Wolves 1, Oxford Utd 1 IF THERE was a league table based on the amount of work each team puts in, Oxford United would surely be championship contenders.

The industry they showed at a Molineux ground where they seldom do well, despite tired limbs and weary minds after what Zola and Co had done to them less than 72 hours earlier, was phenomenal.

And they ended up making a very, very ordinary Wolves side look awful.

Come the final reckoning, this league point could be invaluable, for although this was - Robbie Keane apart - surely one of the poorest Wanderers sides of the past 30 years, only one team in 16 has managed to win at Molineux this season, and the majority have gone home pointless.

Keane has replaced Steve Bull as the footballing hero of Wolverhampton, but while the home fans were drooling at the first-half strike which gave Keane his 15th goal of the season, Oxford supporters were soon doing the same as Dean Windass chalked up his 16th just three minutes later.

The Wolves goal after 37 minutes had been coming. United were very slow out of the blocks and the home side's front two, Keane and Haavard Flo, stretched and tore United's defence apart in the opening half-hour. Wolves capitalised on the space between the Oxford back line and goalkeeper Paul Gerrard and the visitors had a mighty scare in the fourth minute when Phil Gilchrist was almost sent off.

A backpass from Martin Gray arrived in no-man's land and in an instant, Flo was on it, bearing down on goal.

Gilchrist looked to make a shoulder-to-shoulder challenge and Flo tumbled to the ground, yet the referee, seemingly perplexed at all the choices available, bottled it in every way possible.

He awarded a foul, but only showed Gilchrist a yellow and not a red card and, most incredibly, he awarded Wolves a free-kick three yards outside the penalty area when the foul - if indeed it was one - looked to have been well inside the box.

But if the ref was indecisive, his assistant with the red and yellow flag was operating in a different time warp. Three times he was so slow in raising his flag for offside that the action had continued to a different phase of play. With Oxford's defence under the cosh, Gerrard saved with his groin as Keane threatened, and then Flo beat Mark Watson on a run before shooting just wide across the face of Gerrard's goal.

Oxford's on-loan goalkeeper gave the ball away to Keane with a poor clearance but the Irish teenager was too impetuous and tried to lob him from an impossible angle.

Keane sold a dummy to Gilchrist and Paul Powell with a brilliant feint but then screwed his shot wide so that, after 30 minutes, despite all this Wolves' pressure, neither side had managed a shot on target.

There was a rare opportunity for the U's as the hard-working Matt Murphy laid the ball to Windass, who fired wide from 20 yards.

Wolves took the lead from Oxford's first corner. Simon Osborn quickly played the ball through towards Flo, and Gerrard, racing out of his goal, made a hash of the clearance.

Keane latched on to the loose ball and shot into the net from 18 yards, his effort glancing off Powell's head on its way. Crucially, though, United hit back immediately. Kevin Francis headed the ball back and Murphy laid it off to Windass, who showed the art of a master finisher with a side-footed shot from 15 yards past two defenders on the line.

United replaced Mark Watson, who had been concussed in the first half, with Brian Wilsterman for the second.

Gerrard saved well from Keane after a fine pass by the otherwise ponderous Mark Atkins and Gray completed the clearance.

A glancing header by Francis at the other end had keeper Mike Stowell scrambling across his goal as the effort just missed his left-hand post.

Malcolm Shotton brought on Christophe Remy and switched to five at the back to try to hang on to a point.

And the tactical move worked well as United stifled everything that Wolves came up with.

With United's players winning nearly all the 50-50 challenges and covering every blade of grass, they hung on for a deserved point.

Story date: Monday 08 February

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