Oxford United Football Club is a professional
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...
club in the city of
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, England. The team plays in
League One, the third tier of the
English football league system
The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in England, with five teams from Wales, one from Guernsey, one from Jersey and one from the Isl ...
. The chairman is Grant Ferguson,
the manager is
Karl Robinson
Karl Robinson (born 13 September 1980) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Oxford United.
Playing career
Robinson was born in Rainhill, Merseyside. He played for Caernarfon Town, Bamber Br ...
and the team captain is
Elliott Moore.
The club was founded on 27 October 1893 as Headington Football Club. Headington merged with local rivals Headington Quarry on 25 July 1911 and was renamed Headington United. Oxford United adopted its current name in 1960. It joined
the Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...
in 1962 after winning the
Southern Football League
The Southern League is a men's football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from the South and Midlands of England. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven and eight of the English ...
, reaching the
Second Division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
in 1968. After relegation in 1976, between 1984 and 1986 the club earned successive promotions into the
First Division, and won the
League Cup in
1986
The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations.
Events January
* January 1
** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles.
**Spain and Portugal en ...
. However, Oxford was unable thereby to enter the
1987 UEFA Cup
A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...
because of the UEFA ban on English clubs in European competitions. Relegation from the top flight in 1988 began an 18-year decline which saw the club relegated to the
Conference
A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic.
Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main p ...
in 2006, becoming the first winners of a major trophy to be relegated from the Football League. After four seasons, Oxford returned to League Two in 2010 via the playoffs, and six seasons later achieved promotion to
League One, after finishing second in League Two in 2016.
Ron Atkinson holds the club record for the most overall appearances with 560,
John Shuker holds the record for the most appearances in the Football League with 478 and Ron's late brother
Graham Atkinson holds the record for the most goals scored with 107. In total, nineteen players have made international appearances while playing for the club. United's home ground is the
Kassam Stadium in Oxford and has a capacity of 12,500. United moved to the stadium in 2001 after leaving the
Manor Ground, their home for 76 years.
Swindon Town and
Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spell ...
are the club's main rivals.
History
Headington United
Oxford United were formed as Headington in 1893,
adding the suffix United in 1911 after merging with Headington Quarry. The club was founded by
Rev. John Scott-Tucker, the
vicar
A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pre ...
at Saint Andrew's Church in
Headington
Headington is an eastern suburb of Oxford, England. It is at the top of Headington Hill overlooking the city in the Thames valley below, and bordering Marston to the north-west, Cowley to the south, and Barton and Risinghurst to the east. ...
, and a local doctor named Robert Hitchings.
A football team was a way for the cricketers of Headington Cricket Club to maintain their fitness during the winter break.
The club's first football match played was against Cowley Barracks. Headington had no regular home until 1913, when they were able to purchase Wootten's Field on London Road, but this was redeveloped in 1920, forcing the club to move.
A permanent home was found in 1925, when they purchased the
Manor Ground site on London Road.
The facility was used as a cricket pitch in the summer, and a football pitch in the winter. In 1899, six years after their formation, Headington United joined the Oxfordshire District League Second Division, where they competed until the outbreak of the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
; the Second Division was renamed the Oxfordshire Junior League after the resumption of football in 1919. In 1921, the club was admitted into the
Oxon Senior League. The first season included a 9–0 victory, with eight of those goals coming from P. Drewitt. This remains a record for the highest number of goals scored by an Oxford player in a first-team match. At this time a small rivalry existed with Cowley F.C., who were based a few miles south of Headington. During a league game on
May Day, the referee gave two penalties to Cowley; supporters broke past security and players, resulting in the referee being "freely baited". The first
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...
tie played was in 1931, against
Hounslow F.C.
Hounslow F.C. was an English football club based in Hounslow, Greater London.
History
A Hounslow F.C. existed in the early part of the twentieth century, and spent the 1899–1900 in the London League. The modern club were originally named H ...
in the Preliminary Round, ending in an 8–2 defeat for Headington. United spent two seasons in the
Spartan League in 1947 and 1948, finishing fifth and fourth respectively. It was around this time that the cricket team left the Manor and moved to new premises near
Cowley Barracks
Cowley Barracks (originally Bullingdon Barracks) was a military installation in Cowley, Oxfordshire, England.
History
The barracks were built in a Fortress Gothic Revival style at Bullingdon Green using Charlbury stone and completed in spring ...
.
A move into professional football was first considered during the 1948–49 season. Vic Couling, the president at the time, had applied for Headington to become a member of a new Second Division in the
Southern League.
[Howland p.37.] Other teams that applied included
Weymouth,
Kettering Town
Kettering Town Football Club is a football club based in Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire, England. They are currently members of and play at Latimer Park in Burton Latimer. Kettering were the first club to wear sponsorship on their shirts in ...
and future league side
Cambridge United. Although the plans were postponed, the First Division was going to be expanded by two clubs; Weymouth and Headington were elected. It was later discovered that
Llanelli
Llanelli ("St Elli's Parish"; ) is a market town and the largest community in Carmarthenshire and the preserved county of Dyfed, Wales. It is located on the Loughor estuary north-west of Swansea and south-east of the county town, Carma ...
had just one vote fewer than Headington.
Oxford played its first season in the Southern League in 1949, the same year they turned professional.
Former
First Division forward
Harry Thompson was hired as manager. In 1950, Headington United became the first professional club in Britain to install floodlights, and used them on 18 December against
Banbury Spencer. They initially played in orange and blue shirts, but changed to yellow home shirts for the 1957–58 season.
