A goal 18 minutes from time from supersub Mark Rawle rescued a point for United, just as it looked like the game at Huddersfield was going away from them. The home side had taken the lead after 38 minutes when Jon Stead shot home from 15 yards following a long throw-in, despite vehement claims from the Oxford players that Efe Sodje, stood just a yard in front of Andy Woodman, was offside. Five minutes before Rawle’s equaliser United then found themselves down to ten men as striker Julian Alsop was shown a straight red card for the third time this season. This was evened up when it was too late to make any difference when Lee Fowler was shown his second yellow card in injury time.

Ian Atkins was forced to make one change from the side that beat Carlisle last weekend as Jon Ashton, who had broken his nose in that match, broke it again in training yesterday forcing him out of the side, with Matt Bound taking his place. After the dismissal of Alsop it was Scott McNiven who was substituted for Rawle as United went to a flat back four, and in injury time Ashton was brought on for Steve Basham as United fought to defend the point.

The referee R Pearson had a uniformly dreadful game. In addition to dismissing Alsop, despite apparently not seeing the incident, he showed yellow cards to Paul McCarthy for disputing the Huddersfield goal, to Paul Wanless for a foul, and to Andy Woodman for alleged time-wasting, despite the ball being blown from the six yard line as he was shaping to take a goalkick. The attendance of 9,368 was boosted by a Kids for a Quid scheme and was the second highest in the division. A match report might be posted tomorrow, if anyone wishes to submit one please email it in.

The point sees United drop down to second place after Doncaster beat Swansea 3-1 last night. Huddersfield are now 10th and the Swans are 6th. Yeovil have climbed up to third after coming from behind to beat Scunthorpe 2-1, Scunny staying 9th. Hull have dropped to fifth after losing 1-0 at home to Mansfield who leapfrogged them to go 4th.

Torquay lost 2-0 at bottom club Carlisle, who had been beaten in each of their last 13 league games. The Gulls stayed seventh because Lincoln’s game at Cheltenham was postponed. Darlington stayed second from bottom after losing 1-0 at home to Macclesfield, while third-bottom Southend lost at home to Bristol Rovers, for whom Dave Savage scored the only goal.

Other former United lads on the scoresheet today included Ben Abbey, who opened the scoring for Gravesend at home to his former club Woking. Norman Sylla scored Tamworth’s only goal, unfortunately Mark Wright’s Chester scored five in their away win.