United's reserves blew a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 to Ardley United in tonight's Oxfordshire Senior Cup quarter final at Court Place Farm. Oxford's side contained some senior professionals, although it was mainly comprised of youth players, and for the most part the Ardley players found it difficult to compete, except on a physical level. However, United failed to make their superiority count, and were profligate in front of goal, while the village team made the most of the few chances that they created.

Oxford's side included Andy Burgess, pulling the strings in the centre of the park, and Matt Day, playing at left back on his return from the injury that he received at Woking, almost a month ago. New signing Luke Foster played alongside Day, with Andy Gunn in the other central defensive position. However, it was Billy Beechers who made the early news, scoring twice in the first 25 minutes to give the Us what should have been an unassailable lead. Beechers' first goal came from the best move of the game, which ended with Day threading a fine ball through for Beechers to finish from an angle after 17 minutes. The second followed some fine work from Dan Meade that set up Beechers to finish with a fine half volley beyond the reach of Paul Searle (whose favourite team is Arsenal, according to the pen portraits in the programme).

United had opportunities to extend their lead, notably when Meade cut inside and got away a left-footed shot that was straight at Searle, but Ardley pulled a goal back when Phil Martin (favourite team: West Ham) cut inside and beat Sam Warrell, who allowed the ball to slip underneath him, with their first real attempt of the game, shortly before half time. Almost immediately after the break, a typical Day shot from distance clipped the top of the crossbar, however, with 20 minutes remaining, the United defence failed to clear from a corner and Steve Garbutt (Arsenal) bundled the ball home. The game looked to be heading into extra time, but in the fourth minute of injury time Ardley broke clear and Luke Holden (Manchester United) scored from a narrow angle to give the part-timers passage into the semi finals. The Ardley team included Tom Smith (Arsenal, or possibly Newcastle) at right back, son of former United boss Denis Smith, who was in attendance to watch his boy.

Although it was Beechers who will make what few headlines there will be about this game, the real star for United was Gunn, who had another impeccable game in the centre of defence. Foster was solid, but was arguably at fault for Ardley's equaliser (although it was difficult to tell in the mel