OXFORD United are preparing for the mother of all battles in tomorrow's Division 1 relegation six-pointer with Bury.

The Manor Ground clash is a game that neither side can afford to lose and, to come through it with three points, United will have to weather a likely bombardment and break down one of the meanest five-man defences in the division.

Although second-from-bottom Bury have scored just one goal in nine games, they haven't conceded many either, and are the country's leading experts at grinding out goalless draws.

"Bury play a pressure game. We will need to move the ball quickly so they can't get it," said United's assistant manager Mark Harrison.

"We know it's going to be a total war. We've got to be strong and try to come through it.

"They're a hard side to break down, it's the nature of their game, but if we can get one goal we could go on to get two or three. We'd like an early breakthrough."

Harrison added: "They try to play in your third all the time, they launch the ball forward and chase it.

"But we felt we should have had six points from the two Easter games, we had really only two shots against us and created a lot of chances in those two games. We just needed someone to finish them off and hopefully that will happen tomorrow. "We've had massive games all season with the way things have gone," Harrison said. "With Port Vale the week after, the next two are monster games and we can really secure our survival if we win them because it's not only the three points we gain but the three we're denying our opponents."

Manager Malcolm Shotton's dilemma will be whether to start with Joey Beauchamp, who helped inspire a revival from 2-0 down to 2-2 at Tranmere, now that he is back to play his first home game since suspension.

Former United striker Nigel Jemson is completely out of the picture at Gigg Lane, with manager Neil Warnock not liking his ball-to-feet style.

The Shakers are expected to stick with Paul Barnes and Derek Lilley, on loan from Leeds United, in attack.

At left wing back is Carl Serrant, on loan from Newcastle, but the key defender is Chris Lucketti, who plays in the centre of the defence and invariably dominates.

Bury have gone 19 games without a victory and if they fail to win tomorrow, it will set an unwanted club record.

Story date: Friday 09 April

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