United fell to their heaviest Conference defeat so far this evening, at Rushden & Diamonds.[@news]2210[/@news][@opponent]Rushden & Diamonds[/@opponent] Oxford, who have now failed to beat the Diamonds in their last eight meetings, and who have lost the last four games against the Irthlingborough outfit, found themselves 3-0 down after just 14 minutes, and could probably have guessed by then that they were facing a tough task. The match was live on Setanta TV, United's seventh such fixture, and the side have yet to win any of them.

Rushden's first goal was scored by Simeon Jackson, who beat Billy Turley at his near post. Former United loanee Martin Foster[@player]foster, martin[/@player] may well be accredited with the second goal after his shot took a wicked deflection off Matt Day to leave Turley stranded, while the third goal saw Craig McAllister, on loan from Grays Athletic, easily outpace Chris Willmott to flick the ball over Turley. United offered nothing up front, and were thankful to concede no more goals before half time.

If United had any hope of regrouping, which they obviously didn't, that was shattered six minutes into the second half. A hopeful punt from Andy Burgess[@player]burgess, andy[/@player] that was going wide hit debutant Kieron St Amie and snuck into the net. Twenty minutes after the break Jackson scored the best goal of the game, beating Willmott and Luke Foster before rifling an unstoppable shot into the roof of the net. Bastard. United briefly showed a bit of life, as their best player on the night, Yemi Odubade, brought a decent save out of Paul Nicholls, but to be honest, United didn't even deserve that consolation as their injury-ravaged side had thrown in the towel barely four minutes into the 90.

Jim Smith made three changes to the side that beat Merthyr Tydfil on Saturday. Phil Gilchrist returned to the centre of defence in place of Michael Corcoran, while Alex Jeannin returned to his wide left position at the expense of Ben Weedon. Up front Yemi was rested because of his hip injury, and so St Aimee played his first game for United, having signed on loan from QPR this week. With the side 3-0 down, Smith made a double substitution at half time. Gilchrist was taken off, replaced by Carl Pettefer, while Yemi was risked in a bid to salvage some pride, Jeannin going off. Both players who were removed had played abysmally in the first half, but there were by no means the only ones. Alex Fisher was brought on for the hapless St Aimee with a few minutes to go.

The referee in charge of tonight's farce was P Gibbs, taking charge of his third Oxford game already this season, having overseen the televised 0-0 draw at Stevenage Borough, and the slightly less woeful 1-1 home draw with York City. He showed yellow cards to Phil Trainer and Barry Quinn, and showed great leniency not to give Trainer a second yellow after a tackle from behind. Tonight's attendance was 1,990, of whom 426 were wishing they were elsewhere.

United remain tenth, for now, but have seen their goal difference go from positive to negative. Last season the side failed to concede more than two goals in any game; this season they have now conceded at least that number on four occasions already. Rushden have climbed into the top half of the table, climbing to 12th, just two points behind United. The only real positives that Oxford can take from tonight were the performance of Yemi, who at least looked like he wanted to play, and the fact that they now have over a week to regroup before facing Northwich Victoria, currently without a league win, in the first round of the FA Cup.