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Defender Georges Santos was stretchered off as Oxford United's winless run stretched to 11 games on a miserable night at Kingfield.

It was another case of what might have been for the U's, who have forgotten how to win matches, because they totally dominated the second half, but hardly got in more than a couple of worthwhile shots.

And with new leaders Dagenham & Redbridge winning 1-0 at Grays, Oxford United's title challenge is fading fast.

Woking's winner came in the 13th minute from their captain, Neil Smith, with his first league goal of the season.

You had to feel desperately sorry for Santos. The Marseilles-born centre back appeared to land badly following an aerial challenge early in the second half and immediately signalled as he lay on the ground, that it was a serious injury.

Physio Neil Sullivan needed only a few seconds to call for the stretcher and the Cape Verde international was carried off.

Jim Smith made two changes to his starting line-up from Saturday, and they were both in the wingback position, with Matt Day taking over from the injured Eddie Anaclet, and Gavin Johnson replacing Rufus Brevett.

There was a 15-minute delay to the kick-off because of crowd congestion which, after experiencing the woeful lack of signs for Woking Football Club within the sleepy Surrey town, came as no surprise to me.

Wearing all yellow, Oxford made a reasonable start and Danny Rose produced the game's first shot, a 22-yard drive that cleared the bar by some distance.

The visitors also forced the first corner, on ten minutes, but fell behind in the 13th.

Adam Green was allowed to get in a fine curling cross from the left and Smith stooped forward between United's central defenders to plant a low header past Billy Turley.

It was just want United didn't want, but to their credit, their heads didn't drop and they strung together several passes to create a good equalising chance.

Rob Duffy fed Kris Grebis, and he laid the ball off neatly for Johnson, whose low drive flashed across the face of the goal.

Chris Hargreaves climbed well to get his head to Barry Quinn's high left-wing corner, and although goalkeeper James Bittner dived to save low to his left, the effort looked to be going just wide.

Just before the half-hour mark, Duffy was booked for a foul on Daniel Bunce, which meant he couldn't subsequently go into challenges with as much venom as he might have otherwise.

Five minutes from half-time, United created an opening they really should have taken. Carl Pettefer's right-wing cross was headed back from the far post by Duffy and Johnson, in mid-air, hooked a difficult left-footed volley wide, the shot deflecting for a corner.

The visitors exerted strong pressure as the half came to an end, Day's long throw-ins adding to their weaponry, but Woking almost snatched a second goal on the break in stoppage time.

Yemi Odubade replaced Day for the second half, with the visitors changing to a 4-3-3 formation as Odubade occupied a position wide on the right of the U's attack.

Rose took it upon himself to have a crack at goal two minutes after the restart, and Bittner had to be alert to push his 25-yard left-footer around the foot of his post.

The Manchester United youngster was working prodigiously hard to try to drive United forward and when they attacked, they did so with several players breaking forward en masse.

All too often though, the moves broke down because of a poor final ball.

Marvin Robinson came on with 18 minutes to go, so United had four strikers on the pitch at the end.

But they, and the rest of the Oxford players and fans, kept being frustrated by Woking's time-wasting, particularly from their goalkeeper, which the ref seemed happy to allow.

There were six minutes of stoppage time at the end, and Woking had to survive a lot of pressure.

John Dempster headed a free-kick wide from 15 yards after Odubade had been brought down, and then the latter got to the bye-line, but didn't pull back his cross for waiting teammates.

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