Oxford United 4 Grays Athletic 1

United eased to victory against relegation-threatened Grays Athletic this afternoon in a game that was marred by a serious injury to Grays goalie Rob Beckwith. The first half was possibly one of the most incident-packed 75 minutes seen at the United Stadium, with goals, injuries, sendings off, and other stuff going on that enlivened the proceedings. Oxford scored a nice early goal to settle the nerves, after James Constable went down to win a decidedly dodgy free kick on the edge of the area in the eighth minute. Adam Murray whipped in a free kick that Beckwith dropped at the feet of Kevin Sandwith for the left-back to gleefully smash home for his first goal for United. After 26 minutes Constable scored his first goal of the day when he chased a long forwards ball. Beckwith and Jamie Stuart hesitated, allowing Constable to nip in and flick the ball goalwards. If the ball was rolling any slower it would have gone backwards, but it eventually settled in the back of the net with the Grays defence looking on forlornly. Grays' task of trying to get back into the game was rendered extremely difficult when former Swindon fool Stuart Elliott was sent off. Having already been booked for a needless handball, he was shown a second yellow for scything down former Grays team-mate Damian Batt. Almost immediately afterwards came the injury to Beckwith, who was challenged by Lewis Haldane, somewhat innocuously, and who then lay flat on his back, unmoving, for over quarter of an hour while the physiotherapists, St John's Ambulance crew, and assorted first-aid personnel fiddled with stretchers, prodded Beckwith gently, and generally didn't seem to know how to react. Deep into time added on for this lengthy stoppage, which was one of three in the first half, Sandwith sent Haldane away down the left wing. His cross to the far post was met by Yemi Odubade, who smashed the ball back across goal first time for Constable to put the ball into the net.

Following the first half the second period was tame in comparison, with not much of note to report. The atmosphere that had built up during the first half dissipated as a result of the long hold up, and failed to get going again. It wasn't helped when Chris Willmott was penalised on the edge of the Oxford penalty area for having his shirt pulled by Jamie Slabber, just after the hour. United's fragility from free-kicks was exploited to the full by Tony Dinning, who smashed the ball through the wall and past Billy Turley. This setback failed to enliven United from their second-half torpor, and the match deteriorated as a spectacle, with misplaced passes, conceded possession, and an apparent casualness that climaxed with Haldane, one of the main culprits, being substituted. His replacement, Chris Carruthers, was involved in the lead up to United's fourth goal, his pass finding Craig Farrell, who slipped the ball inside for Adam Chapman to finish superbly with a curling shot past substitute keeper Steve Arnold, to register his first goal for United. Meanwhile, Constable's attempts to score his first hat-trick for United ended in abject failure as he was unable to convert any of his numerous second-half chances. One of the best, set up by an on-fire Yemi, saw him just fail to get on the end of a cross, while he also managed to shoot over when well positioned and shoot straight at Arnold on a couple of occasions.

Chris Wilder was able to call on the services of three of the players who were unable to appear at Forest Green Rovers last weekend. Batt returned to right-back, with Matt Day making way, and Luke Foster came back into his centre-back berth, Sandwith moving across to full-back and Carruthers dropping to the bench. Simon Clist came back into the centre of midfield, in place of Eddie Hutchinson. The first substitution was made on 58 minutes, when Adam Murray, who has been carrying an injury for some time, was replaced by Craig Farrell, and United went from a sort of 4-4-1-1 formation into a more traditional 4-4-2 thingy. Ten minutes later Carruthers replaced Haldane.

Today's referee was Matt McLoughlin, who, unusually, seemed to know what he was doing most of the time. He did show a very early yellow card to Clist for a rather reckless tackle, but we'll forgive him for that. Nobody's perfect. The attendance was a reasonably impressive 4,764, of whom all bar 63 were supporting the Us.

The three points raises United two places to eighth, six points below the bottom of the play-offs, which is occupied by Stevenage Borough, who were busy beating Ebbsfleet United 3-2 in the FA Trophy semi-final. Grays remain third from bottom, two points from safety. At the top, Burton Albion succumbed to another defeat, going down 2-1 at home to Salisbury City. This allowed Cambridge United, 4-1 winners over Northwich Victoria, to move to just five points of the leaders. Torquay United moved up to third thanks to their 4-1 win over fourth-bottom Barrow, with goals coming from Tim Sills and Matt Green, among others. Another former Oxford player, Justin Richards, scored the only goal of the game as Kidderminster Harriers won at bottom club Lewes, Kiddy moving up to sixth place. Crawley Town dropped to seventh as they could only draw, 0-0 at home to Rushden & Diamonds.

Two decent results as far as United are concerned saw sixth-bottom Woking earn an unlikely point with a 1-1 draw against Wrexham, and Kettering Town lose 1-0 at home to Eastbourne Borough. This leaves Wrexham and Kettering one and two places below Oxford respectively, although both still have gazillions of games in hand on United. Forest Green Rovers' bid to escape from relegation received a setback as they were beaten 3-0 at Mansfield Town, for whom Rob Duffy scored a penalty, while Weymouth's implosion continued with a 4-0 defeat at Altrincham, of all places. [@news]2472[/@news] [@opponent]grays athletic[/@opponent]