Worst game ever?

Oxford and Torquay stumbled their way to a 1-1 draw at the Kassam Stadium tonight in a game that showed just how far United have to go to become a decent side again. The match was littered with misplaced passes, aimless hoofs, poor ball control and indecision. United were fortunate to take the lead when Andy Scott was brought down in the penalty area by Steve Woods seven minutes from time and Paul Moody blasted the ball home. The lead lasted for only one minute before Woods made amends and headed Torquay's equaliser. In a match where both teams were as poor as each other a draw was a fair result.

United started the game with almost the same line-up that finished at Rochdale, with Robert Quinn replacing the injured Paul Tait and Paul Moody back in the side for Phil Gray. Matthew Bound had his loan deal extended to enable him to participate in this fixture. At half-time Sam Stockley was replaced by Sam Ricketts but with United persisting in playing 5-3-2 he made little difference to the pattern of play. It was only when Manny Omoyinmi came on for Quinn in the 68th minute that United sparked into life, reverting to an almost equally useless 3-4-3 formation.

Referee P Taylor, who also took charge of the Us' FA Cup defeat at Mansfield, booked Quinn, his second yellow card in successive games. The attendance was 5,480. A match report can be found here.

This result lifts United one place to 13th, above Hartlepool who didn't play tonight and who now have three games in hand on Oxford. Torquay remain 22nd. United's next opponents, Plymouth, consolidated their lead at the top coming from behind to win 2-1 over Scunthorpe. Halifax remain bottom, going down 2-0 at Kidderminster. United are now an equidistant ten points from both the relegation place and the final play-off place, so presumably we can now kiss bye-bye to both. In the second division Paul Wanless scored Cambridge's second as they beat Wycombe 2-0. In the SPL Derek Lilley hit a hat-trick as Dundee United put four past St Johnstone.