Rage Online

&quotslappy&quot wrote:

&quotslappy&quot wrote:It's that time of year again, when newspapers and websites around the world celebrate the anniversary of Oxford United 2 - Manchester United 0.
The Guardian are first up.

The Guardian remember this game again when discussing Old Red Nose's birthday and eventual retirement.
In football all things are possible. Consider the situation the team were in when Ferguson was appointed in November 1986. After 13 matches in the old 22-club First Division, Newcastle were bottom and the three above them, lying 19th,20th and 21st respectively, were Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City. Forty-eight hours after he got the job United lost 2-0 at Oxford United to hardly anyone's great surprise.

The Daily Mirror finds a reporter who was on the Beech Road on that day.

The Newcastle Evening Chronicle remember this game.
Full story on dressing room gee ups
Newcastle Eve Ch: BUT HERE'S HOW NOT TO DO IT

May 02 (Evening Chronicle - Newcastle-upon-Tyne)
-- OSSIE ARDILES, v Oxford United, February 1992, 2-5.

THE Argentinian had been handed barely any funds to bolster his struggling United team and had been forced to turn to youngsters like Lee Clark, Lee Makel, Matty Appleby, Robbie Elliott and Steve Watson.

However, despite playing some attractive stuff in a diamond formation, Newcastle couldn't find a way out of the dogfight in the Second Division.

And so the prospect of dropping into the Third Division in their centenary year looked likely.

In a bid to see what was going wrong at United, board members ventured to the dressing rooms at the Manor Ground for answers.

When asked what he was going to do about it, Ardiles simply shrugged his shoulders and said: &quotI don't know.&quot He was soon sacked and replaced by Kevin Keegan.

The North East Journal lament their lack of silverware.
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Forty years of hurt On Sunday it will be exactly 40 years since Sunderland beat Leeds United to lift the FA Cup. From that day in 1973 to this, North East clubs have lifted just one of the 119 top domestic trophies available to win. Why has the region, a supposed footballing hot bed with fanatical support, got such a terrible record? MIKE KELLY reports

May 02 (The Journal - Newcastle-upon-Tyne) -- IT'S a sobering thought but Welsh teams have been as successful at winning English football's three big domestic trophies as North East clubs in the last 40 years.

Even more embarrassing for the region is the fact that Wales is traditionally a hotbed of rugby union - it reached the semi final of the sport's last World Cup and its players make up half of the recently named British Lions squad - while the North East is supposed to be its equivalent in football terms.

Yet since May 5, 1973, when Sunderland beat Leeds to win the FA Cup, only one North East football team has lifted another domestic trophy - Middlesbrough, who lifted the Carling Cup, originally the League Cup, in 2004.

The region's so-called Big Two - Newcastle United and Sunderland - boast a big fat zero in the trophy lifting department during a Continued period when such footballing meccas as Oxford United and Luton Town have succeeded.

GetReading recalls 40 years since the proposed merger of Reading and Oxford United to form the Thames Valley Royals.

Not sure if this counts ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-ma ... r-22523852

Nice story though and people like this manager deserve an MBE or similar.

Which former Oxford United player started his career with Waterloo Dock ?

&quotOUFC4eva&quot wrote:Which former Oxford United player started his career with Waterloo Dock ?

Er...the answer is in the article.

oops !

The Stoke Sentinel reports on a missed signing for Oxford United.
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Arthur Turner, who was manager of Oxford United, poured his heart out to Waddo [Tony Waddington, Stoke manager 1960-1977] one day to bemoan the fact his directors wouldn't fork out for a useful-looking striker at Kettering Town.

Turner said they would only stump Pounds 2,000 for a player valued at Pounds 2,500.

I made a few phone calls, said Waddington, and built up a picture of this goalscoring centre-forward.

I knew Arthur was a good judge of a player and for Pounds 2,500 it was worth taking a chance. I persuaded the board to give me the Pounds 2,500 and so I went to Kettering and signed John Ritchie, below, without ever seeing him play.

He was offered a one-year contract, he suggested he should have two years to give him time to adjust, and I agreed.

Arthur rang me the next day to say his directors had given him the go ahead. I said, 'Sorry Arthur, he's my player now'.

Ritchie, or Big John as he was popularly known, proved a hell of a player for Stoke.

I searched the country and Scotland for a replacement when he broke his leg, but I never found one.

[Ritchie played for Stoke in two spells, from 1962-66, and 1969-75, and is their record goalscorer with 176 goals from 347 appearances]

Copyright (c) Northcliffe Newspapers Group Limited 2013

Whatever happened to England's European Under-21 Championship heroes of 1984?
link here.
Players included Kevin Brock and Peter Hucker.

Malcolm Macdonald talks about his Fulham football career, including his debut against Oxford United, where he had two goals disallowed.

There's a good double-page photo/text spread 'Oxford United 1986' on pp.24-25 of the current issue of When Saturday Comes. Not on the WSC website (yet?), so the best I can do is the link to the contents of the print edition: http://www.wsc.co.uk/wsc-daily/1163-jun ... 17-out-now
It's a good read as always, but if you can't spare £3.25 you can always sneak a look on the newsagent's shelves.

Probably mentioned already, but the signed Manchester United team sheet from Oxford United 2 - 0 Manchester United is up for auction on 22 June. Peter Rhoades-Brown apparently gave it to a fan. (I wonder if he regrets this now?)

They estimate a sale price of £2,500.
I've seen this story on several news feeds from around the world, so I wouldn't be surprised if it went for a five figure sum to the far East.
Dawn.com - Pakistan
The Qatar Peninsula
GiveMeFootball - UK
PanArmenian.net - Armenia
Daily Mirror - UK
Daily Mail - UK

On BBC Radio Five Live's risible '6-love-6' programme last night, Tim Henman was asked if he supported a football team and said he was an OUFC fan. However, he disastrously ruined this by saying that we won the Milk Cup (kudos for getting the name right) in 1983, and saying the team included Dean Saunders. We don't get many plastic fans, but now I know how Villa fans feel when Prince William and David Cameron claim to support them.

JoeyBeauchamp wrote:On BBC Radio Five Live's risible '6-love-6' programme last night, Tim Henman was asked if he supported a football team and said he was an OUFC fan. However, he disastrously ruined this by saying that we won the Milk Cup (kudos for getting the name right) in 1983, and saying the team included Dean Saunders. We don't get many plastic fans, but now I know how Villa fans feel when Prince William and David Cameron claim to support them.

Interesting, because I recall he was asked the same question once in the past and said he supported Fulham. When pressed on why he didn't support his local team, he apparently joked that it wouldn't do his reputation much good to be associated with a team as unsuccessful as Oxford. Well, I doubt it'd do our reputation much good to be associated with you, you smug, second-rate, has-been, never-was, won-nothing chinless c**t.

(apologies, but I never liked Henman anyway and hated him even more after he came out with that one)