Oxblogger

Match wrap | Preston North End 1 Oxford United 3 Last Sunday I watched Arsenal’s win over Chelsea. Sky had Patrick Vieira, Kolo Toure and Emanuel Petit as guests. Thierry Henry was pictured high in the stands presumably on some kind of contractua…

Match wrap | Preston North End 1 Oxford United 3

Lankshear theatrically claimed the goal, but there was debate about whether he got a touch. First it was a foot, then a toe, then his studs, we concluded it deflected off the concept of Will Lankshear.

oxblogger.co.uk/2026/03/07/m...

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The Glory Years: Oxford United in the 1980s Buy The Glory Years: Oxford United in the 1980s by Walkinshaw, Scott (ISBN: 9781836805106) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

As kids up and down the country dress as Gary Briggs for World Book Day, it seems a good time to say that The Glory Years paperback edition will be available in time for the 40th anniversary of the Milk Cup Final at the end of April.

Pre-order here: www.amazon.co.uk/Glory-Years-...

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Match wrap | Oxford United 2 West Bromwich Albion 1 I was reading recently about the influence of American owners on football in England. Americans see sports clubs differently to us; while we see clubs inextricably linked with their location and hi…

Match wrap | Oxford United 2 West Bromwich Albion 1

The game descended into two private hells: us, daring to dream and hating ourselves for it. Them, lost and trying to find a signal. Chances were scant, this wasn’t about football as we know it.

oxblogger.co.uk/2026/03/01/m...

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Match wrap | Stoke City 2 Oxford United 1 I’ve been having some anxiety dreams that are absurd in their construct, yet feel very real. The other night I dreamt I was driving along a motorway which took a sharp turn, my car turned on its si…

Match wrap | Stoke City 2 Oxford United 1

Inevitability unlocked? Or just another opportunity missed? By 5pm on Saturday we might be three points adrift and back in it. Or we might not be. I don’t know which is the better prospect.

oxblogger.co.uk/2026/02/26/m...

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Match wrap | Middlesbrough 0 Oxford United 0 There are few things better than a phone-in caller who tries to add credibility to their opinion by claiming to have played or officiated at ‘quite a high level’.  These are the fine-margin ex…

Match wrap | Middlesbrough 0 Oxford United 0

Are we just kidding ourselves that we might get out of our predicament? Why do we believe when there’s no evidence that we can do it? Taking a step back to see the mountain we have to climb is quite calming.

oxblogger.co.uk/2026/02/22/m...

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Match wrap | Oxford United 0 Sunderland 1 When you’re having the season we’re having, it’s easy to get paranoid. For example, it’s been months since we’ve had a 12.30 kick-off on a Saturday. For many, that’s a good thing, personally I like…

Match wrap | Oxford United 0 Sunderland 1

This wasn't about triggering a big turnaround or writing a giant killing into the history books, it was about cleansing the palate and preparing for the rest of the season.

oxblogger.co.uk/2026/02/16/m...

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Match wrap | Oxford United 0 Norwich City 3 The ball arcs into the illuminated skies. Its launch is long, unfettered and direct. This is the established science now; Cruyff is dead, tika-taka is too woke for our combative times. It’s time fo…

Match wrap | Oxford United 0 Norwich City 1

It took 53 seconds for fans to confront their own reality. A brutal truth that we're fighting history. The choices are clear, what do you choose?

oxblogger.co.uk/2026/02/11/m...

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Match wrap | Coventry City 0 Oxford United 0 For away games I always give myself an hour for something to go wrong, or if it doesn’t, which it doesn’t, to soak up the atmosphere. Yesterday we soaked it up by finding a bin for our car rubbish,…

Match wrap | Coventry City 0 Oxford United 0

As pressure builds, a bloke next to me says ‘You know what, I’ll take a point right now’. I admire his optimism; I want to tell him that I’d take a gritty 2-0 defeat and not too much traffic on the way home.

oxblogger.co.uk/2026/02/08/m...

Match wrap | Oxford United 0 Birmingham City 2 I maintain, had it been forged in the 1960s, a rivalry between Oxford and Wycombe would have taken a very different complexion. There’s always been a reluctance, particularly amongst Oxford fans, t…

Match wrap | Oxford United 0 Birmingham City 2

There's silence at the whistle. We’ll go again on Tuesday and Saturday and every game after that. But in these moments of contemplation, the realities are becoming more vivid with each disappointment.

oxblogger.co.uk/2026/02/01/m...

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Unwrapped | Oxford United v Birmingham City The week unwrapped Have we turned the corner or is it another false dawn? The 2-1 win over Leicester City last week put us within striking distance of safety, but more importantly Matt Bloomfield h…

Unwrapped | Oxford United v Birmingham City

Birmingham come to Oxford for the first time since they beat us 7-1 at The Manor in 1998, a game which ended Mike Salmon's career and included two goals from, em, Gary Rowett.

