PREVIEW – Oxford (H) – Cobblers Past

GAME OFF – WATERLOGGED PITCH

Year Founded: 1893
Nickname: The U’s or The Yellows
Major Honours: Football League Cup: 1985-86, League Division Three: 1967-68 and 1983-84, League Division Two: 1984-85.

In 1893, a meeting was called by a local resident named Dr Robert Hitchings in the Britannia Inn, who formed the amateur club “Headington FC”. The club had a small name change to Headington United back in 1911 after the club merged with Headington Quarry, who were set up in 1907. It wasn’t until 1960 that the club were granted their current name of Oxford United that is familiar to us today.

Two years later, in 1962, Oxford were invited into the Football League at the expense of Accrington Stanley, who resigned following the folding of the original club. It only took them three seasons to gain their first promotion, after finishing fourth in the 1964-65 season. They won their first Third Division title during the 1967-68 season, despite being a football league club for only six years. After relegation in 1976 back to the Third Division, the club remained there for seven years, with low mid table finishes a regular occurrence between 1977 and 1981. In 1984, Oxford seemed to be getting their act together, as they achieved back to back promotion to Division One, as well as League Cup trophy win in 1986, classifying this era of Oxford United as the Golden Era.

Despite a rich vein of success, from the years of 1987 to 2004, they remained nearer to bottom part of the pyramid after enjoying their brief few years in Division One. In 2004 though, the Football League reformed, meaning Oxford found themselves in League Two, which was the old Third Division. In 2006, they briefly dropped into the now National League, but gained promotion back to League 2 via the playoffs in 2010 with Chris Wilder at the helm. Today, they find themselves a stable League 1 club, after gaining automatic promotion in 2016 alongside Northampton Town and Bristol Rovers.

Northampton 0 MK Dons 2 – League Trophy

Ryan Watson fired over after a tentative opening few minutes. MK Dons briefly thought they had taken the lead when Joe Mason put the ball in the back of the net on 16 minutes but the off-side flag was already up.

Mitchell saved from Scott Fraser but the Dons were growing into the contest and the breakthrough came before the half hour mark, on-loan Middlesbrough striker Stephen Walker with a neat chip over Mitchell having been played in by Fraser.

Danny Rose headed wide from a Sam Hoskins cross as the Cobblers responded while it needed a smart save from Mitchell to prevent Mason doubling the visitors lead before the break.

Keith Curle made a change at half-time with Ricky Korboa replacing Rose and the substitute had a chance to equalise when his initial shot was blocked, Lee Nicholls making the save on the follow-up.

Harry Smith came on for Benny Ashley-Seal with Cameron Jerome and Ben Gladwin on in a double change for the Dons. Jerome was presented with an opportunity to shoot after a miscommunication at the back but Mitchell made a good save with his legs.

Cian Bolger headed straight at Nicholls from a Mills corner before the latter made way for Caleb Chukwuemeka.

The Dons doubled their lead from the penalty spot, Stephen Walker scoring his second goal of the night after Jerome was brought down by Bolger. Watson had a shot saved by Nicholls in injury time, the Dons having done enough to book their place in the next round.

Oxford 2 Cambridge 0 – League Trophy

Despite a much changed line-up United started strongly – Cameron Brannagan drilling a fantastic cross field pass to signal his return to the 11 and Elliott Moore testing visiting keeper Callum Burton’s handling with a header in just the third minute.

Brannagan fired a left-footed effort wide two minutes later and Hall drew another good save from Burton at the base of his left hand post as the home U’s pressed the visiting U’s back but credit to Cambridge who stood firm and grew into the game and had half chances when Joe Ironside headed a speculative effort wide on 22 and Paul Digby volleyed meekly as Simon Eastwood three minutes later.

United subtly switched shape after that, the ever-inventive Hall blasting two powerful efforts at goal- the first smack into Burton’s arms the other smack into Digby’s nose- but the closest we were to come to a first half goal came from the boot of Dan Agyei who was just off target from inside the box three minutes before the break.

The second half saw Jamie Hanson lean back and ping an early effort well over the bat but the game was meandering and energy was needed. Cue a first for United on the hour: a quadruple substitution with Liam Kelly, Marcus McGuane, Mide Shodipo and Derrick Osei-Yaw tasked with finding the breakthrough.

Shodipo almost did that with his trademark ‘goal the first time he touches it’ routine but was wide of the mark from his usual spot befire a moment of class from Hall gave the U’s the lead. Always dangerous from a set piece, Hall seemed to be too far out but his free kick from the right was perfect; right in the top corner to give Burton absolutely no chance. Six goals in a row past Burton for the Yellows.

Cambridge now had no choice other than to throw men forward to try and stay in the competition and they did just that but found it tough going against the rock solid Elliott Moore and Sam Long with Simon Eastwood largely untroubled on his return to the side.

