Young goalie Simon Cox gave a Man-of-the-Match performance on his league debut to deny Doncaster and earn United a 0-0 draw against the league leaders. Although Cox was by far the busier of the two custodians this wasn’t all one-way traffic and Oxford, with just Steve Basham up front on his own, had their opportunities too. In Graham Rix’s first game in charge the Us played with two wingers, unheard of under Ian Atkins, and a buzz went around the ground whenever Oxford crossed the half-way line. A point was probably a fair result but United, and Cox in particular, will be pleased with a clean sheet.

Rix made a number of changes since United’s last game that counts (against Cheltenham). In addition to 20-year-old Cox making his first appearance, in place of the injured Andy Woodman, Rix handed another debut to his new signing, Courtney Pitt. Pitt played on the left wing, and showed some promising touches and bursts of pace, until replaced on the hour by Mark Rawle. ROS Chris Hackett started on the right wing, and played the full 90 minutes (something else that we would never have seen under Atkins), and Dave Waterman replaced Scott McNiven at right back. Barry Quinn is still suffering from his groin strain, and so Paul Wanless returned to the midfield. Julian Alsop came off the bench to replace James Hunt, with just over ten minutes remaining.

Referee Trevor Parkes was taking charge of his third United game of the season, having previously officiated in the draw at Kidderminster and the FA Cup defeat at Colchester. He had a reasonable start, but lost the plot at the end of the first half, when he allowed several industrial challenges from the Doncaster players to go unpunished. Almost every time Hackett got the ball he was cynically body-checked which, combined with an appalling display of unsportsmanship after Cox had thrown the ball out of play for Waterman to receive treatment, failed to endear the away side to the Oxford fans. Parkes also showed yellow cards to Hunt and Dean Whitehead, for which neither could have any complaint. The attendance was 8,483, and we have been promised a match report for tomorrow.

United remain fifth after this point, one point behind Torquay, who drew 1-1 at Darlington. Huddersfield are now three points above Oxford after beating Swansea 3-0, and Hull beat Rochdale 1-0 to move to within three points of Donny. The clubs below United failed to make up any ground, with Yeovil and Mansfield drawing 1-1 at Huish Park, and Lincoln being held to a 1-1 home draw by Kidderminster. Northampton moved to within three points of the play-off zone after winning 4-0 at Macclesfield.

In the Conference, Manny Omoyinmi scored Gravesend’s first goal in their 2-0 win over Tamworth, while in the SPL, Andy Thomson scored Partick Thistle’s equaliser from the penalty spot as they drew 1-1 with Hibs. In the Nationwide Second Division, Sheffield Wednesday beat Brighton 2-1, thanks to a last minute goal from Robbie Mustoe.