Retchid at the Vetch

Two goals from Andy Scott were not enough to prevent United going down to a defeat by the league's bottom club, somewhat predictably. For the first time this season United scored first but went on to lose, and Swansea conceded first and went on to win. Scott opened the scoring following a strong run by Scott McNiven after 25 minutes, but Marc Richards, on loan from Blackburn, equalised 9 minutes later. Just nine minutes into the second half Lenny Johnrose put Swansea ahead, and seven minutes later Matt Robinson was adjudged to have brought down Brad Maylett (on loan from Burnley) and a penalty was awarded, even though the foul looked to have taken place outside the box. Richards stepped up, after a long delay due to the linesman being struck by something thrown from the crowd, and beat Andy Woodman from the spot. With eight minutes remaining Scott pounced on a long clearance from Woodman to put United back into the match, but they were unable to equalise.

New signing Paul McCarthy went straight into the side to replace Dave Waterman, who was given time to spend with his son Oakley, who has just undergone an operation in his fight against cancer. With United two goals behind Jefferson Louis came on for Dave Savage in the 65th minute, and then Manny Omoyinmi replaced Steve Basham, who limped off, nine minutes later. Dominic Foley took over from Matt Bound with two minutes left of normal time as Oxford went hell for leather in their vain search for the equaliser.

Referee Ray Olivier, taking his first Oxford game of the season, showed yellow cards to Matthews Bound and Robinson, and also to Foley, all for fouls, and to Dave Savage for kicking the ball away. The attendance was 5,986 and a match report is here.

A win for Oxford would have seen them up to third, but they remain in tenth and have now played the same number of games as all their promotion rivals bar Wrexham, who have played two fewer. Swansea have lifted themselves up six places to 18th, leaving Exeter languishing at the bottom of the league. Tomorrow's games involving relevant clubs are: Cambridge v Scunthorpe, Darlington v Bury, Hartlepool v Bournemouth, Lincoln v Bristol Rovers, Macclesfield v Kidderminster, Torquay v Boston and York v Southend.