Oxford United Women were beaten 1-0 by AFC Wimbledon at the MGroup Stadium on Sunday, losing to a controversial first-half Ashlee Hincks goal as the Dons leapfrogged the U's in the National League Southern Premier table.
The game started with Wimbledon on the front foot, and United were indebted to Beth Howard with a great diving save on the quarter hour to keep the scores level.
Oxford gradually gained a foothold in the game and came close to taking the lead after a corner was cleared to Vita Budaieva, whose shot arrowed just wide.
Five minutes before the break the visitors took the lead from a looping Hincks shot. It looked like Nic Gibson had managed to clear the ball from off the line but the assistant referee claimed that it had gone in and the U's found themselves behind at half time.
Wimbledon managed the game well in the second half, restricting Oxford to few chances and looking dangerous themselves on the break, with Emily Donovan forcing Howard into a flying save.
The closest Oxford came to an equaliser was with five minutes remaining, when Taome Oliver beat the keeper and got a shot away, but the ball came back off the crossbar and the chance was gone.
United manager Sam Rose said after the game: "We wanted three points to start the year off, and we'd have taken a point based on how we went in at half time, but we've come away with nothing. I said to the players that it doesn't really matter what goes in between the boxes, if you don't keep a clean sheet and you don't score, you're not going to win.
"We've got to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down, stick together, and get what we deserve. Some of the football has been really good, but we need to make it count."
UNITED: Howard, Gibson, Legg, Barratt, Poole (Burridge 73), Jenkins, Richardson (Wellesley-Smith 76), Gotch, Oliver, Trinder, Budaieva
