Last updated on .From the section Football

Oxford United ended a run of four league games without a win with a scintillating first-half performance as they crushed Coventry 4-1.

Striker Kane Hemmings scored one and made one, and he might have had a hat-trick, as Sky Blues keeper Lee Burge had to work overtime to keep the total down.

Hemmings fired the U's in front on seven minutes, a simple side-footed finish from 18 yards after a mix-up from Coventry's centre-backs.

Burge had made two smart stops even before then.

The keeper showed good reactions to save Hemmings' close-range flick, then produced a brilliant one-handed save to keep out Chey Dunkley's effort at a corner.

Hemmings was causing havoc, and just before the half-hour mark his cross-shot ricocheted into the net off Jamie Sterry to put the home side two up.

Oxford went further in front 10 minutes before the break when Chris Maguire was brought down by Lewis Page, and picked himself up to convert the awarded penalty low into the bottom left corner as Burge dived the wrong way.

But at the end of the first half, Burge made a stunning point-blank save from Hemmings.

The away side made more of a fist of it in the second half, yet Alex MacDonald fired in a fourth goal from 15 yards on the hour mark.

Substitute Marcus Tudgay converted a penalty deep into stoppage time - after Dunkley brought down Sterry - to hand the visitors a consolation.

Oxford's win was soured by having both Wes Thomas and Joe Skarz carried off on stretchers in the second half.

Report supplied by Press Association.