A superb strike from Dean Whitehead secured a point for a below-par United side at home to Bury this afternoon. After a dire first half, the main action of which was Andy Woodman and Paul Wanless combining superbly to defy first Terry Dunfield, whose long-range shot was brilliantly turned aside by a full-length dive from the Oxford ‘keeper, and then Gareth Seddon, who latched onto the rebound but had his shot excellently blocked by the lunging Wanless. The second half started in a totally different fashion, with Dunfield firing home from a blatantly offside position following a long free-kick. United drew level within a couple of minutes with Whitehead’s fantastic half-volley, but afterwards neither side created much, despite Bury being reduced to ten men after Jon Daly received his second yellow card for an over-the-ball challenge on Andy Crosby. The nearest either side came to breaking the deadlock was when Mark Rawle’s shot on the turn was expertly turned aside by Glyn Garner. At least Oxford’s unbeaten home record was maintained, although it was rarely under threat, but Oxford really should have capitalised on their numerical advantage, and made their late pressure count.

Ian Atkins made two changes from the side that lost at Yeovil last weekend. Steve Basham failed his late fitness test and so Lee Steele was drafted in to replace him, and Whitehead returned to the midfield as Rawle found himself on the bench. Rawle came on in place of Scott McNiven immediately after United’s equaliser. With ten minutes left Manny Omoyinmimade his first league appearance of the season, replacing Steele, who never really got into the game. As the match entered injury time Jefferson Louis made a surprise appearance, coming on for Jon Ashton, with Wanless dropping back into defence. Unfortunately it was all to no avail.

The referee was the appalling Steve Tomlin who missed routine things like awarding Bury a goalkick after their defender kicked the ball out for a corner, and less routine things like a blatant handball by a Bury defender in his own penalty area. He didn’t miss Daly’s terrible tackle on Crosby, but did allow the away side’s offside goal to stand. Crosby was booked for dissent during the following discussions. The attendance was a semi-respectable 6,473, despite Bury’s support only amounting to 189. Hopefully a match report will appear tomorrow.

United stay third, with most of today’s other results going in their favour. Fourth-placed Mansfield lost 2-1 at home to Doncaster, despite leading at half-time, to allow Donny to go top, taking advantage of Hull’s 1-0 home defeat by Torquay, who rise up to seventh, going above Lincoln, who lost 2-1 at Huddersfield, who are now fifth. Yeovil dropped to sixth after going down 3-2 at Darlington, who are now fourth from bottom.

Bottom club Carlisle eked out another point in their quest for survival, drawing 1-1 at Macclesfield who are now third from bottom, eight points above the Cumbrians. Second bottom Southend lost 2-1 at Orient despite being ahead at half-time. United’s next opponents, Bristol Rovers, continued their freefall, losing 3-1 at Cambridge, while Swansea also maintained their plummet away from the promotion places, going down 2-0 at Kidderminster. In the first division, Dean Windass put Bradford City ahead in their 2-1 win over Crewe.