MATT Murphy proved himself Oxford United's man for all seasons with the late winner to give Mickey Lewis the perfect Christmas start.

The U's were struggling to overcome ten-man Cambridge but the ever-dependable Murphy broke the deadlock with an 83rd-minute header for his 13th goal of the season.

"Sometimes it's nice to win games when you don't play well," said coach Mickey Lewis after yesterday's 1-0 victory which eased United's relegation worries.

"We've had a lot of games this season when we thought we should have won and haven't.

"We made hard work of it, but I still think we deserved it in the end.

"And it was a game we desperately wanted to win because we are too close to the relegation places to feel comfortable.

"It was a great header from Matt, but made up for one he should have got in the first half."

Lewis added: "Cambridge started much better than us but we're not always going to play well." United's first-team coach was forced to make changes because Swedish keeper Paul Lundin and Canadian international defender Mark Watson had gone down with gastric flu.

And both are rated doubtful for tomorrow's Division 2 game at Burnley.

Lewis said: "Paul and Mark can't get out of bed at the moment so even if they have recovered by tomorrow, it's unlikely they'll have eaten for two days, so they are going to be too weak to play a match."

Watson's absence gave Lewis the chance to recall Paul Powell and play him on the left side of midfield, which many fans feel is his best position.

And Powell proved an influential figure in the game, capitalising on being the extra man after Cambridge had teenage defender Martin McNeil sent off for two yellow cards. "Paul did well, but I still think he can do more," Lewis said. "He can still go past people more, rather than pass.

"Les Taylor and I had been thinking about changing the system and we were going to change it anyway, even before the illnesses. We like to have the three in midfield, but it was nice to be able to have Paul out on the left touchline."

Burnley's Christmas began badly as they lost 4-2 at Bury. But Lewis warned: "I don't read too much into that, especially as they had a player sent off, as I understand.

"We know what happened with Bournemouth, so we won't be taking Burnley any more lightly because they lost 4-2. They're a good team."

Story date: Monday 27 December

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.