An excellent header by Tommy Mooney, in the last minute of the first half, was enough to win this game for United, who dominated possession and fully deserved their first win since 25 September, against Bury. Lee Bradbury had already come close to breaking the deadlock for the Us, but his low shot was well saved by former Summertown Stars keeper, Shane Higgs. Bradbury also had a good opportunity to double United’s lead in the second half, but with only Higgs to beat his shot was just over. Cheltenham did have their moments when they threatened on the break, but it was difficult to see why they have been having such a good run recently, as they looked pretty toothless up front and shakey at the back.

Graham Rix, as is his wont, rang the changes again for this match, switching for the first time this season to three at the back. This allowed on-loan defender Sam Togwell to make his full debut, in place of Jamie Hand who has returned to Watford. There were no other personnel changes from the side which lost at Macclesfield last week, and the team continued with the same application that they had put in at Moss Rose. With 18 minutes to go Chris Hackett replaced the excellent Mark E’Beyer and, unusually for the Rage On Sponsored winger, he went up front to partner Mooney. Mark Rawle came on for the Oxford goalscorer with four minutes to go.

Referee Andy Hall had a fine game, booking no Oxford lads. Coincidentally, his last Oxford game was in the away fixture at Cheltenham last season. The attendance was 5,163, swelled by just over 900 Robins’ fans. We hope to publish a match report tomorrow (any volunteers?).

Despite the win, Oxford only went up one place in the table, to 19th, although Cheltenham dropped three places to 15th. Scunthorpe stay on top of the table, despite being held to a 1-1 draw at Orient, for whom Andy Scott scored, who stay second. Swansea are still third after drawing 1-1 at Grimsby, who are one place above United. Yeovil are fourth after beating Chester, one place above Grimsby, 4-1, while Bristol Rovers’ 2-2 draw at Boston sees them slip one place to fifth. Macclesfield have dropped back down to sixth after going down 3-0 at Rochdale, one place below Oxford. United’s next opponents, Southend, have climbed to seventh after beating 9th-placed Northampton 2-1.

Managerless Kidderminster remain rooted to the foot of the table after going down at home, 1-0 to third-bottom Shrewsbury. Cambridge United remain in the relegation zone after losing 1-0 at home to Lincoln, and Notts County are fourth from bottom after getting hammered 5-1 at Rushden. In the other games, Mansfield and Bury drew 0-0 at Field Mill, while Darlington beat the rapidly descending Wycombe 1-0.

In the Scottish Premier League Richie Foran scored a penalty for Motherwell against Celtic, but the Well lost 3-2. In the Nationwide South, Peter Fear put Sutton United ahead, but they could only draw 1-1 with Weymouth, while in the Nationwide North, Norman Sylla scored the only goal as Redditch United won 1-0 at Nuneaton Borough. In the FA Cup fourth qualifying round Rob Quinn was on target for Stevenage Borough in their 5-0 win over Hendon, while in the big game in Oxfordshire goals in the first half from Jon Richardson and Jefferson Louis set Forest Green Rovers up for a 5-0 win at Thame United. In the Southern League Premier Division, Howard Forinton scored for Banbury United, but the Puritans still lost 4-1 at Gloucester City.