OXFORD United will be breaking with tradition by playing their Division 2 game against Bury at 5pm on November 13 to avoid clashing with the Scotland v England Euro 2000 play-off.

It's believed to be the first time that United, who have played at many unusual times through the morning, afternoon and at night, have ever kicked off at tea-time.

And club secretary Mick Brown admitted it is "the least worst option".

The first leg of the Hampden Park play-off between Scotland and England, which kicks off at 2pm and is being shown live on Sky, is sure to draw a huge audience. United knew they could not compete against it without it decimating what is likely to be a small attendance anyway.

And they decided on 5 o'clock after considering all the options.

"This was something that was quite difficult to resolve," Brown admitted. "Bury weren't keen on playing on Friday night because of the problems for their fans of travelling down the motorway on a Friday.

"We asked to look at the Sunday but the police weren't sure about their manpower resources because it's Remembrance Sunday, and we considered an early kick-off on the Saturday, but there were similar problems with that as with the Friday night in terms of travelling.

"We eventually agreed on 5pm and for this match the turnstiles will not open until 4pm, to enable stewards and staff to watch the England game.

"We realise it won't please everybody but we did try to see what other opportunities there were to play and this is the least worst option.

"It gives people who are local the opportunity to watch the England game at home, if they have satellite TV, or in the Supporters Club here, and those travelling to the game can listen to it on the radio."

Story date: Saturday 23 October

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