Oxford United 4 Eastbourne Borough 0

Oxford United today equalled a club record of six consecutive clean sheets, last recorded in 1963-64 season, but while this latest win was fairly routine, Oxford's goal at times led a charmed life. The job was done during the first half, when two goals in three minutes ended Eastbourne's stubborn resistance and a third, on the stroke of half time, killed off the game.

United weathered some early pressure from the visitors, who piled forward without really threatening to score. On one occasion Simon Weatherstone found himself with the ball at his feet, three yards out, but he was unable to get his shot away. United went close when a free kick from Adam Murray was palmed over by Michael Jordan, but the deadlock was broken by a piece of class from Jamie Cook, whose pass sent Damien Batt scampering down the byline. Batt's cross fell neatly for Matt Green who scored. Three minutes later a superb ball from Damien Bulman found James Constable clear in the penalty area, and he had little trouble placing it in the corner of the net. United then took control of the match, passing it around neatly and leaving the visitors chasing shadows. In the final minute of the half a long cross from Kevin Sandwith was met by Cook, whose header looped over Jordan and under the bar.

With the points in the bag the main story of the second half was United's endeavours to keep a clean sheet. As Borough came back into the game this was never as straightforward as it might have been, and Borough came close to scoring on a number of occasions. Ryan Clarke had to be alert to deny ex-U Weatherstone, and Simon Clist cleared an effort off the line following a Borough corner. Luke Foster and Mark Creighton were again outstanding, but they had to be because their fullbacks, Batt and Sandwith, were too often caught out of position or giving away possession. Matt Crabb was denied by a superb block from Clarke, and the crustaceous striker then shot against the outside of the post. The last few minutes, though, belonged to Oxford. Adam Chapman shot narrowly wide, and a clearing header from Neil Jenkins scraped the outside of his own goalpost. Then with three minutes remaining Jack Midson waltzed through the Eastbourne defence and finished with aplomb to score his first goal for the club and to make it a clean sweep of goals for the four strikers. This was a reasonably routine win against a relatively poor opposition, but Chris Wilder was rightly scathing of his side's second-half performance and their inability to retain possession. They will certainly have to perform better in future if they are to maintain their lead at the top of the table.

Wilder made one change to the side that won at Wrexham last weekend, with Sandwith playing at left back in place of Steven Kinniburgh, who was suspended following his two yellow cards at the Racecourse. Just after the hour mark Midson came on for Constable, and seven minutes later Alfie Potter replaced Green. With quarter of an hour remaining Murray, who had been suffering with a virus during the week, was replaced by Adam Chapman.

Today's referee was DH Coote, who was last in charge of an Oxford game in January, when United won 1-0 against Altrincham. He had a relatively excellent game, allowing play to flow whenever possible and only producing one yellow card, against Midson for showing off his pecs after scoring. The attendance was 5,688, of whom 5,622 were not cheering on the away side.

The win extends Oxford's lead at the top of the Conference to eight points ahead of second-placed Stevenage Borough, who won 1-0 at bottom side Chester City. Eastbourne remain 14th. Tamworth have climbed to third after beating Salisbury City 2-0, with Michael Blackwood scoring the first. Salisbury are now third from bottom after their ten-point penalty has been confirmed. Another ex-U, Wayne Hatswell, scored Cambridge United's first goal as they beat Wrexham 2-0 to go fourth. Rushden & Diamonds scored in the last minute to beat Mansfield Town 1-0 and move up to fifth place. Mansfield, whom Oxford visit on Tuesday, drop to ninth. Luton Town are now out of the play-off places following today's results. Luton were without a game after their match against York City was postponed on police instructions because of a march scheduled to take place in the town by a bunch of racist scumbags. The march had been banned, but police still felt there was potential for trouble if the game went ahead. Babylon, eh? York fell to seventh place.

Forest Green Rovers remain second from bottom despite picking up a point with a 1-1 draw at Barrow, while Grays Athletic occupy the final relegation place after going down 3-0 at home to Altrincham. Gateshead hover just above the drop zone after losing 3-2 at Kidderminster Harriers, while Hayes & Yeading are also precariously positioned after they lost 2-0 at home to Histon. AFC Wimbledon scored a last-minute equaliser to draw 2-2 at Ebbsfleet United. [@news]2562[/@news] [@opponent]eastbourne borough[/@opponent]