It's the preview.

oxblogger.co.uk/2026/01/30/u...

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Match wrap | Leicester City 1 Oxford United 2 Ever since promotion, away games have felt like Elton John’s farewell tour. I’ve always assumed it’ll come to an end at some point so need to take the opportunities when I can. Last sea…

Match wrap | Leicester City 1 Oxford United 2

The world inverted, the stadium evaporated and silence descended. In the cavernous chambers of Mark Harris’ soul, we wanted him to succeed not for the goal but for him and how we want to feel about him.

oxblogger.co.uk/2026/01/25/m...

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Match wrap | Oxford United 0 Queens Park Rangers 0 For a club so ingrained in the folklore of Oxford United, QPR represent something of the Grim Reaper of our modern Championship experience. Our first trip to Loftus Road last season was widely view…

Match wrap | Oxford United 0 Queens Park Rangers 0

'The gods took hold, tactics and technique were squeezed out. If the ball was on the ground, it stuck in the turf. Launched into the air, it caught in the wind and dropped where the beasts chose.'

oxblogger.co.uk/2026/01/21/m...

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Unwrapped | Oxford United v Queens Park Rangers The week unwrapped It seems like the most fun you can have in football nowadays is not playing football. Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Bristol City had glimmers of hope laced through it, but the positiv…

Unwrapped | Oxford United v Queens Park Rangers

'We're not far off. You're closer to not being far off down the bottom if you're five points adrift than being not far off if you're five points adrift of the playoffs.'

Ben Purkiss.

Here's the preview.

oxblogger.co.uk/2026/01/20/u...

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Match wrap | Oxford United 0 Bristol City 0 This week I had the distraction of having two wisdom teeth removed. Generally speaking, I was very brave boy but I still have the occasional flashback to the surgeon saying in his calm, soothing mo…

Match wrap | Oxford United 0 Bristol City 0

'The Championship isn’t normal, we’re told we’re punching above our weight and marvel at our opponents resources. A goal may have obscured the real improvement, a sense of parity with the Championship.'

oxblogger.co.uk/2026/01/18/m...

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Unwrapped | Oxford United v Bristol City The week unwrapped It’s been a billion years since our last league game so obviously it’s all kicked off. After an expected, but fairly flaccid, 2-1 defeat to Ipswich on New Year’s Day …

Unwrapped | Oxford United v Bristol City

We've mobilised with the precision and discipline of the Ant Hill Mob. Tiger's wife posted a video of her husband showing his grandson our January transfer targets. The Championship quaked.

It's the preview...

oxblogger.co.uk/2026/01/16/u...

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The Oxford United Report Card | Johnny Biscuits One man’s largely pointless and reductive assessment of how we’re doing this calendar year.  On the pitch | B Realistically, the team has two objectives at the moment – stay in the divis…

From the newsletter - The Oxford United Report Card - Johnny Biscuits

“In the end, Rowett couldn’t figure out what his best options were for personnel or approach… whether that tells you more about our recruitment or Rowett remains to be seen.”

oxblogger.co.uk/the-oxford-u...

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AI AI AI Oh – Up the Football League we go’ | Ian Davies Four Oxford United mysteries almost explained using the help of AI. In my current job, I spend quite a bit of time banging on about the differences between ‘tacit and explicit knowledge’. If you fa…

From the newsletter - Up the Football League we go - Ian Davies

Did Juventus really want to use Oxford United to get thrown out of Italian football and set up a European Super League?

Some wild #oufc stories from someone who was there.

oxblogger.co.uk/ai-ai-ai-oh-...

Town and Gown | Will Fenton Oxford is a funny city when you think about it.  Nowhere is quite the same and I don’t think we can count Cambridge, given its lack of serious industry and any footballing folklore.  Magdalen Bridg…

From the Newsletter | Town and Gown - Will Fenton

We were standing on the left side of something called ‘The London Road’. The atmosphere was very tasty. After a 5-3 win over Swindon, I was hooked.

Will Fenton on his conversion from Gown to Town.

oxblogger.co.uk/town-and-gow...

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Match wrap | MK Dons 1 Oxford United 1 (3-4 on pens) Oxford United are masters of inconsequential firsts. In 1950, Headington United were the first professional team to install floodlights, using them for a friendly against Banbury Spencer. This wasn…

Match wrap | MK Dons 1 Oxford United 1 (3-4 on penalties)

'It might have felt like we were playing in a haunted cathedral with a side cobbled together like a toddler playing with your Lego Star Wars Millennium Falcon, but class told in the end.'

oxblogger.co.uk/2026/01/10/m...

