Peter Cooper returned to lead the attacking line in place of Mike Gardner in the only change to side that began the draw at St Francis Rangers less than 48 hours previously.
The early going saw United attack with intent and desire, without fully troubling the Town defence.
As expected in a local derby, a number of heavy tackles went in on both sides, with United captain Dean Stevens making his presence known in the centre of the park, while Town’s Kevin Keehan and Andy Henson both found them in the referee’s notebook within 30 minutes for heavy challenges.
Clear cut openings were at a premium during the opening period, with the best chance falling to Cooper, who saw his effort foiled by Town ‘keeper James Broadbent after a delightful through ball from Joe Summerbell.
The second half began with the early spring sun beating down on a season high league crowd of 225 at The Oval and within four minutes of the restart, United came close to an opener.
Playmaker Wes Tate’s driven cross was turned goalwards by Aaron Capon, but Broadbent produced a superb stop to deny Capon against his former club.
Five minutes later, Russ Tanner had to be alert to deny George Robinson after being played in by Dan Smith.
Jason Taylor saw two efforts go wide of Broadbent’s upright after good work in the area, before Tanner produced an acrobatic stop to tip over a deflected Keehan effort.
Tanner produced two move saves of real class to thwart Smith and Dom Clarke as Town began to put pressure on United.
Cooper must have though he had won the contest for United in the final ten minutes, but his curling effort was tipped round the post by Broadbent.
It proved to be a day for goalkeepers, with Tanner denying Clarke a late winner as he got down well to preserve a fifth consecutive home clean sheet.
After the match United boss Simon Rowland said, “We have played them twice now and we deserved to win both times.
“We created some good chances and their goalkeeper has pulled off two fantastic saves. “We defended well but the pitch was unforgiving today. It made the quality in the last third really difficult.
“If the pitch was better we would have seen more chances at both end.
“I don’t think we left anything out there. No team has done the double over us this season which is important.”