United had to settle for a point this afternoon as a late penalty gave Altrincham a share of the points.

With selection hindered by injury and suspension, United were forced to shuffle their pack.John Dempster replaced the suspended Chris Willmott in defence, Yemi Odubade was rewarded for his good recent form with a starting place in attack whilst Matt Day was also handed a start in place of the injured Rufus Brevett.

Straight from the start, it was obvious that Smith had also made a tactical change, with Eddie Anaclet starting on the left rather than his usual right-wing back role. In fact it was one of the new personnel that created United's first chance in the 4^th minute when Yemi Odudbade showed good technique to spin his defender and fire in a shot that Richard Acton did well to hold.

Odubade was already showing that he had the legs of the visitors defence and he had another good chance to open the scoring in the 12^th minute when good play by Rob Duffy allowed the pacy striker to run onto perfectly weighted through ball.But with only the keeper to beat, Yemi mis-kicked, rather than force Acton into a save.

It was all United at this early stage of the match, and Matt Day fired a crashing shot against the bar from close range in the 14^th minute and then Duffy glanced a header wide of the post just thirty seconds later as Oxford looked to open the scoring.

It looked like it was just a matter of time before United scored, and that time almost came in the 22^nd minute when Dempter's forty yard ball found Duffy in the box, but with only the keeper to beat, the ball zipped of the wet pitch and allowed the keeper to block the effort.

The chances were coming thick and fast and in the 25^th minute, United wasted their best chance of the match so far.Duffy headed a right footed Burgess cross back across the box and with only two retreating Altrincham defenders to beat, Dempster scuffed his volley from six yards.

The visitors had set themselves up to play for the draw.They were playing a lone striker and had flooded the midfield and United, despite creating numerous chances, could not get the goal there play had deserved.

Duffy was leading the line superbly, but even United's top scorer could not make the breakthrough. In the 40^th minute, Duffy flicked Carl Pettefer's shot towards goal but saw it flicked over the bar by Acton, and then just two minutes later Acton produced the save of the game when he pushed away the strikers goal-bound header.

There was still time for Gilchrist to head over from six yards, but despite dominating the first period, they went into the break with the scores level.

It really was only a matter of time though, and eight minutes into the second half came the breakthrough. Matt Day was being urged to shoot every time he got the ball in the opposition half, and as soon as he received the ball twenty five yards from goal a huge 'shoot' cry came from the crowd. Day, ever one to please, shimmied past a defender and then smacked the ball home from twenty yards via a deflection which took the ball right into the corner of the goal. His third of the season and every one a great strike. Surely United would go on to win comfortably? Sadly not.

The U's were rampant and full value for the lead but grabbed a draw from the jaws of victory. The visitors, for all their effort, had few attacking options but added  another striker after going behind and to their credit started to get more into the game. Joe O'Neil did worry Turley with a fine drive from distance that flew just wide, but Burgess really should have wrapped the game up with eight minutes to go as Odubade unselfishly teed him up inside the area, only for Burgess to try to chip the keeper and fail.

However, with five minutes to go all of those chances wasted were made to look far more serious as ref Hendley was watching the players as a right wing cross came in, and spotted a push on the advancing striker. Nobody else in the ground seemed to notice, but that didn't matter and Stephen Aspinall duly converted the resulting penalty kick.

United did their best to find another goal, but Duffy snatched at a chance in injury time and sent the ball wide, and that left the away fans as the ones celebrating at the final whistle

In the end it felt disappointing to only come away with a draw, but  United broke both a club record and Conference record by making it sixteen games unbeaten and continue to lead the table. In this case though it's a win that got away.

Report Julian Hitchman and Chris Williams. Pictures Darrell Fisher