Oxford United 1 Kidderminster Harriers 2

United went out of the FA Trophy today at home to a Kidderminster team that has been somewhat of a thorn in Oxford's side this season. The sides were level going into the last five minutes before Rob Matthews' late strike prevented the appalling prospect of a Tuesday night replay.

Chris Wilder made several changes to the side that beat Rushden & Diamonds 1-0 last Tuesday. Billy Turley returned for just his second start of the season (the first was also in the Trophy, in the first round 1-0 win over Hayes & Yeading United), while Mark Creighton returned to the back line in place of Rhys Day. Kevin Sandwith came in for the cup-tied Anthony Tonkin at left back, and Adam Chapman started on the right side of midfield in place of Sam Deering. Jamie Cook returned for a rare start on the opposite flank, with Chris Hargreaves on the bench, while there was no place in the 16 at all for Jack Midson, with Matt Green coming in for him. A woeful Cook was taken off at half-time, replaced by new loan-signing Ashley Cain, who joined yesterday on a one-month deal from Coventry City. Deering came on for Simon Clist just after the hour.

In the first half the Us provided an object, or should that be abject, lesson in how not to play football. The number of passes that went astray was shocking, as was the tendency to turn attack into defence as neither the midfield nor the forwards were able to retain possession. Kidderminster weren't much better, but in the lively Brian Smikle and the lumbering Damian Spencer they had a front line able to give Oxford problems.

Kidderminster took the lead just after the quarter-hour mark, following an appalling Cook corner. The ball was cleared easily and reached Dean Bennett, occupying the space where Sandwith should have been defending. Bennett exploited the gap with ease, and his near-post cross found Smikle who slipped the ball between Turley's legs. Spencer then had a header that hit the outside of the post, while at the other end Oxford struggled to give Ross Atkins any problems on his Harriers debut.

United were much more positive in the second half, but still struggled to create many goalscoring chances. Cain and Damian Batt tried to link well down the right, although there were occasional misunderstandings, while on the left Oxford offered little until the introduction of Deering. United eventually equalised 20 minutes after the break as former Kidderminster defender Creighton launched a long ball forward that was flicked on by former Kidderminster striker James Constable into the path of Green. Martin Riley kindly headed the ball over the advancing Atkins for Green to tap in unchallenged. Oxford were looking the likelier team to go on and win the game, but were always vulnerable to the break, and it was from one of these that Matthews scored the winner. This time Smikle was the provider as Sandwith was again beaten too easily, and Oxford can concentrate on the League, which is what most United fans wanted anyway.

The referee was our old mucker Brendan Malone, who was due to have taken the Boxing Day game against Rushden before that was frozen off. He was in charge of Oxford's 2-0 win against Luton but failed to cover himself in glory today. Inconsistent in his decision making and not helped at all by his assistants, especially the geriatric in front of the South Stand, he was too often too far from the play to give the correct call. He showed Jake Wright a yellow card, correctly, for a late challenge on Spencer, while Cook was also booked for trying, and failing, to catch an over-hit cross. The attendance was 3,358 which is either not bad for a tinpot cup game that no one cares about, or is appalling for a quarter-final game just 180 minutes from Wembley, depending on your viewpoint. A highly respectable 417 of those came from Worcestershire.

In the other Trophy ties, York City's match at Barrow was called off because of a frozen pitch, meaning they will instead play on Tuesday, meaning York's game at home to Mansfield Town will have to be rescheduled. Salisbury City beat Tamworth 2-1, which means that United's game at Tamworth on Sunday 21 March can go ahead as planned. Stevenage Borough came from behind to beat Workington 2-1, so Borough will have to rearrange two Conference fixtures to fit in the two-legged semi-final.

In the Conference there was a good result for United, as fourth-placed Luton Town lost 2-1 at home to AFC Wimbledon, who climb to sixth. Luton have now played a game more than Oxford (at least until Chester are expelled) and remain ten points adrift of the league leaders (that's Us, by the way). Oxford, of course, welcome the Wombles to the Kas on Tuesday. Altrincham are 10th after drawing 2-2 at 19th-placed Eastbourne Borough, for whom Simon Weatherstone scored a penalty to earn a point for the Sports. Wrexham beat Crawley Town 2-0, while third-bottom Forest Green Rovers drew 1-1 with struggling Cambridge United, now in 18th place. The only other Conference fixture to survive the Trophy and the weather was a 3-1 win for Ebbsfleet United, now 17th, over fifth-bottom Gateshead. [@news]2662[/@news][@opponent]kidderminster harriers[/@opponent]