The reason for the change is unknown. In 1960, Headington United was renamed Oxford United, to give the club a higher profile.
Football League rise
Two years later, in 1962, the club won the
Southern League title for the second successive season and was elected to the
Football League Fourth Division
The Football League Fourth Division was the fourth-highest division in the English football league system from the 1958–59 season until the creation of the Premier League prior to the 1992–93 season. Whilst the division disappeared in name ...
,
occupying the vacant place left by bankrupt
Accrington Stanley. Two successive eighteenth-place finishes followed, before promotion to the
Third Division was achieved in
1965
Events January–February
* January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years.
* January 20
** Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in for a full term ...
. A year before the promotion, Oxford became the first Fourth Division club to reach the sixth round of the
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...
,
[Brodetsky p.198.] but have not progressed that far in the competition since. Oxford won the Third Division title in
1967–68, their sixth season as a league club, but after eight years of relative stability the club was relegated from the
Second Division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
in
1975–76.
In 1982, as a Third Division side, Oxford United faced closure because of the club's inability to service the debts owed to
Barclays Bank
Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services.
Barclays traces ...
, but were rescued when businessman
Robert Maxwell
Ian Robert Maxwell (born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch; 10 June 1923 – 5 November 1991) was a Czechoslovak-born British media proprietor, Parliament of the United Kingdom, member of parliament (MP), suspected spy, and fraudster.
Early i ...
took over the club.
In April 1983, Maxwell proposed merging United with neighbours
Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spell ...
, to form a new club called the
Thames Valley Royals, to play at
Didcot.
Jim Smith would have managed the club and been assisted by Reading boss
Maurice Evans. The merger was called off as a result of fans of both clubs protesting against the decision. Furthermore, the Reading chairman stepped down and was replaced by an opponent of the merger. Maxwell also threatened to fold the club if the merger did not go through. Oxford won the Third Division title after the
1983–84 season under the management of Jim Smith,
who also guided them to the Second Division title
the following year. This meant that Oxford United would be playing
First Division football in the 1985–86 season, 23 years after joining the Football League. Smith moved to
Queens Park Rangers
Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...
shortly after the promotion success,
and made way for chief scout Maurice Evans, who, several seasons earlier, had won the Fourth Division title with Reading.
First Division and cup success
Oxford United finished eighteenth in the
1985–86 First Division, avoiding relegation on the last day of the season after defeating
Arsenal
An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostl ...
3–0. They also won the
Football League Cup
The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by t ...
, known at the time as the Milk Cup under a sponsorship deal. As winners, Oxford would have qualified for the following season's
UEFA Cup
A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...
, had it not been for the ban on English teams that had resulted from the previous year's
Heysel Stadium disaster. After beating fellow
First Division side
Aston Villa
Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park, ...
in the semi-final 4–3 on aggregate, Oxford faced
Queens Park Rangers
Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...
in the
final
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...
, which was held at
Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...
on 20 April 1986. The game finished 3–0 with goals from
Trevor Hebberd
Trevor Neal Hebberd (born 19 June 1958) is an English retired footballer who played as a midfielder.
Southampton
Born in Winchester, Hampshire, he signed for Southampton on leaving school in 1974 and made his first team debut two years later ...
,
Ray Houghton and
Jeremy Charles
Jeremy Melvyn Charles (born 26 September 1959 in Swansea) is a Welsh former professional footballer and Wales international. Normally a centre-forward, he was equally adept as a centre-half. He played for Oxford United, Swansea City and Queens ...
. After the match long-serving physiotherapist, 72-year-old Ken Fish, collected one of the winner's medals, instead of manager
Maurice Evans. Evans felt that Fish deserved the medal for his service to the club, and so gave him his, in what was seen as an "unprecedented gesture". It was the last time the League Cup was played under the name "Milk Cup", sponsors
Littlewoods
Littlewoods was a retail and football betting company founded in Liverpool, England, by John Moores in 1923. By the 1980s, it had grown to become the largest private company in Europe, but subsequently declined in the face of increased com ...
taking over the following season. The
1986–87 season saw Oxford United narrowly avoid relegation and stay in the First Division. Robert Maxwell resigned as chairman in May 1987, to take over at
Derby County, handing the club to his son
Kevin. Maurice Evans was sacked in March 1988 with Oxford bottom of the First Division.
Former
Liverpool
Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...
defender
Mark Lawrenson was named as Oxford's new manager, but was unable to prevent relegation to the
Second Division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
. He was sacked three months into the
1988–89 Second Division campaign after a dispute with the chairman over the £1 million sale of striker
Dean Saunders to Derby County; Derby were owned by Robert Maxwell, father of the then Oxford United chairman, Kevin Maxwell. Following Robert Maxwell's death in 1991, his personal estate, including the club, became insolvent. After a long search for a new owner, during which BioMass Recycling Ltd took over the club,
Brian Horton was named as Oxford's new manager. He remained in charge until September 1993, when he moved to
Manchester City
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
in the recently formed
FA Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...
. Horton led United to mid-table finishes during his management spell, apart from a 21st-place finish at the end of the
1991–92 season. A 2–1 win over
Tranmere Rovers, and a win for
Blackburn Rovers over
Plymouth Argyle
Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the team are competing in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park ...
, meant United survived relegation by two points. Oxford, now in the renamed
Football League Division One
The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...
