Chairman Nick Merry has rubbished a story in one of the Non-League newspapers that Oxford United were lining up a move for Cambridge United boss Jimmy Quinn.

The Non-League Today claimed on Sunday that Cambridge were opening contract talks with Quinn "in an attempt to fend off predators Oxford United and Stevenage Borough".

But Merry said the story was "nonsense" and he said he was upset by it.

"It's just rubbish," Merry stated. "I'm upset by it because Lee Power, the Cambridge United chairman, is a good friend of mine."

Oxford United manager Jim Smith has been under pressure from fans because of poor results this season with the team languishing in mid-table and becoming the only team this season to have lost to whipping boys Droylsden.

But he has made it clear he has no intention of stepping down, and Merry has publicly backed him to turn it around.

It's quite possible that Merry and Power have been in discussions recently, yet that is likely to have been over striker Marvin Robinson, who was loaned by Oxford to Cambridge for three months but was then seriously injured in a car crash.

After talks between the two clubs last week, the three-month loan has been cancelled and Robinson has now returned to being an Oxford United player, with secretary and general manager Mick Brown saying that was "morally the right thing to do".

The 27-year-old striker, who suffered a broken leg, bruised lungs and three fractured vertebrae, had an operation to repair his broken femur last Friday and he is set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines.

Smith said: "Its a tragedy really.

"As far as the accident is concerned, the car rolled over and went down a bank and that's as much as I know.

"Tests showed that he's got three small fractures in his back and that's quite lucky because it could've been much worse.

"He's going to be out for a long while and he'll probably be in hospital for at least a couple of weeks."

Although he has family connections in nearby Highworth, Quinn is an unlikely future Oxford United manager simply because he will always be associated by supporters with arch rivals Swindon Town, for whom he played from 1981-4 and 1986-8, and then managed from 1999-2000.