First team puts fanzines to shame

United beat eighth place Hull City 1-0 at the Kassam today, thanks to an 82nd minutes strike from Jamie Brooks, who capitalised on some excellent work by Chris Hackett. This made up, to some extent, for the defeat in the morning of the combined fanzine side Raging Fever, who went down 9-4 to their northern counterparts.

United made two changes from the side that lost at Mansfield the previous Saturday. Dean Whitehead came into midfield in place of Dave Morley and Brooks started up front instead of Andy Scott. A double substitution after 68 minutes changed the course of the game. Whitehead received a knock and his place was taken by Hackett, and Paul Moody was replaced by Phil Gray. It was Hackett's pace that swung the game in Oxford's favour. Two minutes from time Morley came on for Paul Powell.

Berkshire referee P Armstrong made one or two iffy decisions but generally had an okay game, failing to show a single yellow card to an Oxford player. The attendance was a slightly disappointing 5,952, and a match report can now be found here, astonishingly.

United have climbed one place to 16th thanks to these three points, whilst Hull drop a place to ninth. Top of the table Plymouth beat Leyton Orient 3-0, but second placed Luton are still on their tails after beating Kidderminster 1-0. Bottom of the table Halifax thrashed play-off hopefuls Cheltenham 4-1, but they're still 14 points behind United with just six games to play. United's next opponents, Carlisle, lost 2-1 at Scunthorpe. Rather hilariously Bristol Rovers are now second from bottom after losing 3-0 at home to Rushden, who climbed above Hull as a result, which brings us neatly back to the beginning…

Two former United players were on target for Boston United in their 3-1 win over Telford, as Mark Angel and then Jamie Cook turned round a 1-0 deficit. Dagenham didn't play, but last time they did, last Monday, Mark Stein scored a hat-trick as they won 3-1 at Stevenage. Leon Mike (remember him) scored Aberdeen's goal as they beat Dunfermline at Pittodrie.

In the fanzine game this morning Raging Fever went 2-0 down before Jon Matthews pulled a goal back just before half-time. In the second half the visitors' superior fitness showed as they rampantly overcame their ever-so polite and friendly hosts. Two goals from the Moodyesque (ie paceless) Neil Wakefield and one from midfielder Jez just weren't enough as RF obviously had thoughts of the Catherine Wheel on their minds. The game was mostly notable for the unique shirts worn by the home side. An official Oxford United model in black and white stripes, with the club badge, players' numbers and sponsors name embroidered in yellow, these were mock-ups to see how a United kit would look in Juventus's colours, created at the time that the link up between the two teams was being mooted. How about that?!