, briefly restored Maurice Evans as manager, before turning to
Bristol City
Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...
manager
Denis Smith. Despite Smith's efforts, Oxford was relegated to Division Two at the end of the
1993–94 season, with just four wins in the last eleven games.
Financial problems
Denis Smith brought in two strikers who were experienced in the top division:
Southampton
Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
's
Paul Moody and
Nottingham Forest's
Nigel Jemson
Nigel Bradley Jemson (born 10 August 1969) is an English footballer, who represented his country at under-21 level and was the player-manager of Ilkeston Town until May 2008. He finished his career at Rainworth Miners Welfare in the Norther ...
. Oxford finished seventh in
1994–95 season,
[Brodetsky p.86.] and in the following season gained promotion by finishing runners-up to rivals
Swindon Town, despite not winning an away game till the end of January.
Robin Herd, co-owner of the
March Racing Team, took control of the club in 1995. In June of that year, the board of directors unveiled plans for a new 16,000-seat stadium at Minchery Farm, to replace the dilapidated
Manor Ground.
The club had hoped to move into the new stadium near the
Blackbird Leys
Blackbird Leys is a civil parish and ward in Oxford, England. According to the 2011 census, the population of the ward (whose boundaries may change occasionally so as to ensure minimal malapportionment) stood at 6,077. Unlike most parts of th ...
housing estate by the start of the 1998–99 season, but construction was suspended during the preceding season, because construction company
Taylor Woodrow had not been paid for the work already undertaken.
[Brodetsky p.90.]
Dropping through the divisions
The
1996–97 season saw Oxford finish seventeenth, and included the sale of Scottish international defender
Matt Elliott to
Leicester City. Despite Smith's departure to
West Bromwich Albion
West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...
in December 1997, United finished twelfth the following season under his successor, and former captain,
Malcolm Shotton. Shotton was previously the assistant manager of the
Barnsley
Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough ha ...
side that gained promotion to the Premier League. During October 1998, the backroom staff at the club went unpaid, due to United's financial situation with the new stadium, and the threat of administration caused a group of fans to set up a
pressure group
Advocacy groups, also known as interest groups, special interest groups, lobbying groups or pressure groups use various forms of advocacy in order to influence public opinion and ultimately policy. They play an important role in the develop ...
called Fighting for Oxford United's Life (FOUL).
The group began to publicise the club's plight through a series of meetings and events, including a 'Scarf of Unity', which was a collection of scarves from various clubs which was long enough to stretch around the perimeter of the pitch.
[Brodetsky p.93.] Chairman Robin Herd stepped down to concentrate on his engineering projects, and in April 1999
Firoz Kassam
Firoz Kassam (born 1955) is a British businessman. Born and brought up in Tanzania, of Indian descent, he came to Britain at the age of 19. He owned Oxford United F.C. from 1999 to 2006, and was named the 309th wealthiest person in the UK in th ...
bought Herd's 89.9% controlling interest in Oxford United for £1, with which he also inherited the club's estimated £15 million debt. Kassam reduced £9 million of the debt to just £900,000, by virtue of a
Company Voluntary Arrangement, by which unsecured creditors who were owed over £1,000 were reimbursed with 10p for every pound they were owed. Secured creditors were paid off when Kassam sold the Manor to another of his companies, for £6 million. Kassam set about completing the unfinished stadium, gaining planning permission for a bowling alley, multiplex cinema and hotel next to the stadium, following a series of legal battles which were eventually all settled. The season ended with relegation back to the Second Division.
Oxford's poor form continued into the
1999–2000 season and, with the team in the relegation zone, Shotton resigned in late October. After a few months with
Mickey Lewis as player-manager, former manager
Denis Smith returned to the club, managing a twentieth-place finish, one place clear of relegation. Smith's second spell didn't last long, and he was replaced by
David Kemp a few weeks into the following campaign. At the end of the
2000–01 season, Oxford were relegated back to the Third Division after a 35-year absence, with 100 goals conceded. They suffered 33 league defeats, the second-highest number of league defeats ever endured by a league club in a single season.
Division Three years
Oxford began the next season with a new manager and a new stadium, with the relocation to the
Kassam Stadium completed after six years of speculation. Former
Liverpool
Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...
and
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
defender
Mark Wright was given the manager's job, but resigned in late November, after being accused of making racist remarks to referee
Joe Ross. Wright's successor,
Ian Atkins, was unable to make an immediate impact and Oxford finished in 21st position in the league, at the time their lowest-ever league position. United missed out on the play-off places in the following season by one place and one point. Fifteen wins at the start of the 2003–04 season saw Oxford top of the table at the end of January. However, Ian Atkins was sacked in March 2004 after allegedly agreeing to take charge at rivals
Bristol Rovers.
Atkins's replacement,
Graham Rix, could only manage a ninth-place finish at the end of the season, and was sacked the following November. Oxford replaced him with
Argentine
Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, ...
Ramón Díaz, who managed the team to a mid-table finish. Diaz and his team of assistants left the club at the beginning of May 2005, after being banned from the ground by the chairman following failed negotiations. During his time at the club, Diaz brought in a number of South American players including his own sons, and
Juan Pablo Raponi.
Ex-England midfielder and former
West Bromwich Albion
West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...
manager
Brian Talbot
Brian Ernest Talbot (born 21 July 1953) is an English former football player and manager. He was capped six times for the England national team.
Talbot played in midfield for Ipswich Town, Arsenal, Watford, Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion, ...
signed a two-year contract to replace Rix. Talbot found little success and was sacked in March 2006, with the club in 22nd place. He was replaced by youth team coach
Darren Patterson.
