United lost 2-0 at home to Reading in tonight’s first round League Cup clash. After just about shading the first half, without creating any decent chances, Oxford missed a golden chance to take the lead after Danny Brown skipped past a Reading defender but then sliced his shot wide with the goal at his mercy. Having said that, Lloyd Owusu should have given the Biscuitmen the lead in the first half when he trod on the ball with only Chris Tardif to beat. Both Reading goals came on the break following Oxford corners. For the first goal Owusu had a shot well saved by Tardif, but the rebound fell rather fortuitously back to Shaun Goater’s feet and he scored the open goal, in the 62nd minute. Andy Hughes scored the second 15 minutes later when he was left totally unmarked by Jon Ashton.

In the end United’s injury problems weren’t as severe as feared, with both Dave Mackay and Paul Wanless passed fit before the game. Steve Basham started a match for the first time this season, coming in as Chris Hackett’s replacement wide on the right, while Brown returned to the side to replace Barry Quinn. In the 71st minute Graham Rix made a double substitution, bringing Terry Parker on for Brown and replacing Basham with Danny Morgan, making his Oxford debut. With eight minutes left Wanless went off to be replaced by Paul Burton, stepping up from the United youth team for his debut. Morgan took a bit of time to adjust to the game, but Burton did well in his short spell, which should give him a huge confidence boost.

Oxford have taken steps to ease their midfield injury crisis by bringing in Watford’s Jamie Hand. Hand joins the Us on a month’s loan, but because Watford beat Cambridge United 1-0 last night he wasn’t able to play for Oxford this evening because Watford didn’t want Hand cup-tied. He will almost certainly make his debut on Saturday against Shrewsbury. Look out for lots of Rage Online puns thanks to his handy surname. Hand is twenty years old and came up through the youth ranks at Watford, playing 42 games so far.

Tonight’s referee was M Fletcher, who last refereed an Oxford game in United’s 3-2 home defeat by Bournemouth in the LDV Trophy back in 2002/03. The attendance was a very disappointing 5,919. We hope to be able to publish a match report some time tomorrow.

In tonight’s other games Dean Windass was yet again on the scoresheet for Bradford City in their 2-1 home defeat by Notts County. Last night Guy Butters was on target for Brighton, but they lost 2-1 to Ian Atkins’ Bristol Rovers, for whom Richard Walker scored the winner. Lee Steele put Orient ahead at Brisbane Road, but they eventually went down 3-1 to Bournemouth. On Monday night Keith Andrews scored his first goal for Wolves in their 4-2 win at Rochdale.