THE U'S ARE STAYING UP!!!

Carl Asaba – Oxford's player of the season?

Oxford United will be playing Second Division football next season, thanks to a Carl Asaba hat-trick in Gillingham's 4-1 win over Cardiff City. This means that Cardiff are four points behind United and there's only one game left, so the Welsh outfit have gone back to Division Three.

The game started off badly as Cardiff took the lead after just two minutes through Jason Bowen, and then Kevin Nugent missed a golden opportunity to double their lead just half a minute later. But then some fine work from Cardiff captain Andy Legg ensured that Oxford can have their local derbies against swindon, Reading, Wycombe and maybe even Northampton and Cheltenham next season. First a poor back-pass from Legg was pounced on by Asaba for Gillingham's equaliser, then Asaba was through on goal and Legg pulled him back. As he was the last man he was shown the red card, reducing the Bluebirds to ten men, and the Gills scored from the resultant free-kick through Nicky Southall. Asaba added a third before half-time and then completed his hat-trick in the second half to seal Cardiff's fate. U's supporters can now face a stress-free trip to Millwall on Saturday and celebrate an unlikely survival on just 45 points (so far).

Smith on a mission?

Denis Smith was at the Arsenal v. West Ham match this evening, spawning rumours that United is poised to bring in Thierry Henry to replace Steve Anthrobus, or perhaps it's Rio Ferdinand instead of Phil Whelan? At least Gillingham's win over Cardiff has spared Smith the pain of attending the final game of the season, at Millwall, as he can attend his sister-in-law's wedding instead, lucky man. (okay maybe he was really at the Southend v. Torquay game, as reported in the Oxford Mail, but where's the interest in that?)

Scunny goals

United's goals against Scunthorpe on Saturday can be viewed at http://www.scufc.co.uk/ – have a butchers, it's well worth it. If anyone has any thoughts on what Steve Anthrobus might be saying to the Scunthorpe 'keeper after Matt Murphy's goal please share them with us!

and another thing…

Oh yeah, and just to round off an almost perfect day, Jimmy Quinn was sacked as manager of swindon!