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Oxford United scored a goal at either end of last night's game at Torquay United, but unfortunately they sandwiched three strikes by the home side. Craig McAllister scored his second for Oxford in the 58th second of the game following some good work by Matt Green and then some neat control of his own. Despite having nothing to play for other than pride in their glorious shirt, and despite Torquay being second and still with a faint chance of catching leaders Aldershot, the remainder of the first half hour was dominated by United, who should have extended their lead. United also had a penalty shout turned down for hand ball. Unfortunately, it was an error by McAllister, who misplaced his pass to Phil Trainer, that let Torquay in for their equaliser. In a move involving ex-Us Lee Mansell and Tim Sills, it was inevitably another old boy, Chris Zebroski, who put the ball in the net.

Oxford survived a scare right at the start of the second half, when Lee Phillips was upended by Barry Quinn, but it was Phillips who saw a yellow card for diving, rather than Quinn for fouling. The game became an end-to-end contest, and Oxford had a good chance to regain the lead when a Green header hit the post. With 13 minutes to go, a mistake by Matt Day let Zebroski in for his second as Torquay took the lead, and a minute later a nudge in Luke Foster's back caused him to handle the ball in the area. Sills decided to continue the curse of the ex by banging the penalty past Billy Turley. With four minutes left, United got a goal back when Justin Richards was fouled inside the area, and Adam Murray put the spot kick away to give the final scoreline some semblance of rationality. This was United's first away defeat since going down 1-0 at Aldershot at the end of January, but they gave second-placed Torquay a decent scare. However, United have to eliminate the sorts of errors that are leading them to concede so many goals this season.[@news]2300[/@news][@opponent]torquay united[/@opponent]

Darren Patterson made two changes to the team that won at Weymouth on Saturday. Foster had served his one-match ban following his dismissal against Northwich Victoria, and he returned to the back line, with Jamie Clarke dropping to the bench and Day shifting over to the right-back position. The other change was at the other end, as McAllister started in place of Richards. Mac lasted until half time, having injured himself in the first half, and was duly replaced by Richards at the break. With just over ten minutes remaining, Yemi Odubade came on for Green, but to little effect.

The referee was D Coote, who also took charge of United's 0-0 draw at Grays Athletic back in September. Mr Coote seemed to lose the plot a bit at times, and his booking of Foster means that the defender will miss the next two games. He also showed yellows to Green and Eddie Anaclet. The attendance was just 2,241, which is fairly paltry given Torquay's league position and their pretensions to League football. It becomes even worse when you consider that 246 of those were Oxford fans, meaning fewer than 2,000 in the home ends.

Oxford have now dropped back one place to 14th, while Torquay still have a mathematical chance of pipping Aldershot to the title. The Shots were held to a 2-2 draw at Ebbsfleet United, leaving them 15 points clear, with the Gulls having six games left. Cambridge United remain third after winning 2-1 at Rushden & Diamonds, while Stevenage Borough's 2-0 win at Woking keeps them in fourth place. Burton Albion snuck back into the final play-off spot after they beat Altrincham 2-1, a result that sees Alty drop back into the relegation zone. Exeter City lost 2-0 at Salisbury City to drop back to sixth.

Stafford Rangers dropped to the bottom of the Conference after going down 4-0 at home to York City, allowing Droylsden to jump above them thanks to a 2-1 win at 18th-placed Farsley Celtic. Third-bottom Halifax Town were hammered 6-1 at home by Kidderminster Harriers to heap further gloom on the Shaymen, while Weymouth climbed out of the drop zone to 20th place after drawing 1-1 with Grays Athletic, Simon Weatherstone scoring from the spot for the Terras. In the only game that didn't have a real bearing on issues at either end of the table, Histon beat Crawley Town 3-0. The Cambridgeshire side are seventh, and can still make the play offs, but they have only three games left, and are seven points adrift of Burton.