United suffered their first home defeat of the season to a classy Reading outfit in tonight’s Carling Cup second round tie. An uncharacteristically shakey Us defence held out until the 52nd minute before John Salako gave the away side the lead which was doubled 14 minutes later when Nicky Forster waltzed through to shoot home. Substitute Jefferson Louis, making his first appearance of the season, brought United back into the game with twelve minutes left, but Reading rode out the Oxford pressure and broke away for James Harper to seal the match in the last minute.

United were rocked by the absence of midfielder Paul Wanless, who suffered a calf strain, so James Hunt started in the centre of the three. Mark Rawle was recalled to the starting line-up in place of Andy Scott. Derek Townsley was taken off for ROS Chris Hackett just after the hour mark after it was Townsley losing possession by standing on the ball that led to the breakaway from which Reading opened the scoring. In the 70th minute Scott came on for Rawle and four minutes later Louis replaced the disappointing Julian Alsop.

Referee B Curson showed Andy Scott a yellow card for trying to get the ball back from the Reading players after Louis scored, whereas in fact it should have been their players who were punished, but only Ricky Newman got booked while goalie Marcus Hahnemann somehow escaped punishment. The attendance of 9,870 will have disappointed United’s officials, but wasn’t that surprising, all things considered. A match report should appear here tomorrow evening.