Oxford United's players, officials and supporters were celebrating today after their FA Cup dreams were realised with a home draw against their biggest rivals, Swindon Town.

The second-round tie will take place at the Kassam Stadium on Saturday, December 7, assuming it is not chosen for live TV coverage.

It's the first big local derby at United's new stadium and, just like the recent Worthington Cup third-round tie against Aston Villa, should attract close to a 12,000 capacity gate.

The teams, who have a long history of passionate and fiery encounters in the league - with Swindon winning most of them - have not met before in the FA Cup.

They did come face to face in the League Cup in the 1969-70 season when Swindon were the holders after beating Arsenal in the Wembley final the previous April . . . and Oxford dumped them out 1-0 at the Manor.

This meeting should be a big money-spinner for the club who, with Swindon, Reading, Cheltenham and Wycombe all in higher divisions, do not have a derby in the league this season.

Officials of the two clubs are likely to have talks over the next few days about ticketing and security arrange- ments.

One key question is how much of the North Stand to give over to away fans.

United reached the second round with a 1-0 win at Dr Martens League Dover Athletic on Saturday, with Australian David Oldfield hitting a brilliant first-half winner.

Swindon beat Huddersfield 1-0 in their first-round tie at the County Ground.

U's boss Ian Atkins said: "It's a great draw for the fans, and for us.

"I've not experienced an Oxford-Swindon derby, but everybody tells me how passionate it is.

"I've been lucky enough to have played in Liverpool v Everton derbies, so I know how important these games are to the supporters.

"Swindon haven't had the best of times this season, but they are still a second division side. We'll concentrate on ourselves rather than them and because they're in a higher division, we'll be classed as the underdogs, which suits us.

"We'll also hopefully have some of our influential players back by then, which will be important."

Bobby Ford and Lee Steele should be fit for the derby clash, and Atkins will hope the club have also completed the signing of Adi Viveash.

"This is the first big local derby at the new stadium, and financially, it's great news for the club on the back of the Charlton and Villa games in the Worthington Cup.

"It also shows how important it is in the cups to get through. Our attitude on Saturday was spot-on and in time to come, everybody will remember that we got the Swindon game and not much else from the Dover encounter.

"It's the result that matters and we got the result to earn a great tie against Swindon."