On 21 March 2006, Firoz Kassam sold the club, including its debts, for approximately £2 million to Florida-based businessman
Nick Merry, who had played for United's youth team in the mid-1970s. Merry immediately made changes to the club, including the hiring of former manager
Jim Smith in his second spell. Despite signing five new players on his first day in charge, Smith was unable to prevent relegation at the end of the
2005–06 season. After 44 years in English league football, Oxford were relegated to the Conference National after finishing in 23rd place, becoming the first former winners of a major trophy to be relegated from the league. Coincidentally,
Accrington Stanley, the club whose bankruptcy in 1962 allowed United to be elected into the League, was one of the two clubs promoted to replace them.
Non-league football
Jim Smith was retained as manager for the following season, and it started positively for Oxford, with 14 wins and 8 draws from the opening 25 games. A run of eleven league games without a win followed, and saw United drop to second, where they remained until the end of the season. On
Boxing Day
Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated after Christmas Day, occurring on the second day of Christmastide (26 December). Though it originated as a holiday to give gifts to the poor, today Boxing Day is primarily known as a shopping holiday. It ...
2006, a crowd of 11,065 watched United draw 0–0 with
Woking
Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...
at the
Kassam Stadium, the largest-ever attendance for a
Conference
A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic.
Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main p ...
match (excluding play-offs). Oxford qualified for the
play-offs by finishing second,
but lost on penalties in the semi-final to
Exeter City.
On 9 November 2007, Jim Smith resigned as manager and first-team coach
Darren Patterson returned as manager.
In a lacklustre season which included defeats to
Droylsden and
Tonbridge Angels
Tonbridge Angels Football Club is a professional football club based in Tonbridge, Kent, England. The club was founded as Tonbridge Football Club in 1947 and became known as "The Angels" in 1949 when they started playing at the Angel Ground. Sin ...
, camouflaged by a belated run of eight wins in the last eleven games, Oxford finished ninth in the Conference National in
2007–08, 10 points off the last play-off place.
[''Sky Sports Football Yearbook 2007–2008''. Glenda Rollin & Jack Rollin (eds.). Headline, 2008.]
On 2 October 2008,
Nick Merry stepped down as chairman to be replaced by Kelvin Thomas, who had been part of the management team at the time of Merry's takeover. Just under two months later, Patterson was sacked after a poor run of form, and was replaced by former
Halifax Town manager
Chris Wilder
Christopher John Wilder (born 23 September 1967) is an English professional football manager and former player who played as a right-back. He was most recently the manager of club Middlesbrough.
His extensive professional playing career saw ...
.
Following Wilder's arrival, the team won 15 of the remaining 21 league matches
that season. A 5-point deduction for fielding an unregistered player resulted in a seventh-place finish, four points and two places short of the play-offs.
Oxford led the table for most of the first half of the
2009–10 season, but dropped into the
play-off places after a poor run, finishing third. They beat
Rushden & Diamonds over two legs to advance to the
play-off final against
York City on 16 May 2010. Oxford won the final 3–1, to return to the Football League for the
2010–11 season.
The attendance was 42,669,
a new record for the final, with around 33,000 being United fans.
Return to the Football League
Oxford's first game back in the Football League was away to
Burton, which finished in a 0–0 draw;
their first League win was on 4 September against
Morecambe
Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district in Lancashire, England. It is in Morecambe Bay on the Irish Sea.
Name
The first use of the name was by John Whitaker in his ''History of Manchester'' (1771), ...
at the Kassam Stadium, with
James Constable
James Ashley Constable (born 4 October 1984) is an English semi-professional football coach and player who plays as a striker. He plays for and is the assistant manager at club Banbury United. He has played in the Football League for Walsal ...
scoring a
hat-trick
A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three.
Origin
The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three w ...
in a 4–0 victory.
They finished
the season in 12th place.
The team spent much of the
2011–12 season in or around the playoff places, and achieved the double over rivals (and eventual champions)
Swindon Town for the first time since the
1973–74 season.
However, they failed to win any of their last seven matches and finished the season in ninth place, two places and four points outside the play-offs.
Chairman Kelvin Thomas stepped down during the 2012 close season, to be replaced by owner
Ian Lenagan
Ian Lenagan (born 1946, Scholes, Wigan) is a business entrepreneur, theatre producer and shareholder of London Broncos, chairman and owner of Wigan Warriors, and former owner of Oxford United F.C. In 2016 he was appointed Chairman of the Football L ...
.
The
2012–13 season was blighted by injuries and patchy form: after opening the season with three wins and briefly heading the table, United lost their next six games, a pattern of inconsistency that was to continue throughout the season. United finished outside the play-offs for the third consecutive season, but manager Chris Wilder was given a further one-year contract in April 2013. Some Oxford fans were unhappy about the decision to renew Wilder's contract, having pressed for his sacking during the second half of the 2012–13 season.
After another bright start, Oxford led the table several times in the first half of the
2013–14 season. On 25 January 2014, with the club faltering though still in the play-off places, Wilder resigned as manager to take up the reins at relegation-threatened Northampton.
Mickey Lewis subsequently became the caretaker manager for a second time for the club. On 22 March 2014,
Gary Waddock
Gary Patrick Waddock ( ; born 17 March 1962) is a former professional footballer. He is assistant head coach of Cambridge United.
