Constable keeps hopes alive

James Constable's double kept Oxford's faint play-off hopes alive as they beat Crewe 2-1 at the Kassam Stadium on Saturday.

Oxford's centre forward struck with a goal in each half to take his season's tally to 15 as Crewe lost their eighth away game in a row. His low 20-yard shot wrong-footed goalkeeper Rhys Taylor to give the U's the lead in the 30th minute and midway through the second half he took a pass from debutant Ryan Burge, muscled his way past a defender, and fired past the keeper again. United did not have it all their own way though. Goalkeeper Ryan Clarke turned Shaun Miller's shot away for a corner, and he also made a great one-handed save from Luke Murphy's close-range effort. And in the closing minutes, Alex's top scorer Clayton Donaldson took the ball around goalkeeper Clarke, but then shot into the side-netting. Substitute Ajay Leitch-Smith pulled back a consolation goal for Alex deep into stoppage time from the edge of the area, but it came too late.