Kidderminster harried

United turned over Kidderminster tonight to win their game in hand, quite comfortably in the end, despite a spell of fifteen or so minutes at the start of the second half when the home side looked slightly dangerous. After a cagey opening Steve Basham charged through after 21 minutes to shoot the Us ahead and go to the top of the scorers chart. Just seven minutes later and Andy Scott header was turned over his own line by Craig Hinton to double Oxford's lead. Seven minutes after half-time Kidderminster pulled a goal back through Sean Parrish after some pressure, but United refused to cave in and nine minutes later Scott got the goal he deserved with a fine finish to rejoin Basham as joint leading scorer.

United fielded an unchanged side from Saturday's victorious eleven, the only change being Dave Waterman replacing ROS Chris Hackett on the bench. Waterman replaced Dave Savage with about fifteen minutes remaining and with five minutes left David Oldfield came on to give Scott a well-earned rest.

Referee Steve Tomlin took charge of his first Oxford game this season, and booked James Hunt. The attendance was a tiny 2,991. A match report can be found here.

United go back up to third as a result of this win, eight points behind Rushden and with a game in hand, and a massive 14 points behind leaders Hartlepool. In the division's other game Leyton Orient held Cambridge to a 1-1 draw at Brisbane Road, which was handy. In the Conference Mark Stein scored twice as Dagenham & Redbridge beat Barnet 5-1.