A former midfielder, he spent most of his career playing for Queens Park Rangers and Luton Town. He also had s ...
was appointed the head coach of the club after a lengthy interview process, leaving his job as Head of Coaching at MK Dons. Under Lewis and Waddock, Oxford slipped out of the play-off places in the final few weeks of the season, finishing a disappointing eighth in the table, nine points off the last playoff place.
In July 2014, Waddock's contract was terminated after a change of ownership and he was replaced by
Michael Appleton.
Waddock's surprise sacking ensured he had the worst record of any Oxford manager, winning only once and losing seven times in his eight games in charge of the club. After an indifferent
first season under Appleton, Oxford achieved promotion to
League One in his second year in charge, finishing the
2015–16 season in second place with 86 points.
They also reached the
final
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...
of the
League Trophy at
Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...
, only the club's third appearance at the national stadium, but were defeated 3–2 by their League One opponents
Barnsley
Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough ha ...
. In
2016–17, having sold
Kemar Roofe during the close season for a record £3m and signed
Marvin Johnson for an undisclosed fee also thought to be a club record,
Oxford finished eighth in League One, four points short of the playoff places, and again lost in the
final
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...
of the
League Trophy at Wembley, this time to relegation-bound
Coventry City
Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed t ...
.
In June 2017, Appleton left the club to become assistant manager at
Leicester City of the Premier League, and was replaced by
Pep Clotet, formerly assistant manager at
Leeds United
Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...
. On 22 January 2018, Clotet was sacked, with the club in tenth place in League One after a home defeat to bottom club
Bury. After a lengthy period under caretaker-manager
Derek Fazackerley
Derek William Fazackerley (born 5 November 1951) is an English former footballer who is currently employed as the assistant manager at Oxford United, and managed the club on a caretaker basis for two months in 2018. He spent the majority of hi ...
during which the team slipped to within 4 points of the relegation zone,
Karl Robinson
Karl Robinson (born 13 September 1980) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Oxford United.
Playing career
Robinson was born in Rainhill, Merseyside. He played for Caernarfon Town, Bamber Br ...
, former manager of
Milton Keynes Dons and
Charlton Athletic
Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...
, was appointed on 22 March 2018. Robinson had to wait five games for his first win, but his aim of retaining the club's League One status was achieved with three wins from the last five games of the season. The club finished in 16th place on 56 points, six points above the relegation zone.
A 12th-place finished was achieved the following year, despite spending over half of the season in the relegation zone. An improved fourth-place finished followed in the shortened 2019/20 season, which was affected by the
COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
. When the season was suspended, Oxford were third in the table, but following an agreement from clubs to end the season early, the U's dropped one place to fourth after the final table was decided under an
unweighted points per game system. The play-offs continued as normal, where United faced
Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most d ...
in the semi-final. Following a 1–1 draw in the first leg, United won 5–4 on penalties when the second game ended 1-1 after extra time. In the final behind closed doors at Wembley, Oxford lost 2–1 to
Wycombe Wanderers
Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their home ...
, Joe Jacobson's penalty proving decisive in the tie.
Oxford made the play-offs again the following season, losing 6-3 on aggregate to
Blackpool
Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre rivers, and is ...
, who went on to win the final. In the 2021/22 season, United were the league's joint top scorers and finished in 8th place.
Stadium
Oxford United had no regular home until 1913, switching between the Quarry Recreation Ground, Wootten's Field (now Stephen Road), Sandy Lane (now Osler Road) and the Britannia Field (now the top end of Lime Walk), all in Headington. In 1913 they were able to purchase Wootten's Field on London Road, however, this was redeveloped in 1920 before a stadium could be built. Having purchased the Sandy Lane site, the club developed and played at the
Manor Ground between 1925 and 2001. The ground was originally shared with Headington Cricket Club until 1949, when they moved to Cowley Barracks. The capacity at closure was 9,500, but hosted United's record crowd of 22,750 against
Preston North End
Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...
in an FA Cup sixth-round match on 29 February 1964.
The four stands were named after the roads they were positioned on: The North, East, South and West stands were called Cuckoo Lane, Osler Road, London Road and Beech Road respectively.
In the 1990s, the
Taylor Report was published calling for the improvement of football stadiums. The Manor Ground's terracing was becoming redundant and redeveloping the ground was too costly, so the club decided to move to a purpose-built all-seater stadium on the outskirts of the city, costing in the region of £15 million. Construction work began in the early part of 1997, but was suspended later that year due to the club's financial problems.
Construction of the new stadium resumed in 1999 following a takeover deal and the last league match at the Manor on 1 May 2001 saw a 1–1 draw with
Port Vale
Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley of ...
. The site was sold for £12 million and the stadium was later demolished. The land is now occupied by a private hospital.
Since 2001, Oxford United have played at the
Kassam Stadium. The all-seater stadium has a capacity of 12,500 and has only three stands instead of the usual four; when first planned in 1995 it was originally going to have a 16,000-seat capacity, but by the time the stadium opened Oxford was playing in a lower division, so the smaller capacity was deemed adequate. Construction of the fourth stand is not expected to take place for several years, although foundations have already been put in place. The record attendance is 12,243, which was achieved in the final game of the 2005–06 season, when a defeat against
Leyton Orient condemned them to relegation from the
Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...
. The) average attendance in the
previous season was 7,415, which was the second highest in
League Two and the thirty-fourth highest in the whole Football League. The average attendance was highest in the
Conference
A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic.
Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main p ...
in two out of the four years the team spent in the division, with the average in the other two years placing second, behind
Exeter City and
Cambridge United respectively. The stadium has also hosted
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
matches, a woman's international football match (England v Sweden), an Under-17 international football tournament and music concerts.
