United sank to yet another humiliating defeat this afternoon at Southend, as they again forgot that there are two halves to the game. After an excellent first 45 minutes, during which Leo Roget had a header hit the bar and a Matt Robinson shot was cleared off the line, Oxford conceded right at the start of the second period when a Mark Gower shot beat stand-in goalie Alan Judge. United’s best move of the game saw Mark E’Beyer hit the post before the 44-year old veteran keeper was beaten again with quarter of an hour left by Southend’s new signing Freddy Eastwood. This heralded the Yellows’ collapse as six minutes later Adam Barratt headed Southend’s third, and United’s misery was complete in injury time when Jon Ashton was harshly adjudged to have fouled Lawrie Dudfield, who converted the resulting penalty.

Judge coming in for Simon Cox, who injured his shoulder in training on Thursday, was the only change from the side that beat Cheltenham last week. After half an hour Steve Basham picked up a knock and he was replaced by Paul Wanless. On the hour Chris Hackett came on for Barry Quinn, and bizarrely went to play on the left wing as United switched to 4-4-2, with Dave Mackay pushing up to right wing a Sam Togwell moving to right back. Two minutes before Southend’s second goal Mark Rawle came on for E’Beyer, joining Tommy Mooney up front with Lee Bradbury dropping back and Mackay moving into central midfield. Very strange.

The referee was Steve Tanner, last seen in an Oxford context at the home draw with Cambridge last season. He had quite a reasonable game apparently, until he last it at the end, first by awarding Southend a penalty for a clean tackle by Ashton, then by booking Ashton for the offence, and then by not realising that he had already shown Ashton a yellow card, but not brandishing a red one. Ashton, being a gent, walked anyway. Tanner also booked Mackay for a push. The attendance was 5,608, of whom only 400 were from this fair city. A match report could make its way onto these pages tomorrow, if anyone who was there would care to submit one.

Oxford have dropped two places following this defeat, to 21st in the table (otherwise known as fourth from bottom of the entire football league), equal to their worst ever position in over 40 years of league football. Southend, meanwhile, have risen to fifth thanks to the gift of these three points. Scunthorpe stayed top of the division thanks to their 2-0 win over Grimsby, who are just two places above Oxford. Swansea are second after a late penalty beat Bristol Rovers, who drop to eighth. Yeovil’s 1-0 win at Wycombe takes the Glovers third, while Orient are fourth after Lee Steele scored in their 1-1 draw at Chester. Sixth-placed Macclesfield won 1-0 at Mansfield, while Boston United moved into the play-off places thanks to a 4-0 win at bottom of the league Kidderminster.

Cambridge are second from bottom after going down 2-1 at United’s next two opponents, Rochdale, who climbed above United to 18th as a result. Shrewsbury are third from bottom, four points behind Oxford, after going down 3-0 at Notts County, who leapfrogged United into 20th place. Cheltenham beat Bury 1-0, while Lincoln scored in the last minute to beat Northampton 3-2. Rushden lost 2-1 at home to Darlington.

In League One (or Division Three) Dean Windass scored both goals for Bradford City in their 2-2 draw with Colchester. In the FA Trophy first round, Howard Forinton scored for Banbury United, but they were held to a home draw by Yate. Adam Hamp scored one of North Leigh’s six against Slimbridge in the Hellenic League.