Altrincham 1 Oxford United 0

A 64th minute goal from Colin Little condemned Oxford United to another miserable defeat, their first against Altrincham, and brought out more knives against manager Darren Patterson. Following a much-improved second half at Torquay United on Thursday, the Us started at Moss Lane as they had ended at Plainmoor, and in the first half were much the stronger side. Jamie Guy glanced a header just wide from a Lewis Haldane cross, and he also brought a save out of Stuart Coburn from an attempted chip. Yemi Odubade latched onto the rebound, but blasted well over when he should have hit the target. Chris Carruthers also forced Coburn into a save from a close-range shot, while at the other end Billy Turley, carring a calf injury, was virtually a spectator.

After the interval it was role-reversal time. Altrincham started to push United back, and just after the hour they took the lead. Lee Elam crossed from the right, and Adam Murray totally missed his attempted clearance. The ball came to Little, who shot home. After this United went to pieces, and as their heads dropped so their threat diminished. Substitute Matty Taylor had a shot cleared off the line with his first touch of the ball, but thereafter United rarely threatened, although they did have a good shout for a penalty waved away after James Clarke went down following his shirt being pulled. Coburn managed to block a Sam Deering cross that was headed towards Taylor, and a Joe Burnell shot that was on target was deflected wide, but generally United were second best in the second half, and all the good work of the Rushden & Diamonds and Torquay games was undone.

Darren Patterson made one change to the side that drew at Torquay, starting with Yemi up front alongside Guy because James Constable was still carrying an ankle injury. Yemi was replaced after an hour, with ROS Deering taking his place and Haldane moving into attack. Ten minutes later Guy was taken off for Taylor, and seven minutes after that Eddie Hutchinson came on for Haldane, going up front with Phil Trainer in a three-prong attack. Some strange substitutions which haven't helped Patterson convince his doubters that he hasn't lost the plot.

The referee yesterday was G Eltringham, taking charge of his first Oxford game. Despite his surname being almost the same as the opposition's name, he had a reasonably decent match, apart from the Clarke penalty decision, which he got hopelessly wrong, booking Clarke for diving. The attendance was a relatively healthy 1,806, boosted by hordes of Mancunians taking advantage of a special offer.

Altrincham's three points lifts them up to ninth in the table. There were two other Conference games played yesterday. Eastbourne Borough's 2-1 win over Stevenage Borough lifted them above Oxford, who are now 19th. Eastbourne's winner was scored with the last kick of the game after Eddie Anaclet had earlier equalised for Stevenage. Torquay won 3-1 at Rushden to go seventh, with Tim Sills putting the Gulls 2-0 up. Matt Green was sent off for Torquay. Rushden are now eighth.[@news]2385[/@news] [@opponent]altrincham[/@opponent]