Oxford United 1 Northwich Victoria 2

United were unable to make the final push needed to seal a place in the Conference play-offs, going down at home to Northwich Victoria. Northwich, although already relegated to the Conference North, are the division's form team, and they showed this with a confident display that possibly caught United off guard. The visitors deservedly opened the scoring through Jamie Mullan, who had terrorised the Us defence throughout the first half. He had already twice won free kicks in dangerous places with his direct running, and when he picked up the ball for the third time in the last minute of the first half, instead of going to ground, he skipped past two or three half-hearted tackles before blasting the ball into the top corner, giving Billy Turley no chance.

Oxford were obviously missing the suspended Chris Willmott in defence, and his replacement, Kevin Sandwith, looked uncomfortably and occasionally scared. United hit back after the break, and put Northwich under sustained pressure, winning several corners and having a number of shots blocked or off target. The breakthrough came after Yemi Odubade was fouled just outside the area on the bye-line. There was a hold up before the free-kick could be taken as first one, then a second, and finally a third nerk decided it would be funny to run onto the pitch. Goons 1 and 2 managed to escape over the fence, but number 3 was rugby tackled by Turley, to the delight of the crowd. When the free kick was eventually taken the ball fell to James Constable, who lashed it home for a deserved equaliser. United had the momentum and should have gone on to win, however a small section of no-brained spectators celebrated the goal with another incursion onto the pitch. One particularly moronic specimen attacked a Northwich player with a flag-pole, thankfully doing no damage, before the simians were chased off the pitch. However, the damage that had been done was to United's chances, as the players looked distracted and leg weary. Northwich took advantage and broke clear, Matthew Crowell finishing a swift counter-attack by shooting in off the post. This was an unlikely defeat, and in the great scheme of things didn't really matter as Torquay United beat Burton Albion, so Oxford couldn't have made the play-offs anyway. What it would have done is confirm to Chris Wilder that some of the players, including some that he brought to the club himself, won't make the cut next season.

There were a couple of changes to the side that beat Burton, so long ago. The suspended Willmott was replaced by Chris Carruthers coming in at left-back, allowing Sandwith to play alongside Luke Foster in the centre of defence. The other change was Yemi starting in place of Craig Nelthorpe. Nelly was the first substitute to come on, replacing Carruthers. The second change was Craig Farrell coming on for Lewis Haldane.

The referee was Michael Naylor, the lucky man taking charge of his first Oxford United game. And what a pleasure it is to be able to praise the man in the middle, who made hardly any errors to speak of and who refereed the game sensibly, despite the large and passionate crowd. There was not one anti-referee chant, which says it all really. One small criticism might be that he was too ready to throw the Yellow cards around, or maybe he was just caught up with the East Stand pre-match display. Whatever, he booked Damien Batt, Adam Chapman, Simon Clist, and Foster, plus three of t'other lot. The attendance was 10,298 which is the third best for Oxford since relegation from the League, but becomes all the better when you consider that just 119 of them came from Cheshire.

The defeat leaves United finishing the season in seventh place, four points outside the play-offs, which makes the Conference's decision to deduct Oxford five points that much more galling. Northwich climbed above Weymouth to finish third from bottom, but if they can retain their best players there's no reason why they shouldn't be serious promotion contenders next season, although there were strong rumours that after the game their goalkeeper, Ryan Clarke, was in talks with Wilder. Despite losing 2-1 at Torquay, Burton are the Conference champions this season because the only side that could have caught them, Cambridge United, were held to a 0-0 draw at home to Altrincham. Chris Hargreaves, needless to say, scored Torquay's equaliser after Burton had taken an early lead. Histon finished the season with a 3-3 draw at Crawley Town, for whom Jamie Cook scored the opener, while Stevenage Borough lost 2-1 at Mansfield and Kidderminster Harriers went down 1-0 at home to Kettering Town. These results mean that Cambridge finish second and will play Stevenage in the play-off semi-finals, while Histon finished third and will face Torquay. Kidderminster failed to qualify, which means another season of cottage pie.

At the foot of the table, Weymouth's relegation was confirmed on Friday, when they lost 2-1 at home to York, who thus secured their survival. York then drew 1-1 at bottom-placed Lewes, while Weymouth lost again yesterday, 2-0 at Wrexham. The fourth relegated side, Woking, were beaten 3-1 at Rushden & Diamonds, for whom Rob Wolleaston opened the scoring. Other ex-Us on the scoresheet included Ebbsfleet United's Paul McCarthy, who scored their first in their 2-2 draw with Salisbury City.

What does this all mean for next season? We can wave bye-bye to Burton, possibly the worst championship winning side since United have graced this division, with Luton Town and Chester City coming down from the League. Also leaving us are Lewes, Weymouth, Woking, and Northwich, which means we lose a couple of nice away trips (Lewes for the Harveys, Weymouth for the seaside, and Woking for the accessibility). Coming up are AFC Wimbledon, which is nice, and Tamworth. [@news]2503[/@news][@opponent]northwich victoria[/@opponent]

For Oxford there is still the ongoing has he/hasn't he saga of James Constable, voted the Players Player of the Season and the Fans Player of the Season, although we suspect that it's far more likely that he'll be an Oxford player next year. Then there are the decisions that Wilder says he will announce this week as to who he is going to offer new contracts to. Our guess is that Yemi, Eddie Hutchinson, Matt Day, Sandwith, Nelthorpe, Hinchliffe, and Barry Quinn will all be leaving us in the summer, possibly to be joined by Haldane and Willmott. With Joe Burnell already told that he can look for another club, and with possibly the same message to be given to Carruthers, then it looks like another summer of wholesale changes to the squad. The hope is that, unlike last summer, this will not disrupt the momentum that Wilder has achieved, and that replacements can be brought in early rather than, as last year, at the last minute.