Pear shaped

United's dismal 2003 continued tonight as they went down 2-1 at Southend, a scoreline which flattered the visitors. Mark Rawle, who scored Southend's goal at the KasStad earlier this season, opened the scoring just before halftime, and Tesfaye Bramble doubled the Shrimpers lead with twenty minutes remaining. Steve Basham pulled a goal back for United with just a minute of normal time remaining, but even with five minutes added time Oxford remained as toothless as they had been throughout the previous 90.

Ian Atkins made three changes from the side which capitulated so abysmally at Hartlepool, bringing Dave Waterman back into the defence to replace loanee Christian Edwards. James Hunt resumed his place in midfield after injury, in place of his para-namesake Roy Hunter, and Andy Scott was surprisingly preferred up front instead of Jefferson Louis. With United a goal down a double substitution saw David Oldfield come on for Hunt and Edwards replaced Matt Bound. After Basham's unlikely goal Louis came on for Dave Savage, but to no avail.

The referee was P Armstrong, who also officiated United's 1-0 home defeat to Hartlepool earlier in the season. He booked Matt Robinson for dissent. The attendance was 3,203, of whom 215 were United fans, and a match report appears here.

Other results failed to go United's way, although by some miracle the Us remain in sixth position. Hartlepool extended their lead at the top of the table to five points after winning 1-0 at Macclesfield. Lincoln won 1-0 at Rochdale to move onto the same points total as United, but with the Us having a superior goal difference. Only Exeter's 1-1 draw at Scunthorpe was a goodish result for Oxford, with Scunny leapfrogging Torquay to move into fourth, but only two points ahead of United.

Hunter signs

Apparently we were slightly premature with our earlier news that Roy Hunter had signed a contract for United until the end of the season. Consider it a prediction rather than a news item, as the midfielder come right back did eventually sign on earlier today.