PREVIEW – Oxford (H) – Cobblers Past

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 Crewe Alexandra 1 – League One

Owen Dale’s late goal settled a poor game as the Cobblers dropped to 22nd position, while Crewe moved up to 14th.

Charlie Kirk squandered the game’s first big chance when denied by Jonathan Mitchell after 13 minutes before Mark Marshall saw a shot blocked at the other end.

Those were the only chances of note in a scrappy and low-quality first half as both attacks struggled to make any impact on the contest.

Mickel Miller saw a strong penalty appeal turned down late in the half before Sam Hoskins blazed over the bar shortly after the restart.

Goalmouth action remained at a premium in the second half but the big moment arrived with 16 minutes to go.

After Ryan Edmondson fluffed a gilt-edged chance for Northampton, Crewe went straight up the other end and scored the winner as Dale tucked away Luke Murphy’s through pass.

Oxford 0 Blackpool 2 – League One

It was the Seasiders’ third successive away league win and came thanks to first-half goals from Kenny Dougall and Dan Ballard.

Dougall struck after 16 minutes when he was alert in the box to turn the ball in as the U’s failed to clear Luke Garbutt’s corner.

Three minutes before the break they converted again at a corner, Ballard heading home from Sullay Kaikai’s cross following a corner.

The impressive Kaikai went close with a 20-yard drive and a 30-yard free-kick that Jack Stevens got down on his knees to save.

Mark Sykes cleared off the line from Ballard before Blackpool went in front.

Oxford had more attacking purpose in the second half and Chris Maxwell saved from Olamide Shodipo and Dan Agyei.

But Blackpool were worthy winners and almost got a third, with Elliot Embleton’s shot glancing off the crossbar.

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

Played for both – Oxford

Heres a look at a selection of players that have played for both the Cobblers and Oxford.

Playing Record

The Bury St Edmunds-based official will continues his second campaign as an EFL referee. The current campaign is Pollard’s second in the EFL following his promotion to the National List of Referees ahead of the 2019-20 season following two campaigns on the National League.

The 38-year-old was officiating on both the National League and the Premier League 2 competitions in 2018-19, but made the step up to the EFL after 11 years of refereeing. He’s shown a total of seven red cards this season, with four of them coming in pairs.

This will be Chris’s first ever visit to the PTS Academy Stadium, He has been the man in the middle for the Cobblers twice in his career, both away from home for the Cobblers.

His last game as referee was a 2-1 win for Forest Green Rovers, with 4 yellow cards and 1 red card given.

His latest Cobblers Game

Date	Comp	Match	Y	R
08/08/20	League Trophy	MK Dons 3 Northampton 1	2	0
10/10/19	FA Cup	Chippenham 0 Northampton 3	0	0

Oxford United Games

Date	Comp	Match	Y	R

Greg Read and Conor Farrell
Fourth Official : Trevor Kettle

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	36	35
Goals	31	49
Shots on target	112	169
Shooting accuracy	42.60%	50.10%
Goals conceded	53	41
Clean sheets	9	11
Yellow cards	73	61
Red Cards	3	1

OnThisDay Morecambe 1 The Cobblers 1

Ron Newman

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.