Ball wasn't first choice though.
It makes me fucking laugh how so many City fans hold Horton in such high regard. I like the bloke and backed him to the hilt when he was here. I never went down the "Brian Who" road that some fans did when he was appointed (partly because I knew exactly who he was unlike some). But the fact is that he had what effectively amounted to a decent few months in his time with us plus a largely unremarkable managerial career before and after his City tenure, and was doing nothing at Oxford to warrant getting the City job when he was offered it. In fact, his most notable moment at Oxford was some years previous when he booted the visitors dressing room door off it's hinges at Maine Road after we scored 2 very late goals to beat them 2-1! Also, while I appreciate that he speaks well of us to this day, his co-commentary on the Gillingham play-off game in the 1998/99 season review video somewhat bizarrely has a pro-Gillingham slant to it. Why that is I don't know but City didn't include the Sky commentary on the video presumably for copyright reasons so we ended up with some bloke I've never heard of along with Horton. Maybe it was from some Kent radio station which would go some way to explaining the bias.