Saturday 3 May 2014 – Northampton 3 Oxford 1

Northampton came from behind to beat Oxford 3-1 and secure their Football League status on the final day. Chris Wilder’s side needed one point against his old club to keep the Cobblers up and goals either side of the interval from Ivan Toney and substitute Mathias Kouo-Doumbe sealed all three points after John Marquis had cancelled out Ryan Williams’ opener.

Oxford started brightly and James Constable had a close range shot blocked before the visitors took a sixth minute lead. Danny Rose’s inswinging corner was flicked on by David Kitson at the near post for Williams to turn and fire home from close range. Toney should have equalised shortly afterwards when he raced through and rounded goalkeeper Ryan Clarke but his shot came back off the upright.

The lively Williams went close to a second goal when he fired over from the edge of the box. But Williams then got a straight red card for an off the ball incident with Cobblers skipper Ricky Ravenhill. Chris Hackett twice went close to an equaliser against his old club before the equaliser arrived in the 29th minute when Toney flicked the ball on for Marquis to race into the box and beat Clarke with a low drive.

And four minutes later Toney headed home a cross from Evan Horwood. Cobblers twice went close on the stroke of halftime. Marquis was inches away when his near post flick just went just the wrong side of the far upright and Zander Diamond had a close range shot cleared off the line by Jake Wright. But substitute Kouo-Doumbe increased Northampton’s lead five minutes after the restart when he headed home Hackett’s deep free-kick.

Toney missed a great chance when he beat Clarke but Wright raced back to clear the ball off the line and substitute Emile Sinclair headed over.

Played	Won	Draw	Lost	F	A
34	16	4	15	34	43

Biggest Win over Oxford	22/04/2006 3-1 – A – Colin Calderwood 03/05/2014 3-1 – H – Chris Wilder
Biggest Loss over Oxford	15/12/10 4-0 – A – Keith Curle
First-Ever Game	11/11/1967 – County Ground – 1-1 draw – Tony Marchi

Chris Hackett

Our played for both focus this week you can look at his playing record here.

Playing Record

Thomas Bramall

The Sheffield-based official continues his third campaign as an EFL referee on Tuesday evening following a serious ACL injury in pre-season which has up until now thwarted his progession as an official.

In 2017-18, he officiated 17 games in the National League and one further match in the FA Cup’s preliminary rounds. He showed a total of 42 yellow cards and four reds in those matches. Meanwhile, in 2018-19, he took charge of 44 games, showing 102 yellow cards and three reds.

The first game this year for referee Thomas Bramall as his last game was a 1-0 win for Stevenage v Cambridge. 2 yellow cards where given. This is his second visit to the PTS Academy Stadium this season he was last here for the 0-0 draw v MK Dons back in November.

His latest Cobblers Game

Date	Comp	Match	Y	R
03/11/20	League One	Northampton 0 – MK Dons 0	3	0
04/05/19	League Two	Oldham 2 – Northampton 5	3	0
15/09/18	League Two	Port Vale 0 – Northampton 0	4	1

Oxford United Games

Date	Comp	Match	Y	R
10/10/20	League One	Gillingham 3 Oxford 1	2	0
22/01/19	League Trophy	Bury 5 – Oxford 2	2	0

Greg Read and Conor Farrell
Fourth Official : Declan Bourne

A Playlist of past meetings:

The EFL have introduced a change to the way season ticket holders watch home league matches via the iFollow streaming service.

All season ticket holders will have access to watch the Gillingham game on Tuesday on iFollow.

To check….about:blank

1. Log in to iFollow
2. Click your name in the top navigation bar to get to the ‘My Account page’
3. Click the + sign next to ‘Purchased Packages’

If you have access, you will see ‘Season Ticket – Northampton Town’ listed here.

If you experience any issues, please email ifollow@ntfc.co.uk

Thank you for your support.

Non season ticket holders can purchase the game for £10.

The last two league meetings between Northampton Town and Oxford at the PTS Academy Stadium have both ended goalless, in 2016/17 and 2017/18.
Oxford United are looking to complete a league double over Northampton for the first time since the 2000/01 season.
Northampton kept a clean sheet in their most recent home league game against Sunderland, while they haven’t recorded successive league shutouts at home since December 2019.
Oxford boss Karl Robinson has lost none of his three managerial Football League matches against Northampton’s Keith Curle (W2 D1).

Stats	NORTHAMPTON	OXFORD
Games Played	21	2O
Goals	19	30
Shots on target	63	93
Shooting accuracy	40.60%	49.20%
Goals conceded	36	27
Clean sheets	3	4
Yellow cards	38	39
Red Cards	3	1

Welcome to the New Lads!

On Thursday the Cobblers welcomed 2 new attacking options to the squad, find out all about them here.

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Interview – Andy Holt

Looking back on our last long campaign in the League Trophy back in the season 2003/2004 UnderI interviewed ex-cobbler Andy Hot, Andy played for the Cobblers between 2004 – 2012 making over 190 appearances scoring over 15 goals.