By Niall Jeger HEROIC Oxford City left Adams Park with their heads high after holding Wycombe Wanderers to a 1-1 draw in the first round of the FA Cup, while Jermaine McSporran was keeping a low profile.

The ex-City striker, now at Wycombe, predicted in midweek his second division side would have Saturday's match sewn up by half-time. But how wrong he was.

The Ryman Division 1 side kept their old teammate so quiet that Wycombe's £85,000 signing was taken off by boss Lawrie Sanchez in the second half. And after the match, the disgruntled manager said: "You can speak freely, but only if you can back it up on the pitch. He sometimes speaks before he turns his brain on."

City raised their game to such a level and played with such pride and confidence, that a neutral would have struggled to guess who were the pros and who were the part-timers.

The glory moment came when Richard Peirson scored a late equaliser from City's only corner of the match to cancel out Michael Simpson's opener. Peirson said: "Matty Whitehead's corner was the best delivery of the match. I have a nice little habit of scoring in the bigger matches. Our supporters were great and we could hear them more than the home fans."

City manager Paul Lee said: "It is nice to go into the hat for the second round. Everybody played to the system and they were a different class. All our forwards caused them problems. It's been a magnificent day."

City must travel back to Wycombe in eight days time for the replay after police advised against staging the tie at Court Place Farm. They had hoped to hold it at Oxford United's Manor Ground, but that wasn't financially viable.

The prize for the winners of the replay is a home tie against Division 2 high-fliers Wigan - although if City get through, they would again probably surrender home advantage.

Story date: Monday 01 November

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