United moved back to the top of Division Three after a comfortable, if unspectacular, victory over Southend this afternoon. Steve Basham scored his fifth of the season after 26 minutes, nipping between Leon Cort and goalie Carl Emberson to tap the ball home, and two minutes into the second half Paul Wanless scored his first goal in his current spell at United with a long-range left-footed drive that left Emberson stranded.

Oxford made one change from line-up that began at Aggborough last week, with Julian Alsop returning to attack in place of David Oldfield. Jon Ashton played in the last game of his loan spell at the club. James Hunt replaced Danny Brown with about 20 minutes remaining, and Ashton had to limp off to be replaced by Dave Waterman with about seven minutes left, and former Southend striker Mark Rawle came on for Basham for the three minutes of added time at the end, much to the glee of the Southend supporters.

The referee was R Olivier, who was in charge of United’s game at Swansea last season. He showed a yellow card to Ashton for a reckless challenge. The attendance was 5,567. A match report may appear online tomorrow.

Thanks to Swansea’s 2-0 defeat at Yeovil, and York going down 2-1 at home to Rochdale, United are now two points clear at the top of the Third, undefeated and with a 100% home record, not to mention the best goal difference in the Division. Swansea and York remain second and third respectively, while Rochdale have moved up to fourth. Bristol Rovers are fifth after beating Kidderminster 1-0, closely followed by United’s next opponents, Mansfield, who beat Macclesfield 3-2. Hull, who are seventh, play at Doncaster on Monday.

Cheltenham have moved up to eighth after beating tenth-placed Northampton 4-3 last night, while Torquay are ninth following their 2-1 win over Orient, who have slipped to second-bottom. Carlisle remain bottom, with just one point, after going down 2-0 at Darlington, who are now 20th, one place above Southend. Lincoln City are now third from bottom after their goalless draw at Cambridge last night Other Division Three games saw Bury beat Huddersfield 2-1 and Boston and Scunthorpe draw 1-1.