By far and away Vale's worst home game of the season saw them all at sea against an insipid Oxford, who rose from 10th place to 9th thanks to this debacle.
As all the teams above Vale failed to win, this was a missed opportunity, and they dropped to 7th (just in the play-offs, but now being chased by a rampant Torquay, who flattened Shrewsbury 5-0).
Even Marc Richards missed a penalty on 27 minutes, after Tom Pope got flattened in the box...again. Thankfully Richards put in the rebound.
5 minutes later though and Oxford were level. The appropriately named Alfie Potter put in a hopeful long-range shot which Chris Martin failed to turn over twice, the second touch coming back off the bar; Jack Midson had an easy header from the rebound for 1-1.
On the hour it was 2-1 to Oxford, Harry Worley scoring his first goal for United past replacement keeper Stuart Tomlinson.
After that it just got worse and worse, and everyone was glad to hear the final whistle.