Ipswich Tn 5, Oxford Utd 2

OXFORD United became the latest victims of another Ipswich Town goal feast at Portman Road last night.

David Johnson hit a hat-trick as the Suffolk club scored five times for the THIRD home game in succession.

It was the biggest defeat of new manager Malcolm Shotton's short reign to date and he must have been appalled at some of his team's sloppy, shoddy defending.

Well though Ipswich played in short spells, four of their five goals were the result of dreadful United errors or misunderstandings.

And the game proved a nightmare for the centre half pairing of Phil Gilchrist and Steve Davis who were ripped apart time and again by the pace of Johnson and trickery of in-form Alex Mathie.

And yet the evening had begun brightly for United with Kevin Francis heading them into an 11th minute lead during a dramatic 12-minute spell when Town had midfielder Matt Holland as a stand-in goalkeeper.

The drama began after two minutes when Joey Beauchamp had a goal disallowed because teammate O'Neill Donaldson, racing on to a Francis flicked header, raised his boot too high.

The dangerous kick caught kee-per Richard Wright in the face and he had to go off for stitches.

Looking to capitalise straight away, Beauchamp ran 40 yards and fired in a left-footed drive from long range which Holland could only fumble for a corner - and that brought the visitors a goal.

Beauchamp flighted the flag kick to the near post, and it was no contest as 6ft 7in Francis glanced in a header to leave 5ft 9in Holland rooted to the line.

Francis might have got another from another Beauchamp corner before Wright returned from the dressing rooms to a big ovation from the home fans.

And once they were back to full strength, Ipswich looked menacing.

Yet it was 25 minutes before Phil Whitehead had to make a save, and that came from a sliced clearance by Gilchrist.

Francis headed over again but that was to be the end, effectively, of United's challenge. Livewire Mathie took advantage of hesitation between Gil-christ and Paul Powell to nip in and equalise on 28 minutes.

Only a good save by Whitehead with his leg denied Holland, back as an outfield player, but Ipswich were in front on 35 minutes with the U's guilty of poor marking at a corner as Johnson headed in unchallenged off the underside of the bar.

By now, Ipswich's players were much quicker to the ball and Mathie almost added a third.

Terrible indecision by both Davis and Whitehead let in the speedy Johnson who made it 3-1 with great skill as he flicked the ball over the keeper and then shot into the empty goal.

As the first half came to a close, Oxford were looking as ragged as they have done all season.

And it went from bad to worse for United 11 minutes into the second half as they let in another bad goal.

A corner was wastefully conceded by Gilchrist hitting his backpass too short, leaving Whitehead to hack to safety in desperation.

It looked a routine corner for Whitehead to gather but he flap-ped at it, after appearing to get a nudge from Johnson, and Holl-and shot back into an open net.

The visitors had a big let-off when Mathie won the ball from Gilchrist, got goalside and set up Johnson who looked certain to score, only to be thwarted first by a Whitehead save and then by a brave block by Ford.

Not helped by some very over-fussy refereeing, Oxford pulled a goal back from the spot. Beau-champ darted into the box between two players, had his heel clipped by Holland and Donald-son converted the penalty - his first goal for Oxford.

Four minutes from time, however, Johnson did complete his hat-trick - and United's misery - by converting a penalty at the other end. Johnson glided past a very tired Davis, was brought down by Gilchrist, and tucked home the kick himself.

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