Edited: 21:40 Friday evening

Hayes & Yeading United 2 Oxford United 1

For the first time this season Oxford suffered back-to-back defeats and also fell to their first double of the season as Hayes & Yeading came from behind to win at Church Road this afternoon. United, reduced to ten men after just 20 minutes, took the lead just before the break when James Constable poked the ball past Clark Masters for his 20th of the season. However, the second half was just a minute old when Ram Marwa headed home the equaliser, and 20 minutes later Marwa was on target again to condemn United to their second successive defeat on the road.

Chris Wilder made three changes to the side that lost at Stevenage Borough on Tuesday. Damian Batt returned from suspension to right back, with Adam Chapman reverting to central midfield. Alfie Potter started in place of Sam Deering, and Lewis Chalmers took over the defensive midfield role from Dannie Bulman, with Chris Hargreaves also missing from the side. United were reduced to ten men when Matt Green was booked for the second time after 20 minutes. However, it wasn't until first-half injury time that United made their first change, after Simon Clist was elbowed in the head and had to be replaced by Franny Green. Four minutes after going 2-1 down Deering replaced Potter, and in a gung-ho move Jack Midson returned from the cold to come on for Mark Creighton with quarter of an hour remaining.

United started slowly, failing to get into their stride for the first 20 minutes or so, with Constable too often isolated up front and the midfield lacking shape. Oxford's first chance came just after Matt Green was booked for challenging for the ball with Masters in an innocuous incident; Chalmers surged forward and laid the ball off to Constable, but he caught the ball with the outside of his right boot and it spun wide of the post. Green then lunged at Matt Ruby and, even if the first booking was more than harsh, there was no question about the second yellow card and Oxford were up against the odds. Potter then joined Constable up front and United took the game to the home side.

Chalmers twice came close, first when he flung himself at a Potter cross, but missed by inches, and then did get on the end of an Adam Chapman cross but saw the ball come back off the inside of the post. At the end of the half a Hayes defender elbowed Clist in the head, an offence for which the referee awarded a drop ball, although the Laws of the Game recommend a rather more stringent punishment. Then substitute Franny Green sent Constable away to score, and get taken out by Masters at the same time.

Unfortunately, United were unable to settle on the lead and allow the confidence to seep into their play as they were undone right at the start of the second period. Hayes worked the ball into a crossing position and Marwa ran in at the far post to head home, with the Oxford defence static. United were clearly rocked, but weren't out of the game yet, and Chapman almost restored the lead with a free-kick from 25 yards that beat the wall but flashed against the outside of the post. However, the superior numbers of the home side were starting to tell as they caught United outnumbered on the break, and from one breakaway a cross went under Chapman's foot and found Marwa, who was allowed to turn and shoot low past Ryan Clarke. After that, United huffed and puffed while Hayes were happy to contain them and break up play with some niggly (and some not-so-niggly) fouls.

With United out of the race for automatic promotion, the hope among supporters is that they can use the remaining games to build up confidence and embark on the play-offs with some momentum behind them. Losing to Hayes, at a stadium that wouldn't look out of place in the Hellenic League, certainly wasn't in the script. Oxford will have another go on Monday at home to Salisbury, but there won't be many fans approaching the game with much optimism.

Oxford were certainly given no favours by referee Ian Cooper, who was in charge of Oxford's 4-0 win at Grays Athletic in January. He left himself with no option but to send off Matt Green after his first nonsensical booking, and afterwards failed to apply his decisions with any consistency. Many tackles that were dangerous were penalised with just a free-kick (or nothing at all in the case of the elbow on Clist's head, which left the midfielder bleeding), while he showed yellow cards for much less. He booked Constable for pointing out that Clist had been fouled, and Batt for taking out Dale Binns, although other similar challenges had been allowed previously. He also sent Chris Wilder to the stand after the Oxford manager had pointed out the error of his ways. Some people just can't be taught. The attendance was 1,655 which means that there were fewer than 400 home fans in attendance.

Oxford remain third in the Conference after Rushden & Diamonds drew 1-1 with Crawley Town in tonight's game at Nene Park. It remains unlikely that United will fall out of the play-offs places, but one should remember that Oxford is a club where the unlikely can be commonplace. In today's only other Conference game Oxford's opponents on Monday, Salisbury, beat Ebbsfleet United 3-1. [@news]2691[/@news] [@opponent]hayes & yeading united[/@opponent]