United went down to their first home league defeat since March 6th, when Huddersfield came to town, and their first since Graham Rix took over, as Darlington came from behind to win 2-1. Oxford took the lead right at the end of a somewhat torpid first half, David Woozley heading home a Chris Hackett corner, to reflect United’s slightly better performance. After the break the Us came out flying, but were unable to convert their numerous chances, and they were punished six minutes into the second half when Clyde Wijnhard took advantage of a Woozley error to fire home the equaliser. United were still creating the better chances, and Lee Bradbury should have scored when clean through, but he shot straight at Sam Russell. Tommy Mooney should also have scored on a couple of occasions, but once again the Yellows were too profligate with their chances. They were beaten when substitute Ian Clark shot under Chris Tardif after another slip by Woozley.

Graham Rix stuck with the same starting line-up that lost at Bristol Rovers last weekend, although he did give a spot on the bench to Jamie Brooks, involved for the first time in a league game since the end of the 2001/2002 season, ironically also in a 2-1 home defeat by Darlington. Brooks didn’t get onto the pitch, although Rob Wolleaston did with 15 minutes left, coming on for Bradbury, who has singularly failed to live up to expectations since joining from Walsall in the close-season. Barry Quinn made his first appearance since his injury at Orient in August, replacing Paul Wanless with five minutes remaining.

The referee was Darren Drysdale taking charge of his first ever Oxford United match. He had a generally quite decent match, albeit a bit whistle-happy. He showed a yellow card to Jamie Hand, but was pleased to speak to players when possible, rather than caution them. The attendance was a respectable 5,881, boosted by hundreds of kids for a quid. We hope to publish a match report soon, and if anyone wishes to send one in we’d be truly and forever grateful.

The weekend’s games have seen Oxford slip down to a distressing 15th place in the league, a slide that has to be arrested immediately. Darlo’s victory was enough for them to climb four places to 8th. Swansea are the division’s new leaders, beating 7th-placed Mansfield 1-0 at the Vetch with a last-minute goal on Friday. Scunthorpe have climbed to second, beating Wycombe 2-0, including an Andy Crosby penalty, to leave Wanderers down in fifth. Former leaders Yeovil lost 2-1 at Rochdale to drop to third, while Dale go up to 18th. Leyton Orient climbed two places to fourth, despite being held at home 1-1 by Bury, who dropped to 13th. Lee Steele was Orient’s scorer.

Bristol Rovers dropped to fifth after being beaten 1-0 at Cambridge, who climbed three places to 20th. Bottom side Kidderminster look like they’ve a season of struggle ahead of them after losing 3-0 at Lincoln, who climbed to 16th. Shrewsbury are now second from bottom after losing 1-0 at home to 14th-placed Rushden, while Cheltenham and Chester, in 21st and 22nd places respectively, drew 0-0 at Whaddon Road. Notts County continued their slow climb up the table by winning 2-1 at Macclesfield this afternoon. County are now 19th, while Macc have dropped to tenth. Northampton, in 17th, lost 1-0 at home to Grimsby, now 9th, and Southend in 12th beat Boston, in 11th place, 2-1.