Oxford United manager Malcolm Shotton and his assistant Mark Harrison resigned last night, hours before the club's annual meeting.

The move came after one of the worst losing runs in Oxford United's history and followed a lengthy meeting yesterday afternoon with chairman Firoz Kassam and his fellow directors.

Kassam broke the news to stunned shareholders at the Supporters' Club last night, and added: "I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their hard work."

After the meeting, Kassam added: "I have a certain amount of sympathy with Malcolm Shotton, but things were not right."

United's losing streak includes five straight defeats and more than seven hours of playing time without a goal.

Shotton was on the verge of resigning twice last season - after a 2-0 defeat at Watford and the club's 7-1 home defeat by Birmingham when he even threw his jacket into the crowd as a farewell gesture.

Neither Shotton nor Harrison would make any comment today.

Story date: Tuesday 26 October

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.