Down among the dead men

United lost 3-1 at Adams Park tonight. Wycombe, who went second as a result of this win, scored in the third minute through Adam Baird. Jermaine McSporran doubled their lead with nine minutes remaining, but Paul Taid scored his first Oxford goal in the 85th minute. A twice taken penalty scored by Steve Brown in the third minute of time added on, after Hubert Busby Junior (who played the second half in place of the injured Richard Knight) had saved Chris Vinnicombe's first effort, put the game out of United's reach. Oxford started with what Denis Smith described as a 3-4-3 line-up, although effectively it was yet again 5-3-2, with Matt Murphy replacing Dean Whitehead in midfield and Derek Lilley coming in for Manny Omoyinmi after the striker broke down in training. Apart from Busby coming on for Knight Jamie Cook took over from Steve Anthrobus and Peter Fear replaced Lee Jarman, both towards the end of the second half. Jarman, Beauchamp and Anthrobus all received yellow cards. The attendance was 5,831. Read this feeble excuse for a match report, if you have nothing better to do.

Planning permission granted

All's well that ends Wells?

5-2. Not a prediction of tonight's scoreline (although you never know) but the voting on the Oxford City Council Planning Committee for the proposed leisure complex at Minchery Farm. The two opposing votes were from the two Green councillors present.

The meeting commenced with a presentation from a representative for Les Wells, who complained about the short notice for this planning application and concluded his remarks stating that should it be granted his client would seek a Judicial Review to challenge the process. Afterwards Firoz Kassam said that he believed there were no grounds for the granting of a JR and said he was not concerned.

There were a number of concerns over the appearance of the development and how it would impact on the nearby Priory, and also the materials to be used and the signing, but eventually the committee voted in favour of the application. Mr Kassam expressed his delight at the decision and thanked the United fans for their support. He said that he hoped he would now be able to give the fans what they want, although he was non-committal when asked if we would see builders on site on Monday.