MALCOLM Shotton hailed his exhausted warriors after they earned a vital point at Wolves in their battle to beat the drop, with Dean Windass bagging his 16th goal of the season.

Though "very tired", as he put it, Shotton's weary Oxford United team fought tooth and nail to force a 1-1 draw for their first point at Molineux in the last four attempts.

Windass scored for the fourth game in succession and at a fee of just £450,000, he's got to be the bargain of the season in the Nationwide League.

Shotton agreed. "It's 16 goals for a side down the bottom of the league as well," he said.

"Dean's a good finisher and at the moment he's the one player in our side who looks like scoring goals."

Shotton said before the weekend that Windass was now going to remain with United - whether he liked it or not.

And with Leicester signing Icelandic striker Arnar Gunnlaugsson for £2m from Bolton, that has ended Martin O'Neill's interest, for the time being.

I understand that Oxford are currently working with Aberdeen to try to resolve how to settle the outstanding amounts of Windass's fee. With Paul Tait sidelined, Kevin Francis played his first full game of the season, linking up with Windass for 90 minutes for the first time.

"Kevin's not played a full game before but he's gone in there and done a job for me," said Shotton, who revealed that prospective new owner Firoz Kassam had contacted him before the match.

"He wasn't able to come to the game but he telephoned me on the team coach on the way and passed on his best wishes, which I in turn passed on to the players.

"His arrival has been a great boost to us. It means we don't have to sell players and things are looking reasonably good."

The result keeps United just above Port Vale, who currently occupy the final relegation place near the foot of Division 1, and sets them up perfectly for this Saturday's local derby against Swindon Town. "We obviously came here on the back of the Chelsea game and the players were very tired. It's been a hectic two-week period and the lads need a bit of a breather now," Shotton added.

"We got battered for long periods, gave a bad goal away but fought back into it. It was a case of smash and grab, but all the boys have done ever so well and I'm delighted for them."

The U's even coped with the loss of central defender Mark Watson with concussion at half-time and being without Tait whose injured eye was still too swollen for him to play.

Dutch defender Brian Wilsterman, who replaced Watson for the second half, said afterwards: "The players were very tired, it was mentally as much as anything. The Chelsea game had taken a lot out of them and that was why it as such a slow start.

"But we battled away enough get a point and it could prove to be a very valuable point."

Story date: Monday 08 February

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