Wrexham 2 Oxford United 0

And so it goes on. On a frustrating night at the Racecourse, United failed to overcome their Setanta jinx, failed to earn their first win at Wrexham, and succumbed to a killer goal from former U, Jefferson Louis. With just one win from their first four games, this is obviously not the start to the season that United would have hoped for, but despite the scoreline the Us could take some positives from the game, not least their second-half response to the disastrous first half.[@news]2352[/@news][@opponent]wrexham[/@opponent]

The game began with both teams probing for openings, but Wrexham had the best early chance when Louis, who was an aerial threat throughout the first period, outjumped Luke Foster and headed the ball against the bar, with Jake Cole beaten. Cole did well to recover and block Shaun Whalley's follow up. In the 11th minute it all went horribly wrong for the Us, when for the second away game in a row they had a defender sent off. This time Foster allowed Whalley to get goalside of him, and he pulled back the Wrexham striker as Cole advanced. It was a clear penalty, and a definite red-card offence. To the Yellows' relief, Cole dived to his right and pushed away Louis' penalty kick.

United reorganised, with Matt Day moving into central defence to fill the hole left by Foster's departure, Levi Reid dropping to right back, and Yemi Odubade taking Reid's place on the right wing, leaving James Constable to plough a lonely furrow up front. Wrexham piled on the pressure, and with 29 minutes gone it finally told, when poor marking at a corner left Steve Evans a simple header to break the deadlock. A goal down and a man down, it should have been all over for United, but the ten men managed to get to half time without further damage, and they used the opportunity to regroup.

Oxford went into the second half on the front foot, with Yemi moving back up front alongside Constable, Lewis Haldane moving to the right wing, and Chris Carruthers pushing up into midfield. United came close to getting an equaliser that their tactics and passing play deserved. Yemi drove a Constable chest-down straight at Gavin Ward, and Haldane forced Ward into a diving save direct from a free kick. Constable broke through but, one-on-one with Ward he could only drag his shot wide of the far post. Two minutes later Haldane broke clear, but Ward managed to block the shot when the winger should have scored. Haldane had two further efforts, the first after being set up by ROS Sam Deering but blocked by Kyle Critchell's face. Meanwhile Cole had made a spectacular save from Sam Aiston. As the game entered injury time, Louis picked up the ball just inside United's half, beat off a couple of powder-puff challenges, with Barry Quinn looking especially feeble, and shot past Cole into the far corner to end any hopes of an unlikely point for the Yellows.

Darren Patterson made just one change to the side that beat Eastbourne Borough 6-3 on Saturday, with Eddie Hutchinson replacing the injured Joe Burnell in the centre of midfield. At half time he replaced Reid with Chris Willmott in a move that shored up the defence, ended Louis' aerial threat, and gave United a more attacking intent. With 18 minutes to go, Patto made a double substitution, bringing ROS Deering on for Carruthers, and replacing a tiring Constable with Alex Fisher.

Tonight's referee was A Hendley, who took charge of United's 1-0 home defeat by Weymouth last season. Apart from the dismissal of Foster, the referee didn't produce any other cards, and generally had a very good game. The attendance was deeply Setanta-affected, with just 3,515 bothering to turn up, and only 196 from Oxford.

Both teams have now played a game more than everyone else in the Conference, with Wrexham moving up to second and United dropping one place, below Eastbourne Borough on goal difference, to 18th. Oxford's next game is on Monday, at home to bottom club Woking, who play Forest Green Rovers on Saturday.