Matt Green got Oxford United back in that winning feeling with a second-half strike at Gateshead's International Stadium.

The U's were finding it hard to break through against the part-timers, who were promoted from Blue Square North last season, until Green volleyed home Steve Kinniburgh's cutback from the left bye-line, from five yards, for his sixth goal of the season.

It was the perfect response after the team's midweek defeat at Mansfield.

The Oxford fans were bathed in sunshine in the seats opposite the main stand, though for most of them that meant having to shield their eyes from the sun to be able to see the action.

With the running track around the pitch, it was a case for everyone of watching from a distance, but it was great to be in such smart surroundings and, for the players, on such an excellent pitch.

Gateshead had signed ex-Sunderland right back Darren Williams in the morning and the 32-year-old was thrown straight in.

The U's began with a 4-4-2 formation, which meant Adam Murray out on the right in a line-up unchanged from Mansfield.

And the skipper was busily involved from the off, finding space to deliver some quality passes.

One, to Matt Green in the tenth minute, almost brought a goal. Green dribbled past James Curtis and Chris Swailes and he then beat keeper Paul Farman with his low shot, only to see it unluckily come back off the far post. James Constable also went close with a 15-yard shot on the turn that deflected off veteran defender Chris Swailes and bounced over the bar.

Gateshead showed some potency of their own with Wayne Phillips firing a drive over the bar, and Steven Richardson hitting a low shot that goalkeeper Ryan Clarke could only parry, before gathering at the second attempt.

At the other end, Farman in the Gateshead goal, is just 19 and was playing only his second game, and United tried to test him out with corners swung over just underneath the bar.

The youngster wasn't best pleased when Swailes played a backpass short, and both Green and Constable almost latched onto it.

The game died for a while, with the only notable action being the replacement of one of the referee's assistants after he pulled a muscle.

"You're not fit to run the line" the home fans sang as he hobbled off, and they were right.

United allowed the game to just drift into nothingness for the last 20 minutes of the half, which Chris Wilder wouldn't have been happy with.

Jamie Cook, seemingly reluctant to shoot, eventually tried his luck and saw the effort a shot deflect narrowly wide at the start of the second half.

Damian Batt joined Matt Green and Luke Foster in being booked, and for the right back that means a suspension because it was his fifth yellow card of the campaign.

Ian Bogie, the Gateshead manager, was then sent to the stands, for the first time in his career, for remonstrating too much with the officials.

United had a goal disallowed for a foul by Constable on the keeper, when Batt's cross-cum-shot drifted over everyone and into the net.

But in the 63rd minute, and just after Jack Midson had come on for Cook, the visitors got the breakthrough.

They might have added a second goal with a quarter of an hour remaining. Midson, picked out by Constable's pass, shimmied one way, then the other, and his shot was well saved above his head by Farman.

In injury time, Midson probably should have made it 2-0 when he followed up Adam Chapman's free-kick, that was spilled by the keeper, but he blazed over from three yards, a defender just getting enough of a touch to deflect it over.

Defensively, it was another strong performance from United, and a seventh clean sheet in eight matches.

Oxford Utd: Clarke, Batt, Foster, Creighton, Kinniburgh, Murray (Perry 90), Bulman, Clist, Cook (Midson 61), Green (Chapman 77), Constable. Subs not used: Turley, Woodley. Booked: Foster, Green, Batt.

Referee: Richard Wigglesworth (Rotherham).

Att: 1,144 (548 from Oxford).