United made it hard for themselves today in beating bottom of the table Carlisle, who have only one away point all season. When Matt Robinson put Oxford in front after just three minutes with a sweet right-footed drive from the edge of the area it looked like the game might be as easy as the teams’ respective league positions suggested. A trip on Steve Basham led to an Andy Crosby penalty conversion after 31 minutes and most Oxford fans were starting to wonder how many the Us would win by. At the start of the second half Julian Alsop almost made it 3-0, but his powerful header from a Dean Whitehead corner was cleared off the line by, er, Basham. Twelve minutes from time the visitors found themselves being thrown a controversial lifeline when the linesman, who had been having a torrid game, adjudged Andy Woodman to have fouled Richie Foran, who picked himself up to score from the penalty spot.

Scott McNiven returned to the right wingback berth after his injury, with Jon Ashton reverting to centre back and Dave Waterman being dropped. James Hunt regained his midfield slot after his one game suspension, Danny Brown finding himself as a substitute. Julian Alsop played up front after suffering from ‘flu all week. Ashton had to go off injured 20 minutes into the second half, to be replaced by Matt Bound, while in the last minute Jefferson Louis came on for Basham.

The referee was Steve Tanner, who had a curate’s egg of a game, playing good advantage but then missing the obvious. He was hardly helped by his assistants, particularly EB Mackrell, who gave several fishy decisions. Tanner showed a yellow card to Alsop for dissent, and then another yellow to Woodman for the penalty incident. The attendance was 6,111, the third highest attendance in the division. A match report will hopefully be posted sometime on Sunday.

This win keeps United top of the league (obviously), one point ahead of Doncaster who won 3-1 at Cheltenham, now fourth from bottom, Donny’s second goal being scored by Dave Morley. Carlisle stay bottom (surprise, surprise), now 15 points adrift of Darlington, who lost 1-0 at Cambridge. Hull have dropped to third after being held 1-1 at Scunthorpe, in ninth, and Yeovil have risen to fourth after winning 1-0 at Bristol Rovers. Mansfield lost 2-1 at home to Lincoln, who have gone up to eighth.

Swansea, in sixth, lost 3-2 at home to Southend, who had three players sent off. Their second goal was scored by Mark Warren, and they are now third from bottom, while Torquay are now seventh after being held 1-1 at home by York, for whom Lee Nogan scored. Kidderminster beat Orient 2-1 to go up to fifth from bottom, one place below Rochdale who won 2-1 at Bury. United’s next opponents, Huddersfield, were demolished 4-0 at Macclesfield.

United’s under-17 team lost 6-1 at Luton. The Hatters were 5-0 up at half-time before United pulled a goal back.