“If you don’t want me, sell me to Oxford.”

That was the message Joey Beauchamp gave to Swindon Town boss Steve McMahon after being told he was one of four players not in the plans of the new Robins manager ahead of the 1995-6 season.

Having been at the County Ground for 15 months, Beauchamp knew his time was up when the ex-Liverpool and Manchester City midfielder was appointed as manager.

“John Gorman was just brilliant,” Beauchamp said. “But when Steve McMahon came in, I knew that my face didn’t fit.

“He told me that I wasn’t in his plans, and that Birmingham and Millwall were interested in me.

“But I simply turned to him and replied: ‘I’m not interested in either of those clubs, if you don’t want me, sell me back to Oxford’.”

“He said that they would never be able to afford me, but I stayed firm. Oxford were the only club I wanted to go to.”

Sure enough, chairman Robin Herd and manager Denis Smith got together and brought Beauchamp back home.

“It was my dream move,” Beauchamp said.

“Don’t forget, I never wanted to move in the first place, but getting a move back to Oxford was what I always wanted.

“I was a bit unfit, played the first three or four games, and then got dropped.”

Things changed when he made his feelings public.

“I remember doing a piece in the Oxford Mail around Christmas and I slated Denis Smith for not playing me,” he said. “When I read it the next day, I couldn’t believe what I had said.

“Denis wasn’t happy – but funnily enough, I think it showed him just how much I wanted to play and do well.

“I got back in the team a week or two later and then we went on that amazing run that led to promotion.”

Beauchamp was a key member of the team who came from out the blue to snatch the second automatic place into what is now the Championship.

And he has nothing but good memories of that season – and one match that all United fans remember at the Manor Ground, when his wonder-strike from 30 yards sunk Blackpool, their main rivals.

“It was incredible,” he said.

“Everyone still talks about that goal. It’s right up there with the best I’ve scored, but the importance of it was huge.

“My only regret – and it’s one of the biggest regrets I have got – is that I never scored in the final game of the season against Peterborough.

“It was definitely the most nervous game I’ve been involved in, and I missed a few chances early on.

“I could try and claim the first goal because it was from my corner that Grazioli headed into his own net, but I really wish I had scored.”