IT'S an irony that won't be lost on their near 2,000-strong following, nor on Brian Horton or Joey Beauchamp, that at Port Vale tomorrow, Oxford United will have one of their best travelling supports for an away league game since May 2, 1992 when they won 2-1 at Tranmere to stay up.

Beauchamp scored United's winner that final day of the season and his celebrations at the final whistle with Horton stick in the memory of all those who were there.

It's a similar scenario at Port Vale tomorrow for a match that United cannot afford to lose, and possibly also need to win, to remain in Division 1.

Beauchamp will again be a key figure in the U's team, needing to come up with a goal to end his and his team's barren run, but this time Horton is in the opposite camp.

"I have fond memories of my time at Oxford and hope they stay up and do well - but after Saturday's game," Horton said.

"Beauchamp was one of the players who came through, with Chris Allen, when I was there," he reflected. Allen is now at Vale Park, on loan from Nottingham Forest until the end of the season. The left-sided speed merchant is likely to start tomorrow despite being fined and getting a rebuke after turning up late for a recent home game against Grimsby.

"Malcolm Shotton's done a good job on limited resources," said Horton. "It was the same when I was at Oxford. I had to sell all of my best players when the Maxwell thing blew up."

Horton repeated his oft-quoted comment: "I have never been relegated - although there have been one or two scrapes!"

The 1991-2 escape was one, while in the 1995-6 season he was sacked at Manchester City midway through a season when they did go down.

United manager Malcolm Shotton and assistant Mark Harrison watched Vale's 1-1 draw with Bradford City on Tuesday and said: "It was a game that could have gone either way.

"In the first 20-25 minutes Vale played very well, they went one up then Bradford scored and got on top and could have won it. But Port Vale missed a very good chance right at the end." Horton believes Vale's run of home games at the end of the season should see them safe. Bristol City, in contrast, have four of their last six away.

Can the U's go there and win, as they did at Sheffield United last month?

"Nobody in this league worries me," Shotton said. "Sunderland are the best team in the division, by some way, yet we should have beaten them here.

"The thing for us, though, is that we've got to score goals and we haven't been doing that.

"We're trying to get the players to relax in front of goal but it's not a question of snatching at chances. Nicky Banger's two strikes which hit the bar last week weren't like that at all, they were tremendous strikes, we just haven't been getting any luck."

Story date: Friday 16 April

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.