Oxford United 1 Mansfield Town 0

Oxford United faced their toughest test since Chris Wilder took over, and came through it with flying colours thanks to a strike on the hour by Craig Nelthorpe, scoring his first goal for United. This made it seven straight home wins for United who are starting to look good for a possible play-off place. Mansfield were on their own mini unbeaten run, having not lost any of their preceding six games, during which they had drawn twice and conceded only one goal.

United started the game looking to take the initiative, and they almost went ahead after just a few minutes when leading scorer James Constable wriggled through a couple of challenges, but shot straight at Alan Marriott when he should have scored. While Oxford looked the more likely to make a first-half breakthrough, they had to withstand a couple of Mansfield efforts, first when Billy Turley made a routine save from Jonathan D'Laryea, and then when he palmed over a point-blank header from Aaron O'Connor. At the other end, Luke Foster got on the end of an Adam Murray corner, but his header deflected off a defender for another corner, and then Adam Chapman drove over when well placed. Constable then repeated Chapman's trick, before Nelthorpe latched onto Damien Batt's long cross-field pass, cut inside the defender, and wanged his shot against the bar.

Both teams had half-chances at the start of the second half, but it took something special from United to break the deadlock. Batt picked out Constable with another superb long-range pass. Constable drew the covering defender and as Marriott closed him down he squared the ball for the unmarked Nelthorpe to thrash the ball home. Instead of sitting on their lead, always a dangerous strategy, Oxford went looking to extend it, and Craig Farrell almost did that when he sprinted clear on the left of the Mansfield penalty area, but he shot straight at Marriott. With time almost up, Mansfield went looking for the equaliser, and Nathan Arnold thought he'd got it when he received the ball on the edge of the area with a clear sight of goal. However, Luke Foster and Chris Willmott combined to throw themselves in front of the shot, and the ball was cleared. There was still time for Marriott to push a Foster header onto the post and away and for Yemi Odubade to burst through and try unsuccessfully to chip Marriott, but eventually the whistle went to scenes of great jubilation. This wasn't the prettiest football that United have played recently, but it was effective and disciplined, and certainly shows that the side is moving in the right direction, with a momentum that looks unstoppable.

Chris Wilder was forced into one change to the side that beat Barrow last weekend, with Lewis Haldane picking up his fifth booking of the season in that match. He was replaced by Farrell. United made just one substitution, when Yemi replaced Nelthorpe with 15 minutes to go.

Today's referee was far better than last week's offering, but he was still largely useless. The man was John Hopkins, who seemed to think that backing in and pushing are acceptable components of the modern game. He booked Adam Murray for dissent, while a number of other players were so frustrated with his performance that they were lucky not to go the same way. The attendance was 4,618, of whom 251 were Staggered by what they saw.

This win lifts the Us two places to seventh, just two points adrift of Wrexham in the last play-off position, although Oxford have played three or four games more than most of the teams around them, and the majority of the side's remaining games are away from home. Mansfield have dropped to 15th. Histon are still second, but they needed a last-minute goal to rescue a point in a 3-3 draw with Eastbourne Borough, who stay 12th. Cambridge United scored twice in the last ten minutes to win 2-0 at bottom club Lewes and move up to third. Torquay United, who are Oxford's next opponents when they visit next Saturday for a Setanta TV live game (5.45 kick-off), lost 2-1 at Kettering Town, which leaves the Gulls sixth, and the Robins tenth, four points behind Oxford but with six games in hand. Another potential play-off challenger, Crawley Town, were surprisingly beaten 3-0 at home by Salisbury City, who climbed three places to 16th.

At the other end of the table, fourth-bottom Barrow were held to a 1-1 draw by third-bottom Grays Athletic, while fifth-bottom Woking lost 1-0 at 13th-placed Altrincham. In the day's most astonishing result, Weymouth were thrashed 9-0 at home by Rushden & Diamonds, leaving the terrible Terras in 14th place and Rushden 11th. So poor were the home side that even Rob Wolleaston scored a goal. There were mitigating circumstances for Weymouth, who were only able to field four first-team regulars after most of their professionals took advantage of a ruling permitting them to leave after they went unpaid for several weeks, so the side comprised mainly youth-team players. If Weymouth survive until the end of the season, it will be quite astonishing. [@news]2461[/@news][@opponent]mansfield town[/@opponent]