United played a behind-closed-doors friendly against Reading at the Madejski Stadium this afternoon, winning 2-0 thanks to headers from Jon Ashton, right at the end of the first half, and Jefferson Louis, right at the end of the second. Oxford featured former Reading goalie Alan Judge between the sticks because they didn’t want to risk Simon Cox, and the old codger excelled himself, denying Nicky Forster on at least a couple of occasions.

Also having good games for the Us were Scott McNiven and Danny Brown, although Brown had to be substituted after half an hour. Jamie Brooks, who came on for Richard Walker (playing in midfield) with 20 minutes left, also impressed watching manager Graham Rix, as did young winter Tom Wingers, or whatever, who lasted the full 90 minutes. Josias Carbon and Michael Alexis also played the whole game. Loanee Barry Quinn didn’t feature.

In this evening’s Division Three fixtures it took a last minute goal to rescue a point for league leaders Doncaster, as they were held 1-1 at Rochdale. This leaves Donny four points clear of Hull, while Rochdale go above York to leave themselves fourth from bottom. Mansfield beat Torquay 2-1, with all three goals coming in the opening 20 minutes. The Gulls are now still one point above United, having played a game more, while Mansfield move above Lincoln, who were held 0-0 at Macclesfield. This leaves the Stags two points behind Oxford, having now played the same number of games, with the Imps a further point behind and United have a game in hand on them. Macclesfield stay second from bottom, three points from safety. In the Conference two goals from Daryl Clare gave Chester all three points at Telford, to take them above Hereford and back to the top of the table. Third placed Aldershot beat Stevenage 2-0.