Port Vale 1, Oxford Utd 0

By JON MURRAY LIKE a man hanging desperately on to a tenth-floor window ledge and losing the grip of one hand, Oxford United's survival hopes are fading fast.

Their prospects of staying up are looking slim and it may need a near-miraculous escape to avoid the drop.

Despite the backing of a great number of loyal supporters, Malcolm Shotton's team were woeful in their creating and taking of chances, and paid the price for one lapse at the back when relegation rivals Port Vale scored at a corner.

Yet the U's could have few complaints about this second successive disastrous result following the defeat at home to Bury. They carved out few scoring opportunities and failed to test Paul Musselwhite in the Vale goal.

At the other end, in contrast, Oxford were continually stretched by the home side's lively front duo, Tony Rougier and Alan Lee.

No-one could fault this Oxford team for effort. But there's no substitute for quality, and United had none of that in attack.

Whereas Brian Horton's Vale team played some controlled football on the break, everything about the visitors smacked of desperation. A poor-quality game improved in the second half and in the end it hinged on two key moments.

From the first, ten minutes after the break, Allen Tankard scored. From the second, four minutes from time, Kevin Francis did everything right to set up an equaliser for Andy Thomson, but he shot horribly over.

The U's had been defending capably, even if Rougier and Lee were giving Mark Watson and Phil Gilchrist more problems than they have had in the past month, when Nicky Banger's brave challenge on Dave Brammer inside the box denied the Vale midfielder what looked a golden scoring chance.

The ball ran out for a corner which Brammer hit deep to Tankard, who was unmarked 16 yards out, and he volleyed back at goal. The ball hit the ground and then rose above Les Robinson, the defender on the line, and into the corner of the net.

Vale, missing key players through injury, deserved their lead, although United had a spell in the frst half when they worked very hard and enjoyed the greater posession, without doing anything with it. It needed a good save by Paul Lundin from Rougier in the eighth minute to keep Oxford on level terms and Lee, bursting through the middle, then shot wide.

United had only a header by Francis from a Joey Beauchamp free-kick to show for their first-half industry and they almost fell behind when Lee's header was saved by Paul Lundin.

Lundin's agility came to the U's rescue at the start of the second half when he saved from Rougier and Brammer.

Vale's 55th-minute goal drained what little confidence there was from several visiting players whose play became increasingly desperate.

But through sheer willpower and running they managed to create chances for Murphy and Powell.

Only a fine save by Lundin, with his legs, denied Lee a second Port Vale goal from Marcus Bent's pass.

On occasions such as these, gilt-edged chances are rare and have to be taken and in the 86th minute, one fell to Thomson. Martin Gray's free-kick was headed on by Francis perfectly for Thomson six yards out but with the goal at his mercy, he side-footed over the bar.

One thousand arms behind the goal where United's fans were congregated were flung into the air in frustration and disgust.

In the final minute, Paul Tait delivered a terrible cross from the right when another opening beckoned. He, though, could be forgiven. He had run himself into the ground.

Story date: Monday 19 April

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