By Jon Murray KEVIN Francis successfully came through his first 45 minutes of football this season in last night's Avon Insurance Combination game at Portsmouth.

The 6ft 7in striker, who has been on the sidelines since May when he ruptured his Achilles tendon in the final game of last season against Stockport, came through unscathed in the 2-1 defeat on the south coast.

United, fielding a side made up almost entirely of teenagers, gave a fine performance against their much more experienced opponents, most of whom had played in Pompey's senior team.

Ross Weatherstone fired them in front in the first half with a left-foot shot.

But Portmouth equalised on 29 minutes through Brazilian Stefani Miglioranzi and then got a very lucky winner when a cross by Jason Crowe took a deflection, looped over Wilson, hit the far post and then came back into play for Steve Lovell to score with a simple tap-in. Mickey Lewis, the Oxford United manager, donned his boots again to play in the midfield holding role.

Young keeper Phil Wilson kept the score down in the first half with two smart saves, and defender Jon Shepheard showed a lot of poise.

But United's best player was probably Simon Weatherstone, who put himself back in contention for a place on the bench against Stoke at the Manor on Saturday.

Simon King came off with 20 minutes to go after sustaining a nasty cut on his face.

Oxford Utd Res: Wilson, Spence (McIntosh 70), R Weatherstone, Shepheard, Lewis, Whitehead, S Weatherstone, Ricketts, King (Jones 70), Francis (Holder 45), Abbey.

UNITED'S Combination fixture against Swindon next Wednesday will kick off at 1pm to avoid clashing with chairman Firoz Kassam's meeting with fans in the Supporters Club at 7.30.

Story date: Thursday 02 December

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