Port Vale 3, Oxford Utd 0

According to the song, things can only get better and that certainly applies to Oxford United at the moment, writes Mark Edwards.

Just two games into the season and Denis Smith's men are already propping up the other teams in Division 2.

And, if they continue to play like they did at Vale Park on Saturday, U's fans will be in for a long season.

Only three United players Richard Knight, Jon Richardson and Manny Omoyinmi came out of the match with any credit as Vale, managed by former United boss Brian Horton, tore the visitors apart at will.

And, if it wasn't for the heroics of Knight in the United goal, the score would have been a lot worse.

But things started so promisingly for Oxford, with Smith's 4-3-3 formation taking Vale by surprise early on. After three minutes, Paul Powell was sent clear by Omoyinmi and used his pace to draw Vale keeper Mark Goodlad before pulling his shot across the face of goal and behind for a goal kick.

At the other end, Tony Naylor put himself forward as a candidate for miss of the season when Ville Viljanen broke the United offside trap and nodded across goal, only for Naylor somehow to head wide of an open goal from six yards.

The game was being played at a ferocious pace in the early stages and United nearly took the lead when Powell sent over a teasing cross from the left. It was was met by the incoming Paul Tait, who hit his shot into the ground and on to the top of the bar.

But that was as good as it got for the travelling supporters, with the rest of the game dominated by Vale.

Knight made the first of a series of fine saves when he pushed Tommy Widdrington's shot around a post. The former Derby man then made arguably the save of the day when he was forced to dive at full strength and acrobatically tip over a header by Viljanen.

However, the opening goal was not long in coming for the home side, with Naylor making up for his earlier howler.

Viljanen found space and blasted a vicious shot on to the inside of Knight's right-hand post and when the ball found its way to Naylor eight yards out, the striker made no mistake. As if going behind wasn't bad enough, United were dealt a cruel blow when Ian McGuckin was forced to come off with a back injury after falling heavily when challenging for a high ball.

McGuckin was replaced, somewhat surprisingly, by striker Steve Anthrobus at centre half Smith later saying that Anthrobus had asked him to play him in a left-sided defensive role before the start of the season.

As Vale continued to press, Knight tipped a Marc Bridge-Wilkinson header on to the bar and Anthrobus was forced to make a last-gasp tackle on Viljanen as the Vale striker broke clear.

Smith resisted the temptation to make changes at half-time, and he would have been relieved when Knight came and missed a cross just 27 seconds after the restart and Viljanen's header went narrowly wide.

That set the story for the rest of the second half. After Knight was forced to save at point-blank range from Michael Twiss, two glorious goals from Bridge-Wilkinson, making his home debut, put the game beyond United. For the first, Anthrobus was muscled off the ball by Viljanen, who crossed for Bridge-Wilkinson to volley into the top corner.

Just two minutes later, the ex-Derby man proved it was no fluke when he cut inside Peter Fear and placed a curling right-foot effort into the same corner.

Smith sent on Joey Beauchamp and Jamie Cook, but it was Knight who was still the busier of the keepers, tipping a Widdrington shot on to the bar and saving well from Naylor and Burton.