Oxford Utd - Reborn
This is my first ever written article and the reason why Ive chose to write something about Oxford Utd is because firstly I was born and bred here in 1986, not far from Manor ground, secondly I’m passionate about football and thirdly I want to tell people a little bit about their remarkable history from winning back to back titles in 83/84 & 84/85 aswel as winning our first ever major tournament in 1986 in which we couldn’t enter the 1987 UEFA Cup, from then on we declined dramatically to the point we dropped out of the football league and into the conference. Our home Manor ground was demolished and moved into a new home. Anyway.....
Let’s get started…
The club was founded back in 1893 formanly known as Headington Utd before changing the name to Oxford Utd in 1960 and played their home games at Manor ground until 2001 where we moved to the kassam staduim. We are nicknamed the U's and yellows.
NEW OWNER FRESH START?
It all started back in 1982 where a man named Robert maxwell saved the club from going bankrupt by buying them but still continued to lose money. Robert wanted to merge Reading football club and Oxford utd together to create a club called Thames Valley royals. this took everyone by surprise, There was a mass sit in protest on the pitch and banners saying 'JUDAS' inside the Manor ground before home game against Wigan but luckily this never happened and plus what an awful name for a football club if it did. I mean Thames Valley Royal? Come on...
THE GOLDEN ERA STARTED
1983-84 proved to be a very successful season for Oxford Utd, not only did we win the 3rd division league we enjoyed a giant-killing Cup run including 3 MASSIVE Cup ties against Manchester utd in which we memorably won 2-1. This was the start of the golden era under manager and legend that was Jim ‘the bald eagle’ Smith.
On 21st March 1984 Oxford Utd signed striker John Aldridge for £78.000 from Newport County where he played 114 games and scored a whopping 72 goals and became the first 2nd Division player for 19 years to score as many as 30 goals. His 34 goals (30 in the league) in 1983–84 broke the club’s goalscoring record for a single season, as the yellows gained promotion to the old First division which is the equivalent of Premier league today, we are in the big boys league now. GET IN!!!
1985-86 season was the year Oxford utd just avoided relagation in thier first season in division 1 and they won there FIRST ever major Cup competition in their 123 years history by beating QPR 3-0 in the final of the milk cup, Trevor hubberd, Ray Houghton and Jeremy Charles were the hero’s. The celebration didn’t last long though, Oxford Utd were unable to enter the 1987 UEFA Cup because of the UEFA ban on English clubs in European competitions. I would have been absolutely FUMING if I wasnt just a few months old baby, the one major trophy we win in our history and not get into Europe was gutting.
WHERE IT WENT DOWNHILL
1987-88 is the year which begun an 18-year long decline and saw this great club relegated to the Conference in 2006/07. In those 18 years we've had Robert maxwell death in 1991, The demolishing of Manor Grounds and moving into kassam staduim in 2001, we've had financial issues, we were rapidly declining and the future of the club was looking bleak.
We spent 4 long season in the wildiness from 2006-07 to 2009-10 where we returned to football league 2 via play offs against York City at Wembley.
We’re back!!
For the next 6 years we have steadily establish ourselves into the football league 2, The next promotion came in 2015-16 when Micheal Appleton yellows finished 2nd just behind Northampton in League 2, Kemar Roofe was the club’s leading scorer, with 18 league goals and 26 in all competitions, the following season in League 1 Oxford Utd lost a key player in Kemar Roofe departing for Leeds Utd for a club record of £3m. It wasn’t the end of the world for us as we pushed on and finished 2 places behind play offs spot in our first season in League 1
R. I. P Jim Smith 1940-2019
10th December 2019 was a sad sad day for oxford utd who lost a legend in Jim Smith who died age 79, Jim Smith will always be associated with the Golden Years at Oxford Utd winning back to back titles in 1983-84 & 1984-85 and the milk cup, he returned to manage Oxford once again for the 2nd time in 2006-2008.
21st December Oxford Utd were playing the in-form and surprise league leaders Wycombe wanderers at home, it was my 3yr old boy Freddie 1st game and we got to witness something beautiful on the east stand and to top it off Oxford Utd ran out 1-0 winners after a hardfought win against 10 men Wycombe, Jim Smith would of been proud that day.
After a slow start to season Oxford Utd finds themselves in 5th place of league 1 just 4 points from top spot, we’ve strengthen in the January transfer by signing Marcus browne, Liam Kelly and nathan Holland, we should have enough quality in the team to push on and win promotion to the championship
💛 COME ON YOU YELLOWS 💛
