MIKE Ford has warned Oxford United's players to be careful what they say in the build-up to Saturday to avoid a repeat of the gaffe which helped inspire the club's previous Football League promotion.

The Banbury United boss was part of the side which went up 20 seasons ago in Division 2, a feat Michael Appleton's men can emulate at home to Wycombe Wanderers this weekend.

In 1996 it was clinched with a 4-0 win against Peterborough United, but the key result came four weeks earlier, with a 1-0 victory over leaders Blackpool.

It boosted United's hopes, but what was said after the game fired them up for a storming finish to the season.

Ford said: "I remember Phil Brown, who was Sam Allardyce’s assistant, saying in his interview that he was sure Oxford would do well in the play-offs.

"It was the added bit of incentive we may have needed.

"We were sat on a beach in Majorca when Blackpool were playing the first leg of their play-off so we sent him a postcard.

"It said ‘to Phil, good luck in the play-offs, love Oxford United’."

It showed the power of careless talk and Ford thinks the U's can do themselves a favour by not antagonising any other side this weekend.

He said: "Wycombe will be hugely motivated on Saturday to stop Oxford winning.

"They don’t need any added motivation by someone saying something which rubs them up the wrong way."