ANY hopes Dean Windass had that his goal against Chelsea might earn him a move from the Manor appeared to be scuppered - for the time being at least - when Malcolm Shotton insisted last night: "Dean's going nowhere."

The 29-year-old striker scored his 13th goal of the season, and his second in the FA Cup, in Monday night's dramatic fourth-round tie and produced an all-round performance which could not have failed to impress several watching managers.

Latest to confirm they were tracking Windass were ambitious first division rivals Huddersfield Town who put in a £700,000 bid for him on Monday.

But Shotton told me last night: "We don't have to sell at this present time, so he's not for sale.

"He will only go anywhere if this club receives a very, very good offer that they can't turn down. But at this moment, I would say he's not for sale." The money United will make from their fourth-round replay at Stamford Bridge next week, which should be at least £200,000, has eased the pressure to sell and the club now look set to reject all inquiries for their most saleable asset at least until after the replay.

Managing director Keith Cox said: "We should receive a total of about £400,000 from the two games, especially if there is a full house at Stamford Bridge. That makes a huge difference to us in terms of our ability to meet our liabilities.

"Before the two games, it was certainly a possibility that we would have had to sell another player, but that is no longer an issue."

Windass's performance against the team with the longest unbeaten run in Europe should also have upped his value.

It was thought Oxford would accept a bid of around £800,000 for the in-form striker, but now it will probably take at least £1m to prise him away from the Manor.

United officials also know that Huddersfield now have plenty of money. Their new chairman Barry Rubery, who recently made £50m when his satellite decoder company PACE Microtechnology was floated, has made several million available to manager Peter Jackson, who is desperate to bolster his side's flagging push for promotion. They led the table two months ago but have slippd to tenth.

On reports of Huddersfield's bid, all Shotton would say was: "It's only been on a secretary to secretary basis so far as I know."

Jackson said: "We are monitoring the situation."

Story date: Wednesday 27 January

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