United went down to their worst defeat since conceding six goals at Bristol Rovers in April 2001, as Yeovil hammered the Us 6-1 at Huish Park. The first twenty minutes weren’t too bad, as Tommy Mooney forced Chris Weale into four saves, and even at half-time, with the score at 1-0 to the home side thanks to Andrejs Stolcers 38th minute striker, things weren’t so bad. But in the second half Oxford collapsed, Stolcers getting his second in the 49th minute, and then Phil Jevons adding two more, ten minutes and 20 minutes later. Four minutes after Jevons’ second goal Jamie Hand scored the first goal of his career to seemingly give the scoreline a semblance of respectability and possibly spark a come-back. However, it was not to be, and Keving Gall added another for the Glovers with quarter of an hour left, and Jevons completed his hat-trick four minutes later. There was still time for Bartosz Tarachulski to hit the post, which would have equalled Oxford’s second worst ever defeat a which, in the circumstances, wouldn’t have been particularly harsh.

It looked good before the game, with the news that Lee Bradbury and Leo Roget had recovered from injury and were in the team, at the expense of Julian Alsop and Lee Molyneaux. At half-time Jon Ashton was forced off with an achilles injury, with Molyneaux replacing him, even though Roget was clearly starting to feel his hamstring injury again. Twelve minutes into the second half Mark E’Beyer came on for his first Oxford appearance, replacing Matt Robinson on the left. Alsop came on for Rob Wolleaston just after United went 4-0 down, for some reason.

The referee was P Melin, in his debut season in the football league. He booked Roget in the first half, and Molyneaux and Bradbury in the second. Unfortunately, United can’t point to the referee as an excuse for what was, in Graham Rix’s words, a humiliation. The match was witnessed by 5,467, of whom 483 would have gone home less than impressed. We might publish a match report tomorrow, if we can think of anything worth saying. If anyone who actually went to the game wants to write something and send it to the usual address, we’d be very grateful.

Despite the gravity of this defeat United have only slipped one place down the table, to 10th, while Yeovil have gone up to second place. Scunthorpe have gone back to the top after a late winner at Bury, United’s next opponents, while Wycombe’s 1-0 defeat at home to Swansea sees them slip to third, and lifts Swansea to fifth. Mansfield are fourth after they beat Rochdale 1-0. Bristol Rovers have dropped to sixth after yet another goalless draw, this time at home to Lincoln, but 7th placed Leyton Orient were unable to take advantage as they lost 2-0 at Grimsby.

Notts County are rooted to the bottom of the league after losing 2-1 at home to Southend, Kidderminster’s 1-0 win over 8th placed Macclesfield lifting the Harriers up to second from bottom. Cambridge are just outside the relegation zone after drawing 0-0 at Chester, one place above them, while Cheltenham continue to struggle after going down 1-0 at Rushden. Boston are one place above Oxford after they drew 2-2 with Shrewsbury.

In the Conference, Gravesend lost 4-1 at Barnet, their consolation goal being scored by Manny Omoyinmi.