United remain unbeaten away under Ramon Diaz following today’s 3-1 win at Kidderminster, with a performance that proved that the Yeovil game last weekend was no fluke. After weathering some early Kiddy pressure, during which Chris Tardif had to make a couple of his trademark excellent saves, Oxford went on to dominate the remainder of the first half. Their dominance was reflected in the scoreline, with ROS Chris Hackett finding the net in his first game back after suspension with a fine individual effort after 22 minutes, and Craig Davies hitting his fourth in 8 starts quarter of an hour later. The home side were more determined in the second half, and pulled goal back from a free kick conceded by Mateo Corbo just outside the area, when Jon Ashton turned the cross into his own net midway through the half. This led to a nervous finale for the Yellows, but they held on and made the points secure in injury time, when Steve Basham took the ball past John Danby and slotted home.

Horacio Rodrigues made just the one change from the side that beat Yeovil, with Hackett coming onto the right wing and Lee Bradbury moving over to the centre of midfield in place of the injured Paul Wanless. Three minutes after Kidderminster scored United made their first change, Hackett being replaced by Jamie Brooks on the right of midfield. With just under a quarter of an hour left Bradbury went off, handing the captain’s armband to Tommy Mooney on his 500th appearance, with Lucas Cominelli coming on for his United debut. With six minutes to go Basham was brought on for Davies.

The match referee was a somewhat awful SW Matthieson, who reffed our 1-1 draw at Cambridge last season. He showed Corbo a yellow card for persistant foul play, and Davies one for falling over the Danby, whose over-reaction was more deserving of a caution. The attendance was 3,143, of which around a third were supporting the winning side. We’ve been promised a match report for tomorrow, so fingers crossed.

The win lifts Oxford three places up the table to 14th, and leaves United just four points shy of the play-off places. Kiddy remain second from bottom, one point above Cambridge and six below Shrewsbury. Cambridge were beaten 2-1 at league leaders Yeovil, while the Shrews were crushed 3-0 at Darlington, who have gone up to 5th. Rushden are 4th from bottom after they beat Orient 2-0, which drops the Os down to tenth. Chester’s 0-0 draw with Rochdale left them in 20th place, and Dale two places above United, on goal difference. 19th-placed Notts County beat 2nd-placed Scunthorpe 2-0, with Gavin Gordon scoring the second.

Swansea are now third after winning 3-2 at Boston, while 4th-placed Southend were held to a 1-1 draw at Mansfield, who are one place below the Us. Northampton are 6th after losing 2-0 at Bury, while Lincoln occupy the final play-off place thanks to their 4-2 win at Grimsby. Macclesfield are 8th after drawing 1-1 at Wycombe, and Cheltenham drew 1-1 at Bristol Rovers, who just happen to be Oxford’s next opponents.

In the Conference, on his Tamworth debut Mark Rawle scored the only goal in the Lambs’ 1-0 win over Accrington Stanley (who?). In the day’s other game, Raging Fever narrowly lost 12-1 to the Kidderminster supporters. Ho-hum.