It was only when he had experienced the Kassam Stadium's fantastic pitch and facilities first-hand that Droylsden manager Dave Pace fully appreciated what an achievement it had been for his little team to have beaten Oxford United earlier in the season.

And the Bloods were just inches away from causing another upset when they nearly forced an injury-time equaliser on Saturday.

Substitute Terry Fearns somehow knocked the ball wide of a gaping goal from four yards out in the final minute of stoppage time.

Pace said: "That's the story of our season and how things have been going for us.

"We didn't lack anything effort-wise or with our endeavour.

"The free-kick which brought their goal wasn't a free-kick, they even admitted that at half-time.

"We showed a lot of character and effort today, but we didn't play as well as we can do, or play as much football as I'd like. Having said that, we didn't go completely out of it either after going one down, so credit to them for that.

"We've got to keep working hard, there's still 15 games to go. If we can turn in four or five good performances, we can still get out of it."

Then, looking around the stadium from the press box area, Pace drooled: "For Droylsden to be playing Oxford in a league match, and here at this stadium, is absolutely brilliant. This is where we want to be.

"It shows either that we're over-achieving, or they're under-achieving "We knew how difficult it was going to be, being only part-time in what is really a full-time league, but I would like us to become that. We've just got to build on this and stay in the league and build again next season.

"It was a great achievement to beat Oxford 3-1 earlier in the season. For the Oxford players, if you're playing here every week and then you come to a place like ours . . . - no disrespect to our ground, we're trying to improve it every year and I've spent £4.5m of my own money on it - but at the end of the day it's nothing like this.

"But you can catch teams on the hop there and it takes them a bit to realise they're in a game, by which time you've already won it.

"We scored the goals at the right time at our place and they couldn't get back. But we've not capitalised as much on our home advantage as we should have done.

"We came at Oxford quite a lot in this game, in the second half, but we just didn't have that killer edge up front, for whatever reason.

"They then tried to turn the screw towards the end and we were just trying to nullify them. That shows you what a good side Oxford are."