CARETAKER boss Mickey Lewis staked his claim to become the next Oxford United manager as the second division strugglers sneaked past non-League Morecambe in an entertaining FA Cup tie on Saturday.

It wasn't just the fact that United ended their seven-hour goal drought by overcoming the Conference club 3-2 in difficult conditions at the Manor.

What seemed so refreshing was that Oxford United's players were back trying to play football.

The team once renowned for its passing and movement kept trying to work the ball, gone was the long ball hoofed towards a big centre forward, and the different approach was justly rewarded by a late winner.

Yet there was a dispute over who struck the 87th minute goal that ended Morecambe's Cup dream.

Substitute Ben Abbey thought he had grabbed his first Oxford goal but defender Paul Powell reckoned he got the last touch to finish with two in the match. Abbey said: "I'm certainly claiming it. I got the touch to Mark Watson's cross and when I turned around it was in the back of the net."

Yet Powell was so adamant he had hit the first-round clincher he came out of the dressing room to inform the press: "It's definitely mine."

When the goal was shown on BBC's Match of the Day on Saturday night it again looked to the naked eye like Abbey's goal.

Appropriately enough on Hallowe'en weekend, Morecambe gave United a mighty scare, leading 2-1 for 11 minutes early in the second half.

Powell said: "We showed our fighting spirit to come back. We dug deep and now everyone's starting to get their confidence back."

He added: "Training's a lot different. Mickey Lewis is really trying to encourage the players and we're starting to believe in ourselves again."

United chairman Firoz Kassam made a special point of visiting the dressing-room area to congratulate Lewis on his first win and the caretaker manager admitted he had been through many different emotions. "I was well relaxed," he laughed. "Perhaps some of the players' confidence was lower than we thought, but I was very pleased because they did try and play. It didn't always come off and we've got to be a bit patient with them because we've suddenly told them we want to get it at the back and play into midfield and try and open things out.

"I thought we didn't do it quickly enough sometimes, and that's why it didn't always open up for us.

"But we had little spells, especially after the first goal, when we started switching the play, the two wingbacks started getting a lot of the ball . . . yet you can't expect them to get there overnight.

"But as well as the passing, the character showed. They stuck at it. We asked them to do everything as quickly as we can and both second-half goals came that way.

"From the corner, Joey Beauchamp hit it really quickly, and it took everyone by surprise, and with the winning goal, there was nothing wrong with Mark Watson getting in there and crossing the ball - it created a goal for us. "What you have to have then, if you're pushing players forward, is players prepared to fill in for people. At the very death, when it looked like we were going to give a goal away, Peter Fear popped up from nowhere."

Lewis knew it wasn't going to be an easy ride against the part-timers.

"There was no way a Conference team were going to come here and just roll over," he said. "We knew it was going to be a tough game, the Conference is a good league.

"The pleasing thing for me was that everyone was still trying to get the ball, and in the end that was what won us the game."

United gained scant reward for their second-half fightback when the draw brought them a second-round tie at third division Shrewsbury Town on November 20.

It's a tie striker Steve Anthrobus will hope to be fit for. He used to play for the Shrews and still lives in the town.

Story date: Monday 01 November

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