The club has approached Oxfordshire County Council and requested that it transfer c.18 hectares (44.48 acres) of land for the development of a new 18,000 capacity football stadium with ancillary leisure and commercial facilities to include, hotel, retail, conference, and training/community grounds on Green Belt land at Stratfield Brake near Kidlington.
On 18 January 2022, OCC recommended an engagement exercise be carried out first to gather feedback from the local community. The survey was heavily publicised by Oxvox with respondents completing the survey from as far away as the Orkney Islands!. Among local residents, 38 per cent were in favour, whilst 58 per cent were against. Despite this, at its meeting on 15 March 2022, OCC recommended that formal negotiations with the Club can proceed, a decision which has attracted much criticism. The land at Stratfield Brake is sub-leased to Kidlington Parish Council (KPC) with no break rights. As such, KPC would need to agree in order for the Club's proposal to proceed.
Crest and colours
The club crest depicts an
ox above a ford to symbolise the location.
It reflects the name and history of the city, as Oxford was originally a market town situated near to a
ford on the
River Isis
"The Isis" () is an alternative name for the River Thames, used from its source in the Cotswolds until it is joined by the Thame at Dorchester in Oxfordshire. It derives from the ancient name for the Thames, ''Tamesis'', which in the Middle ...
, which was used by cattle. In 2008, a bronze statue of an ox was unveiled outside of what would have been the west stand. It was subsequently
vandalised in January 2011, being covered in pink paint and the club used the opportunity to raise money for a
breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or ...
charity. The shape and design of the crest has changed numerous times since it was first produced. When playing as Headington and during the early years of Oxford United, the crest included a full ox crossing the ford, as well as the initials H.U.F.C. (pre-1962) or the name Oxford United (post name-change). Between 1972 and 1980, the crest became circular, showing just the ox's head on a yellow and black background.
The words 'Oxford United Football Club' were placed around the ox. For the next 17 years, the crest was simply the ox's head coloured blue, with various combinations of wording surrounding it. For example, in the
1987–88 season, the wording ''25th Anniversary'' was placed under the crest. In 1996, the crest had a
shield
A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry or projectiles such as arrows, by means of ...
shape and contained the ox's head over the ford, on a yellow background. This version was retained until the move to the Kassam Stadium in 2001, when club steward Rob Alderman designed the current version.
It has a similar design to the preceding crest, but the ox and ford are contained in a circle with a yellow background, with the remainder of the crest being coloured blue.
While playing as Headington United, orange and blue striped shirts were worn with navy shorts and socks. The design of the shirt changed regularly, with the stripes being changed every few seasons. After joining the
Southern League, the blue stripes were lost for good and a lighter shade of orange was used for the shirt. The yellow kit was first worn during the
1957–58 season, with black shorts and yellow socks. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the black shorts were first replaced with yellow ones, and then with royal blue shorts. Since the early 1990s, the strip has been composed of the yellow shirt and navy coloured shorts and socks.
A large variety of away kits has been used over the years, ranging from red and black stripes on the shirts, to a fully white kit. The first sponsor to appear on the shirt was ''Sunday Journal'', a local newspaper, in 1982.
Between 1983 and 1985, there were three sponsors: BPCC,
Pergamon and the ''
Sunday People
The ''Sunday People'' is a British tabloid Sunday newspaper. It was founded as ''The People'' on 16 October 1881.
At one point owned by Odhams Press, The ''People'' was acquired along with Odhams by the Mirror Group in 1961, along with the ' ...
''. Following those were
Wang Laboratories
Wang Laboratories was a US computer company founded in 1951 by An Wang and G. Y. Chu. The company was successively headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts (1954–1963), Tewksbury, Massachusetts (1963–1976), and finally in Lowell, Massachus ...
(1985 to 1989), Pergamon (1989 to 1991),
Unipart (1991 to 2000), Domino (2000 to 2001) and
Buildbase (from the move to the Kassam Stadium in 2001 to 2010).
Following the return to the
Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...
,
Bridle Insurance became new shirt sponsors. The Bridle deal ended after the conclusion of the 2012–13 season. The home sponsor for the 2013–14 season was announced as Animalates, with the away kit being sponsored by Isinglass Consulting for that same season after winning an innovative prize draw. That one-year deal with Isinglass was extended for the 2014–15 season, again featuring on the away kits only. The home kit that season was sponsored by tyre company Black n Rounds. In July 2015, Oxford United announced a three-season deal with investment management company
Liontrust Asset Management
Liontrust Asset Management plc is a British asset management company based in London. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
History
The company, which was established in 1995, was the subject of an ...
covering both home and away shirts. For the 2018–19 and 2019–20 season, the principal shirt sponsor was Thai beer firm
Singha. The
Tourism Authority of Thailand
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) ( th, การท่องเที่ยวแห่งประเทศไทย) is an organization of Thailand under the Ministry of Tourism and Sports. Its mandate is to promote Thailand's tourism in ...
were announced as the new shirt sponsors, as part of a principle partnership agreement, in August 2020, using the brand name "Amazing Thailand".
