OXFORD United's relegation rivals Bury stole a march on their fellow strugglers by beating high-riding Bolton at Gigg Lane last night.

A nail-biting 2-1 victory over promotion-chasing Wanderers moved the Shakers up one place in the table above Port Vale with two matches to play.

United, who face Norwich at the Manor today, are third from bottom, with just Crewe and Bristol City below them.

Bury owed their victory to goals from defenders Dean West and Chris Swailes, plus an outstanding display from goalkeeper Dean Kiely.

The keeper made a string of super stops to restrict Bolton to just one goal from Neil Fox in injury time.

Delighted Bury boss Neil Warnock said afterwards: "It was all about passion. On paper, no-one would have given us a chance. "Bolton have got million-pound players all over the place but I thought we would create chances, and we did."

UNITED defender Phil Gilchrist was having a late fitness test on a hamstring injury this morning to see if he can play in today's crunch game at the Manor.

REMAINING FIXTURES

PORTSMOUTH

Stockport (H), Crewe (a), Bolton (H).

QPR

Bradford (H), Port Vale (a), C Palace (H).

BURY

West Brom (a), Port Vale (H).

PORT VALE

Watford (H), Tranmere (a), QPR (H), Bury (a).

OXFORD UTD

Norwich (H), Bradford (a), Stockport (H).

BRISTOL CITY

Birmingham (H), Crewe (a), Sheff Utd (a), Norwich (H).

CREWE

Ipswich (a), Bristol C (H), Portsmouth (H), Huddersfield (a).

Story date: Saturday 24 April

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