Oxford Utd 1, Luton Tn 3

(Luton win 5-4 on agg)

WORTHINGTON is "a man thing", according to the adverts, but there was a distinct lack of masculinity in United's performance as they crashed at the Manor last night.

They were dumped embarrassingly out of the Worthington Cup at the first-round stage by second division Luton - despite starting with a 3-2 advantage from the first leg at Kenilworth Road, and then extending that to a 4-2 lead in the first half.

After an astonishing capitulation - which means the club loses out on the possibility of a potentially lucrative second-round meeting with a Premiership club - many home fans angrily accused the players of not trying.

The team clearly thought they had done all the hard work by winning the first leg.

United needed to be professional in this second match, but they mistook that for meaning calm and casual and forgot the one quality that had got them into the top half of the table at the end of last season - hard work.

Knowing they had nothing to lose, Luton really went for it, and their pace and movement showed up a worrying lack of defensive nouse in United's front and midfield players, Dean Windass excepted.

Not only were the forwards unable to hold the ball up but the midfielders didn't track back, Joey Beauchamp and Nicky Banger sticking too rigidly to playing out wide when help was needed inside. Lennie Lawrence's side ripped through the home ranks and might have been three goals up before Oxford went in front on the night with Phil Whelan's first goal for the club.

Brought in for his first game under Malcolm Shotton, his first senior game since breaking a leg last October, Whelan directed a glancing header into the net from six yards when Phil Gilchrist headed back a corner by Windass.

That 24th minute opener should have settled home nerves.

But the alarm bells had been ringing constantly from the first minute when Stuart Douglas headed against the bar only for the ref to blow up for offside.

Matthew Spring sprung the offside trap to get in a great position but then wasted his cross and even left back Gavin McGowan and new boy Paul McLaren got in testing long-range shots to make Oxford realise they were going to make a game of it. They were to do much more than that and after Phil Gray had missed a sitter from six yards, shooting wide unbelievably from Douglas's cutback, Gray made amends by lashing a shot high into the net after a break from the influential Sean Evers.

Banger was booked for diving after tumbling over Spring's feet just outside the area. It looked a harsh decision.

The body language of the Luton players when they came out for the second half suggested they fancied it and, sure enough, after 48 minutes, Gavin McGowan knocked the ball back from the left and Evers lashed it high into the net.

Shotton immediately replaced Matt Murphy with Simon Weatherstone and, although hindsight is a wonderful thing, even at the time it seemed too hasty.

Spring sent a 25-yarder flashing across goal and Luton's domination was broken momentarily when Windass dribbled past two players and was tripped on the edge of the area.

Beauchamp hit the free-kick with venom and was very unlucky to see it crash against the bar. The groans from the crowd were becoming more frequent as, that apart, United's players could do little right and on 70 minutes they gave away a sloppy and ultimately critical third goal.

Phil Whitehead tried to punch clear a cross from Graham Alexander but knocked the ball against a player and when Whelan headed out, McLaren drove home.

Andy Thomson had the perfect chance to bring the scores level when he was clean through on goal but hit his low shot too close to keeper Kelvin Davis.

Oxford bombarded the Luton box in the final ten minutes, Weatherstone having a far-post header pushed around a post and Windass seeing a bullet drive well saved.

Hill scooped a shot over the bar in injury time and that was that.

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