Invincible Oxford United kept their heads in another red-hot cauldron to move further ahead at the top of Division 3.

They kept their cool and maintained their discipline to grind out a 0-0 draw at Swansea on Tuesday, January 6, moving two points clear of second-placed Hull and six ahead of fourth-placed Mansfield.

It's nearly four months since a team beat them in the league.

Even manager Ian Atkins was impressed with his team's calmness in the face of a noisy, passionate near-9,000 crowd who put enough pressure on to make one of the linesmen buckle.

"Everybody did their job tonight and we played with a lot of composure," said a delighted Atkins, who did not suffer the jinx that traditionally accompanies a manager-of-the-month award.

"It wasn't a game of many chances, but it was a good end-to-end contest. It wasn't as though we sat back . . . when we could go forward we did, when we had to defend we did, and so did Swansea.

"The crowd can affect the officials and it happened in the same corner where it occured last year and suddenly it seems you're playing 14 men.

"The Welsh linesman over there seemed affected by it all and gave some incredible decisions.

"But all credit to the lads, we said to them at half-time to forget it, keep your disipline and we did."

United's three wise men - the experienced centre back trio of Paul McCarthy, Andy Crosby and Matt Bound - had exceptional games, containing the dangerous Lee Trundle.

"Trundle's a good player and we kept him very quiet," Atkins said.

"I thought Scott McNiven could have given us more down the right, but defensively he did well.

"It was a good performance. Mansfield, Yeovil and Huddersfield all came here and got stuffed. We looked very comfortable."

Bound, who ran a gauntlet of hate from Welsh fans, said: "To come here and get a point is a great result. We were just trying to keep Trundle off his left foot and we did that well, and I think we were relatively comfortable in the end."

Midfielder James Hunt said: "A lot of teams have come here and not won, so just to keep a clean sheet is a great result.

"Trundle's a threat every time he touches the ball, and the lads at the back did a great job.

"We kept him in front of us the whole time and kept them down to very few chances, so we ground out a 0-0 which keeps the run going.

"If we'd got this result here last year we'd probably have got into the play-offs.

"We played well last year but lost, so to come and get a result was the most important thing, and we're pleased with that.

"It might have been easy to go forward more in the second half, but if you do that you can get caught on the counter-attack.

"It was quite an atmosphere in the ground and the officials got involved as well with some stupid decisions."