Supporters and rivals
Oxford have a number of independent supporters' clubs and groups such as OxVox (the Oxford United Supporters' Trust) with a current membership of over 400, and the Oxford United Exiles. OxVox was formed in 2002, to replace the disbanded FOUL group, which broke up after the immediate future of the club was secured. It was the fiftieth supporters trust created under the
Supporters' trust banner. The club itself also runs a Juniors club, aimed at younger fans and offering a number of bonuses to the club's members such as birthday cards and a free T-shirt. The official matchday programme for home games costs £3 and was voted best Conference Premier Programme of the Year for the 2007–08 season. A number of songs are sung during home games, such as "
Yellow Submarine" (with adapted lyrics) and songs relating to the old Manor Ground.
The club have a number of celebrity supporters, including
Timmy Mallett,
Tim Henman and
Jim Rosenthal
Jim Rosenthal (born 6 November 1947) is an English sports presenter and commentator. In a long broadcasting career, Rosenthal has presented coverage of many sports including football, rugby, automotive racing, boxing and athletics. He has covere ...
. The club's mascot is Ollie the Ox. United were the best-supported club in the Conference National before
Luton Town joined the division, and the home match between Oxford and Luton, which drew a crowd of 10,600, was used to highlight the passion for English football during the
2018 World Cup bid. In 2009, a "12th man fund" was set up by a group of supporters in order to provide additional transfer funds to the club. As a result, the number 12 shirt was retired at the start of the
2009–10 season (though it was reintroduced in
2018–19). The fund raised over £40,000 and resulted in the signings of
Mehdi Kerrouche (on loan) and
Jamie Cook, amongst others.
Oxford's fiercest rivalry is with
Swindon Town, with
Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spell ...
seen as the other significant rival team (both are about 30 miles from Oxford). To a lesser extent,
Wycombe Wanderers
Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their home ...
,
Luton Town and
Northampton Town are also seen as rivals. The rivalry with Swindon stems from the clubs' close proximity, as well as the fact they have played each other 55 times since 1962. Oxford (Headington) and Swindon met a few times in non-competitive fixtures before 1962. The earliest match on record was a friendly in the 1950–51 season at Headington. They also played each other in 1954–55 both home and away, and at Headington during 1958–59. All programmes are fairly scarce, with the single sheet issued at Swindon being very rare. The 1962–63 game was a testimonial, with the first league meetings coming in 1965–66.
During the height of football hooliganism, trouble flared up between the sets of fans. In 1998, during a match at the
County Ground, 19 Swindon supporters were arrested, while in 2002 there was an incident between supporters after Oxford fans returned from an away fixture. In 2011, vandals burned the initials STFC into the Kassam Stadium's pitch. Oxford fans use nicknames when talking about Swindon such as
moonraker, in reference to the myth that they tried to rake the reflection of the moon out of a pond. The rivalry with Reading was heightened during the chairmanship of Robert Maxwell, because of his desire to merge the two clubs. This was met with strong opposition from both sets of fans, with United supporters staging a "sit-in" on the pitch before a game against
Wigan
Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the north-east and Warrington ...
in protest. Despite being the second team in the city, there is less rivalry with
Oxford City because of their lower position in the
pyramid system (there have been no competitive league matches between the two since 1959).
Players
First team squad
Out on loan
Youth squad
Backroom staff
The board
* Chairman: Grant Ferguson
* Directors:
Anindya Bakrie, and
Horst Geicke
Coaching and medical staff
* Manager:
Karl Robinson
Karl Robinson (born 13 September 1980) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Oxford United.
Playing career
Robinson was born in Rainhill, Merseyside. He played for Caernarfon Town, Bamber Br ...
* Assistant manager:
Craig Short
* First-team coach: Leon Blackmore-Such
* Player/coach:
John Mousinho
* Goalkeeping coach:
Wayne Brown
* U18 coaches:
Darren Purse and
Chris Hackett
* Head of physical performance: Chris Short
* First team physiotherapist: Amy Cranston
* Sport therapist: Jon Elliot
* First team sports scientist: Dwayne Peasah
* Head of Recruitment: Mark Thomas
* Assistant Head of Recruitment: Ed Waldron
* Recruitment Analyst: Naythan Din-Kariuki
* Head of performance Analysis: Eddie Denton
* Performance Analyst: Isaac Alder
Managerial history
The first manager appointed was
Harry Thompson in July 1949, soon after the club turned professional.
In a nine-year spell he led the team to the
Southern League title in 1953, as well as the
Southern League Cup in 1953 and 1954. He was replaced by
Arthur Turner in 1958, who would become the longest-serving manager in the club's history, serving more than a decade in charge. Turner led United to back-to-back Southern League titles, of which the second, in 1962, resulted in their election to
the Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...
.
Promotion followed from the
Fourth Division in 1965, and the club was crowned
Third Division champions three years later.
Turner left the club nine months after this success. Over the next thirteen years, five managers took charge.
Ron Saunders was in charge for only a dozen games, moving to
Norwich City at the end of the 1968–69 season.
Gerry Summers was manager for six years, before being replaced by
Mick Brown. During Brown's four-year run, United were
relegated back to the Third Division after spending eight years in the Second.
Jim Smith started his first spell as manager in 1981, and led Oxford into the
top tier of
English football
Association football is the most popular sport in England, where the first modern set of rules for the code were established in 1863, which were a major influence on the development of the modern Laws of the Game. With over 40,000 association f ...
after consecutive promotions as champions in 1984 and 1985. However, he moved to
Queens Park Rangers
Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...
before the
1985–86 season.
New manager, former
chief scout Maurice Evans, had immediate success winning the 1986
League Cup, beating his predecessor's new club in
the final
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...
.
For the next 24 years, the only manager to guide the club to promotion was
Denis Smith, who won promotion from the Second Division in 1996.
