It took a late, and undeserved, equaliser from high-flying Macclesfield to steal a point from a charged-up United side at the KasStad this evening. Oxford had the perfect start when makeshift centre-back Paul Wanless fired them ahead after just two minutes for his first goal of the season. The U’s went on to dominate the first half and should have added at least one more goal to their tally. Tommy Mooney missed one glorious chance to double the lead after a neat one-two with Steve Basham left Mooney with just goalie Steve Wilson to beat, but Mooney’s shot was too close to the keeper, and the ball struck his legs. Wilson then saved an angled shot from Mooney, and saw a couple of deflections from his unfeasibly tall back line to keep the score down. In the second period Macc had a bit more possession, but it was Oxford who came closest to scoring, Juan Pablo Raponi having two excellent efforts, both saved by the bandy-legged Wilson. It was rough justice on United when John Miles equalised with a shot with just three minutes remaining.

Horacio Rodriguez made two changes to United’s starting line-up. Mateo Corbo had recovered from his calf-injury and took the place of Jon Ashton, injured at Shrewsbury on Saturday, while Lucas Cominelli was prefered in midfield to his Argentinean compatriot Raponi. United made a double substitution on the hour mark, with the aforementioned Juan Pablo replacing Lee Bradbury, who handed the captain’s armband to Wanless, and Craig Davies came on for Mooney. With six minutes left Emiliano Diaz became the third Argentinean on the pitch for the Yellows when he came on for Basham, who had been clattered by a very physical Macclesfield, and had been limping for a few minutes.

Tonight’s game was reffed by C Oliver, taking charge of his first Oxford game. He marred an otherwise quite competent performance by booking Wanless, for a reckless challenge, and then Corbo for kicking the ball away deep into injury time, to ensure that he received his customary yellow card. The attendance was a surprisingly high 4,273. Match report? Probably tomorrow.

United remain 15th as a result of this point, going level on points with Cheltenham. Macclesfield stay fifth, moving level on points with Scunthorpe, but missed out on the chance of going level with third-placed Swansea. If Macc do go up then they’ll come straight back down again unless they strengthen considerably in the summer.