There was drama in the bottom-of-the-table match between City of Oxford and Hendon when one of the umpires just walked off the pitch and left the ground.

The South Regional League clash had been a lively affair, with City's Richard Lloyd shown a yellow card inside the first five minutes for an innocuous challenge.

The card-happy umpire then showed another yellow to Simon Harrison a few minutes later to reduce City to just nine men.

To even things up, two Hendon players were then sin-binned as well, before Harrison returned from the sidelines to put City ahead.

But then, just before half-time, the umpire who had issued all the cards, walked off the pitch and left the ground.

With all the players and spectators stunned, the game was held up for quite a while before restarting.

Luckily, there were two grade 1 level umpires watching, and City's first-team ladies captain Alex Cock took over the umpiring duties.

Three minutes into the second half, City doubled their lead when Dan Pilbeam scored, but not before another Hendon player had been ordered to sit out 20 minutes for a bad foul on Matt Benyon.

Hendon pulled a goal back with ten minutes to go, but City held on to win 2-1 and ease their drop fears.

Rover Oxford bounced back from their first defeat last week by beating fellow Division 2 promotion hopefuls Aylesbury 3-1.

Rover took the lead after ten minutes with an incisive counter-attack.

Toby Langdon, who caused the Aylesbury defence problems all match, drove towards the circle before passing for Martin Hunter to crash home.

A rare midfield blunder presented Aylesbury with a break to make it 1-1, but it proved to be their only clear chance of the game.

When Langdon made it 2-1 after a sublime dribble and lob over the advancing keeper, Rover were in command, and a late second-half tap-in from Rob Lawrence sealed the victory.

Rover's Rob Austen was yellow-carded in the final minutes, but it could not inspire an Aylesbury comeback.

Wallingford fought valiantly but went down 3-2 to a Slough side regarded as the best in Division 2.

Several early short corners were rewarded when Andy Barber put Wallingford ahead with a penalty stroke, but Slough then took control of the game, scoring three goals before half-time.

Wallingford competed well in an even second half, scoring their second goal near the end when George Gale coolly netted.

City of Oxford 2nd won 3-2 at Hendon 2nd with goals from James Finlayson, Phil Green and Ian Reid.

Oxford Hawks 2nd triumphed 3-0 at Tunbridge Wells with Parker, Parsler and Fish on target.

OTHER SCORES

Open Leagues: City 3rd 4, Eastcote 4th; Wallingford 3rd 0, Oxford Hawks 3rd 5, Surbiton 0; City 4th 4 (K Ahmed, S Devos, R Field, N Allsop).

Wessex Masters League: Andover 0, City 4 (M Corran 3, D Newton).

Friendly: City 1(M Henman), High Wycombe 2.