Remember that bitter taste of defeat?

United's seven match unbeaten run came to a crashing end at home to Scunthorpe today, courtesy of Assistant Referee I Ansell, who awarded the Iron a penalty after the ball struck the hand of James Hunt in the 58th minute. The resulting penalty was scored by Peter Beagrie, but it is highly debatable whether Hunt could have avoided the ball as it was crossed in. United now have the best away record in Division Three, and the second worst home record.

One change was made from the Tuesday starting line-up, with on-loan Gavin Gordon starting up front in place of David Oldfield. Andy Scott had recovered from injury enough to retain his place in the side. Tuesday hero, and Rage Online readers Man of the Match at York, Manny Omoyinmi came on in place of Dave Savage shortly after the goal was conceded. Paul Powell later replaced Matt Bound as the Us switched to a flat back four and with only a few minutes remaining David Oldfield came on for Matt Robinson as the game slipped out of reach.

Referee KD Hill booked James Hunt and was generally very picky. The crowd was a disappointing 5,658, although a small away turn-out was partly responsible for that, and it was still the second best in the division (below, surprisingly, Cambridge). A match report is available here.

United have slipped four places to eleventh as a result of this defeat, although we would have gone fifth if we'd have won. League leaders Hartlepool stayed top, thanks to winning 1-0 at Shrewsbury, whilst Torquay are second after winning 2-1 at distant Carlisle. Rushden are third after beating Orient 2-0 and Rochdale have dropped to fourth after only drawing 1-1 at United's next opponents, Swansea. The point was enough to keep the Swans off the bottom as Boston went down 2-0 at Macclesfield. Exeter are now fourth bottom after losing 1-0 at home to York. Bournemouth have gone above Oxford after winning 2-1 at Lincoln, while Southend's 3-1 win at Bury was also enough to take them above Oxford, as was Kidderminster's 1-0 victory against Hull. Elsewhere Cambridge and Wrexham drew 2-2 and Darlington beat Bristol Rovers 1-0.

In the Conference Jon Richardson was on target for Forest Green Rovers in their 4-4 draw against Barnet and Nicky Banger scored for Woking as they somehow failed to lose, holding Burton Albion to a 2-2 draw.

Bring on the Villa

Oxford have been handed a home tie against Premiership Aston Villa in the third round of the Worthington League Cup. The game, scheduled to take place on Bonfire Night, should ensure a virtually capacity crowd at the KasStad for the first time since it opened. It's not the first time that the Us have played Villa in this competition, of course. In 1992/93 Villa won both legs of the second round 2-1, Joey Beauchamp scoring for United at the Manor in the first leg and Nick Cusack netting the Us' consolation at Villa Park. More famously United beat Villa in the semi-final of the tournament in 1985/86. After drawing 2-2 at Villa Park in the first leg goals from Les Phillips and Jeremy Charles gave United a 2-1 win at the Manor and sent the Yellows to their first ever Wembley cup final.