Lewes 2 Oxford United 1

Glorious sunshine, a goal up, a large vociferous away support. What could possibly go wrong? Well, when it's Oxford United that you're talking about, it's conceding two soft goals to the bottom team, who had yet to win this season, and abjectly throwing in the towel to end the fledgling optimism engendered by the midweek win over Cambridge United.

The first half of this game at Lewes was fairly dire stuff, with misplaced passes, long aimless hoofing (James Clarke the worst offender), poor ball control, needless fouling, and the kind of display that United had produced against Crawley last Saturday. Oxford did have a few half chances, with Phil Trainer and James Constable getting shots at Rikki Banks, and Constable having a headed goal ruled out for offside. Jamie Guy came close when he dispossessed Kerry Mayo and bore down on goal, but his shot was scuffed wide. Mayo then cleared a Constable header off the line. At the other end Billy Turley had a couple of soft long-range shots that he dealt with easily, but overall United were disjointed, and looked uncomfortable on the uneven playing surface.

United started the second half at a much higher tempo, and started to cause the Lewes defence a few problems. They finally got the goal that should have won the game just after the hour. ROS Sam Deering set Lewis Haldane free, and his excellent cross was well met by Joe Burnell, whose header flew beyond Banks to give the Us the lead, and notch the captain's first goal for the club. However, instead of going forward to kill the game off, United sat back and invited the visitors to attack them. First, Burnell had to clear off the line from former U Michael Standing, and then, with ten minutes to go, Karleigh Osborne totally misjudged a bouncing ball (not for the first time), and Standing had a simple finish to equalise. Next, with just two minutes remaining, more bad defending allowed Sam Gargan to score from a Standing corner and thus condemn United to a defeat every bit as embarrassing as their loss at Droylsden last season.

Despite a few injury worries, Darren Patterson started with the same line-up that caused Cambridge such problems on Tuesday. With the second half less than ten minutes old he made a double substitution, replacing Phil Trainer with Haldane, and Constable with Deering, allowing Yemi Odubade to move up front alongside Guy. For the first 20 minutes the move paid off, but when Lewes began to turn the screw the side had no answer. In injury time Yemi was replaced by Eddie Hutchinson, to give United some aerial presence.[@news]2371[/@news][@opponent]lewes fc[/@opponent]

Today's referee was Ian Cooper, the same man who took charge of Oxford's 5-1 win over Farsley Celtic at the United Stadium last season. He was a bit erratic, but got most of the big decisions right. He booked Chris Carruthers for dissent after pulling him up for the second time for a foul throw, and he booked Clarke for blocking the run of a Lewes player. The attendance was Lewes's second best of the season, with 1,156 in the ground, at least half of whom must have been in the away end.

After the defeat Oxford remain 19th in the table, but they have played a game more than Altrincham, one place lower, and Grays Athletic, who are third from bottom. Lewes's historic win, their first in the Conference National, lifted them off the bottom, above Northwich Victoria, who lost 3-2 at home to 13th-placed Weymouth. Woking are 21st after beating eighth-placed Histon 1-0. Grays visit Cambridge tomorrow, and Altrincham go to Rushden & Diamonds on Monday.

Crawley Town stay top of the table after beating Kettering Town 1-0. Kettering have now dropped to sixth. Kidderminster Harriers' 3-2 win at 18th-placed Eastbourne Borough keeps them second, with Justin Richards scoring Kiddy's first. Mansfield Town are third after they won 3-2 at seventh-placed Salisbury City, while Burton Albion's 4-2 win over 17th-placed Forest Green Rovers takes them up to fourth. Occupying fifth place are Ebbsfleet United, who won 3-0 at 16th-placed Barrow.

Today's other game was a 1-1 draw between 13th-placed Wrexham and 11th-placed Torquay United, for whom Tim Sills scored. Tomorrow's other game is between Stevenage Borough and York City.