Ramón Díaz, the club's first non-British manager, took charge for five months between December 2004 and May 2005. Jim Smith returned as manager in 2006, the year that Oxford United were relegated to the
Football Conference
The National League (named Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons) is an association football league in England consisting of three divisions, the National League, National League North, and National League South. It was called the ...
after 44 years in the Football League. Having missed out on promotion in the
2006–07 season, Smith resigned and
Darren Patterson was promoted to the post on 9 November 2007.
Patterson was dismissed in December 2008 and was replaced by
Chris Wilder
Christopher John Wilder (born 23 September 1967) is an English professional football manager and former player who played as a right-back. He was most recently the manager of club Middlesbrough.
His extensive professional playing career saw ...
,
who led the club back into the Football League by winning the
2010 Conference playoff Final and remained with the club for five years before resigning in January 2014.
Gary Waddock
Gary Patrick Waddock ( ; born 17 March 1962) is a former professional footballer. He is assistant head coach of Cambridge United.
A former midfielder, he spent most of his career playing for Queens Park Rangers and Luton Town. He also had s ...
was appointed head coach in March 2014, but was sacked in July following a change of shareholding in the club, to be replaced by
Michael Appleton.
In his three seasons in charge, Appleton oversaw promotion to League One and two losing finals in the
EFL Trophy
The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL L ...
, before leaving to become assistant manager at
Leicester City. Spaniard
Pep Clotet was appointed as his replacement but was sacked midway through
his first season in charge, to be replaced after a two-month spell under caretaker-manager
Derek Fazackerley
Derek William Fazackerley (born 5 November 1951) is an English former footballer who is currently employed as the assistant manager at Oxford United, and managed the club on a caretaker basis for two months in 2018. He spent the majority of hi ...
by former
Charlton boss
Karl Robinson
Karl Robinson (born 13 September 1980) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Oxford United.
Playing career
Robinson was born in Rainhill, Merseyside. He played for Caernarfon Town, Bamber Br ...
.
Since turning professional, the club has had 25 full-time managers, of whom three (Jim Smith, Denis Smith and Darren Patterson) have had more than one spell in the post, and eleven periods of
caretaker-management.
Honours
League
*
Second Division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
(Tier 2)
**Champions (1):
1984–85
*
Third Division (Tier 3)
**Champions (2):
1967–68,
1983–84
*
Fourth Division (Tier 4)
**Promoted (3rd)
1964–65
*
Division Two (Tier 3)
**Runners-up
1995–96
*
League Two: (Tier 4)
**Runners-up
2015–16
*
Conference
A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic.
Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main p ...
(Tier 5)
**
Conference National
The National League, known as the Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level of the National League System and fifth-highest of the overall English football league system. It is the highest league that is semi-professi ...
play-off winners:
2009–10
*
Southern League
**
Premier Division Champions:
1952–53,
1960–61,
1961–62
**
Premier Division Runners-up:
1953–54,
1959–60
Cups
*
League Cup
** Winners:
1985–86
*
Football League Trophy
The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL ...
** Runners-up:
2015–16,
2016–17
*
Southern League Cup
** Winners (1):
1952–53,
1953–54[Howland p.390.]
Records
The largest recorded home attendance was during a match against
Preston North End
Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...
in the sixth round of the
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...
, at the
Manor Ground, on 29 February 1964. The attendance was 22,750, which exceeded the stadium's capacity, so scaffolding was needed in order to create temporary stands for the additional supporters. The largest attendance at the
Kassam Stadium for a football match was 12,243 during the final game of the
2005–06 League Two season against
Leyton Orient. Oxford's largest-ever scoreline was a 9–1 win in the FA Cup first round versus
Dorchester Town
Dorchester Town Football Club are a semi-professional football club, based in Dorchester, Dorset, England. They currently play in the .
The club is affiliated to the Dorset County Football Association and is a FA chartered Standard club. They ...
on 11 November 1995. In the league, their largest win was 7–0 versus
Barrow in
Division Four
The Football League Fourth Division was the fourth-highest division in the English football league system from the 1958–59 season until the creation of the Premier League prior to the 1992–93 season. Whilst the division disappeared in name ...
. Their largest defeat is 7–0 away to
Sunderland
Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...
in 1998 and to
Wigan Athletic
Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system.
Founded in 1932, ...
in 2017. Their longest unbeaten run in the league was 20 matches in 1984, with their record longest winning run of nine games in the 2020–2021 season.
John Shuker holds the record for the most league appearances with 478 between 1962 and 1977.
John Aldridge holds the record for most league goals scored in a season in the
1984–85 season, scoring 30.
Graham Atkinson holds the record for the most league goals with 77, as well as most overall goals with 107. The most
capped player in internationals is
Jim Magilton, with 18 caps for
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...
. The largest amount of money Oxford have received by selling a player was an estimated £3,000,000 for
Kemar Roofe's transfer to
Leeds United
Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...
in July 2016. The largest transfer fee Oxford have paid was £470,000 for
Dean Windass
Dean Windass (born 1 April 1969) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. He played spells at Bradford City and contributed to his hometown team Hull City's promotion to the Premier League in 2008.
Windass started ...
' transfer from
Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), a ...
in August 1998,
[Brodetsky p.365] though the undisclosed fee paid for
Marvin Johnson at the start of the
2016–17 season is thought to have exceeded this figure.
Oxford are the only team in history to have been promoted consecutively from
Division Three to the
First Division as Champions.
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