Oxford Utd 1 Constable 25 (pen), Kidderminster 0

James Constable struck against his old club to give Oxford United their fifth successive home league win.

As good at the Kassam Stadium as they are bad away, the U's deserved the three points against their fourth-placed opponents, although there were some predictably nervous moments near the end.

The game's big talking point was the performance of Amy Rayner, the first female referee to take charge of an Oxford United home game.

Sadly, she didn't cover herself in glory.

She should have sent off Kidderminster players on two, probably three occasions, declining even to show a red card to Andy Ferrell when he punched James Clarke five minutes from time.

Constable earned the penalty himself with a terrific run from his own half, between Kidderminster's two centre halves and had his feet taken away from him by Mark Creighton when he got into the area.

It seemed a clear penalty, but referee Amy Rayner was not going to give it until her assistant started waving his flag frantically and pointing to the spot.

Having consulted with him to confirm the award, she then chose only to book Creighton.

After a long delay, as Rayner ensured nobody was encroaching, Constable hammered home the spot kick.

Darren Patterson made three changes to the side humbled at Histon, and none was too surprising.

In came Clarke, Lewis Haldane and Yemi Odubade with Chris Willmott, Phil Trainer and Jamie Guy making way.

All eyes at the start were on Rayner. She happily let play flow. Indeed, it was not until the sixth minute that she blew up for the game's first foul, but she was soon busy after that.

When Lewis Haldane darted around Martin Brittain at the bye-line and was brought down, the Harriers midfielder was lucky to escape without a yellow card, and that became the trend. Odubade was brought down in full flow by Martin Riley, but again no card and, worse followed, with a very poor free-kick by Adam Murray.

It wasn't just the visitors who were getting away with it, so did Luke Foster for a clear "professional" foul to prevent a dangerous Kiddy break.

The U's were using Yemi's pace to good effect but he did also get caught offside a few times.

Clarke, who had a fine first half defensively, took it upon himself to break purposefully forward to hammer in a low drive, which keeper Adam Bartlett got right behind.

Just after taking the lead, United had a scare at the other end when Darryl Knights almost capitalised on hesitation between Billy Turley and the defence, nipping in with a chipped shot over the keeper and against the outside of the near post.

Foster was elbowed by Stefan Moore in an aerial challenge, but again this was a decision the ref didn't want to give.

Constable almost got a second goal before half-time with a downward header from Sam Deering's cross.

After Foster had given away a free-kick with a foul just a yard outside the box, Deering did well to quickly charge down Andrew Ferrell's shot.

Odubade was adding an extra dimension to United's attack, and on this showing, Guy will struggle to get his place back.

The former Easbourne Borough forward produced a great bit of skill to flick the ball over defender Keith Lowe, but his shot looped over the bar.

United had largely controlled the first half, but the second was a different matter as Kidderminster pressed Oxford back, the home side sometimes frustratingly inviting pressure on themselves by giving the ball away or defending very deep.

The crowd was becoming very restless at the ref, and understandably so when Creighton committed another bad foul on Constable, and still remained on the pitch.

Then, when Chris Carruthers gave the ball away in a dangerous position, Turley saved well from Russell Penn.

Haldane made a positive near-post run on 52 minutes which almost paid off. He met Odubade's right-wing cross with a flicked shot with his outstretched boot, and was unlucky to see it drift just wide.

Turley was quickly and bravely off his line to save at the feet of Knights.