Cometh the Manny

United drew 1-1 at home to Carlisle this evening thanks to Jamie Brooks heading the equaliser in the 66th minute after Dave Rogers had given the Cumbrians the lead 12 minutes earlier. Brooks is now United's leading scorer with three goals but he had substitute Manny Omoyinmi to thank for setting up the goal after Brooks had earlier missed a couple of much easier chances. Omoyinmi and Brooks went on to torment the Carlisle defence, and Brooks was unlucky to see one shot hit the inside of the post and roll along the line. He also netted after being flagged for offside and brought out a fine save from visitors' goalie Peter Keen.

Mark Wright made a couple of changes from the team that lost at home to Scunthorpe on Saturday. Sam Ricketts returned to right wingback in place of Sam Stockley and Jon Richardson started for Wayne Hatswell, who injured his back yesterday. Making his debut for United was striker Stuart Douglas, signed on loan from Luton just this afternoon. Douglas earned himself the rare accolade of becoming the first United player sporting dreadlocks, and very fetching they were too. It was Douglas who made way for Omoyinmi, whilst Stockley came on for Paul Powell in a double change shortly after Carlisle took the lead. Ricketts was replaced by ROS Rob Folland.

Northampton referee Richard Beeby had a good game, although his failure to show anyone the red card will have been noted. No United player even received a yellow card, which is most uncharacteristic. We should use this opportunity to point out that we missed crediting Dave Savage with a booking on Saturday – sorry Dave. The attendance tonight was a respectable 7,405, boosted by a full home section of the North Stand which was full of squeaky kids for a quid; a fine initiative that we would like to see applied more often, like at every home fixture for example. A match report can be found here.

It's a good job that Oxford were able to equalise, because with Exeter beating Bristol Rovers 1-0 and Hartlepool winning by the same score at Macclesfield the U's would have found themselves 92nd in the league at 9.45 this evening. As it is United are now in 21st position, above Macclesfield on goal difference but just one point above Carlisle and bottom club Halifax, who lost 4-2 at home to Luton who are now third. Rochdale could only draw 2-2 at home to Cheltenham, allowing Plymouth to go top following their 2-0 win over Lincoln.

Lee Nogan scored York City's consolation in their 4-1 defeat at Kidderminster, whilst Nick Cusack was on target for Swansea in their 2-0 win over Darlington.