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Unwrapped | Sheffield United v Oxford United The week unwrapped Should this be the week unwrapped or unravelled? After an expected, but fairly flaccid, 2-1 defeat to Ipswich on New Year’s Day we’ve slipped to second bottom. Does the fightback…

Unwrapped | Sheffield United v Oxford United

'Chris Wilder is not the kind of person who gets complacent about anything, particularly against us, so we'll need a dose of optimism if we're to believe we'll get anything from this.'

oxblogger.co.uk/2026/01/04/u...

Match wrap | Ipswich Town 2 Oxford United 1 We’re often told that teams in a difficult situation need to treat every game like it’s a cup final. The thing is, teams who need to treat games like they’re cup finals, are not usually the kind of…

Match wrap | Ipswich Town 2 Oxford United 1

'Nobody really expected anything from our trip to Ipswich. In the end, it was a result which progressed their ambitions and didn’t humiliate us. The problem is that this alone won't be enough to save us.'

oxblogger.co.uk/2026/01/02/m...

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Unwrapped | Ipswich Town v Oxford United The week unwrapped There’s an unfamiliar feeling about the place right now, and I’m not talking about cheese induced gout. No, there’s a palpable sense of sinking around Oxford United right now. Af…

Unwrapped | Ipswich Town v Oxford United

Things happen when there’s a six in the year – in 2016: promoted, 2006: relegated, 1996: promoted, 1986: Milk Cup, 1976: relegated. We’re either getting relegated or winning the FA Cup.

It's the preview:

oxblogger.co.uk/2026/01/01/u...

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Match wrap | Oxford United 0 Swansea City 1 I vividly remember my primary school football debut. I was in Year 5, or Lower Juniors as it was known, playing in a team of mostly Year 6’s (Upper Juniors). I was new to the school so there was a …

Match wrap | Oxford United 1 Swansea City 0

'We’re a team of moments, but it’s what ends up on the cutting room floor, that defines a success. We can’t keep appointing a short-term manager just to save us from relegation… we need to build and evolve.'

oxblogger.co.uk/2025/12/30/m...

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Unwrapped | Oxford United v Swansea City The week unwrapped Games come at Christmas like Lewis Haldane, thick and fast. We’re now at the point where the mince pies no longer taste right and nobody knows when to put the bins out. Amazingly…

Unwrapped | Oxford United v Swansea City

Us | Transcending
Them | Cosplaying
Football Friend | Jeremy Charles
From the archive | Success in a blizzard of failure from 2000.

It's the preview:

oxblogger.co.uk/2025/12/29/u...

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Oxblogger Mid-Season Survey 2025/26

We're at the half-way point of the season and things are going... well? Badly? Somewhere in the middle?

It's the Oxblogger mid-season survey - rate the players, manager and owners and predict how the season ends.

forms.gle/85Amdj8e6kZz...

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Match wrap | Oxford United 2 Southampton 1 Oxford’s CEO Tim Williams was on the Price of Football podcast this week, for someone often criticised for his communication skills, he always comes over well when he talks. The podcast’s host, foo…

Match wrap | Oxford United 2 Southampton 1

'The team felt like the decisions of someone not contracted to deliver a tightly defined output. Craig Short's selection was for the people, free of the over-thinking that wracked Gary Rowett’s final weeks.'

oxblogger.co.uk/2025/12/27/m...

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`Unwrapped | Oxford United v Southampton The week unwrapped Gary Rowett issued a fairly stark ultimatum on Saturday after the dispiriting 1-0 defeat to Charlton: back me or sack me. Given that Rowett has, in recent weeks, criticised his o…

Unwrapped | Oxford United v Southampton

Us | Transitioning
Them | Enigmatic
Football friend | Trevor Hebberd
From the archives | Ding dong at The Dell from 1996

It's the preview:

oxblogger.co.uk/2025/12/26/u...

#oufc

Glory Years Advent | Day 24

And finally, the greatest day. 20th April 1986, Oxford United, four years after nearly going bankrupt lift the Milk Cup at Wembley after beating Queens Park Rangers 3-0.

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The Glory Years, available now: www.amazon.co.uk/Glory-Years-...

Merry Christmas!

Comment | Gary Rowett sacked How will Gary Rowett be remembered? Probably differently to how he’s currently viewed. The decision to sack him comes just over a year after the decision to hire him – 368 days to be pr…

Comment | Gary Rowett Sacked

How will he be remembered? I suspect, he'll be the man who came to do a job, did it, and left. It would have been madness for him to leave in the summer, but this season felt like a contract extension he wasn't committed to.

oxblogger.co.uk/2025/12/23/c...

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Glory Years Advent | Day 23

A final piece of Manor mayhem. In 1988 Chelsea go 3-0 up at half-time, Oxford fight back to 3-3 only to concede again. After a disallowed last minute goal, Saunders makes it 4-4 in the last second.

The Glory Years - out now: uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-...