging Fever took on a team of Carlisle supporters (see below).

Frantic Fever

One game which beat the weather and went ahead this morning, on a quagmire of a pitch but one that wasn't frozen, was the Raging Fever clash against London Carlisle Supporters. A highly entertaining encounter saw 10-man Fever (reduced due to player shortage, rather than misbehaviour) take the lead midway through the first half when Andy Hill, the lone-striker, shot home. A hotly disputed penalty saw Carlisle equalise about ten minutes later, and then a defensive lapse shortly afterwards saw the Cockney Northerners take the lead, which they maintained until half-time despite heavy pressure from the home side, who had played the better football.

Ten minutes into the second half Raging Fever equalised through an own goal, but they were unable to keep the scores level for more than a few minutes before Carlisle again took the lead. Raging Fever again applied heavy pressure and were rewarded when a long shot from Andy Kelly was spilled by the 'keeper and Gez Foster gratefully pounced on the rebound. With just fifteen minutes left a speculative shot from a Carlisle player looped over Gary Butler's head in the Fever goal and the score was allowed to stand despite the linesman flagging for offside. A last push saw the Fever gain a number of corners, at one of which Kelly hit the post from close range. With the seconds running out a handball in the Carlisle area led to a Fever penalty which Kelly coolly converted to level the scores at 4-4, a result that everyone concurred was fair all-round.

Raging Fever: Gary Butler, Brodders, Nick, Andy K, Ginger Yellow, Rob Collier, Gez, Neil W, Jon WGL, Andy H.