Missing Oxford because of University

40 years ago I went to Nottingham University, and not to Oxford. To be precise, here I mean Oxford United, not Oxford University. The idea of studying at Oxford University was never on the cards for me. I'd really struggled even for the one semester I was at Nottingham the year before, trying my best (but failing miserably) to do "red brick" university mathematics. I left at Christmas and spent nine months working as a net curtain "knitter" at Monarch Textiles. It was a very dull job but the money was good. Now I was back at uni to do a subject I certainly enjoyed more, biology. I'm not sure of the exact date that term started but I think it was the beginning of October. I was certainly back there when Forest continued their defence of the League Cup they'd won the season before, in the third round at Oxford United. I'd just settled in at uni so I missed it.

As I've been to Oxford's "the Manor Ground" a few times and because it was one of the first away venues I visited, I thought it was a good subject for a blog post - despite not being at this exact match. So, after a brief nostalgic reminder about life at university in 1978, I'll catch up with Forest's games since the epic European Cup tie with Liverpool and how their various unbeaten runs were doing before looking at Oxford United's short history (most of it was as Headington United) up to the time of the match.

One of the themes of this season's blogs is to end by looking at "what happened next?" - at least from the time of the match up until the end of the 20th century - and, for Oxford United, that included their best period ever, when they even graced the first division for three seasons and won the League Cup (called the Milk Cup at the time) themselves. That era for Oxford United was dominated by a rather obnoxious, fat, greedy, millionaire con artist. No, it wasn't Trump, it was Robert Maxwell.

Last Match (v Liverpool European Cup 1st Round)

Return to (Nottingham) University

Before writing this, I looked back through a few cringe-worthy, teenage, ramblings of a couple of diaries I used to keep. I was shocked to read how depressed I was, for at least the first few weeks back. I did settle into the academic side really well though, and, compared to my abortive attempt at university level mathematics, found Zoology and Pharmacology really fascinating and relatively easy. But the transition from one set of friends at home, in Kirkby, to the set I would eventually find at university hadn't properly started yet. 

Back at Nottingham University to try again

I took my place in Sherwood Hall of Residence, in room G1, on the ground floor overlooking the quad. The hall had been all-male the year before but now, for the first time, about a third of the students were female. Although to most men, this might sound like a tantalizing prospect, invoking thoughts of wild parties and sexual promiscuity, I can assure you that, for me at least, it was pretty much the exact opposite. I was a 19 year old in the body of someone who looked about 16, at best, and I was excruciatingly shy and awkward in the presence of girls. Witnessing confident, older-looking guys chatting up these lovely girls every day just made me feel terrible and useless. Some of the young chaps who lived in my block made my life even more of a misery by writing some "witty" graffiti about me on the name tag of my door.

Of course, I always had football to revel in - and after Forest's amazing win against Liverpool fresh in the mind, I had real European football to look forward to in the next few weeks.

Sherwood Hall - a mixed hall of residence for the first time

Luckily, I soon found that there were a few like-minded football fans in Sherwood and beyond and so evenings in the bar could be spent talking about details of the game rather than competing for the attentions of young ladies.

Most prominent among these in the first few weeks was my old mate Boro, who I'd met a few times walking to or from maths lectures or in the bar the year before. Unlike me, he'd coped with the material really well.

We shared a certain melancholy about life in general and girls in particular and would sometimes have in-depth discussions on "the philosophy table." After a skinful of what must have been really horrible mild from Sherwood Hall bar, one of us would lie down on one of the big tables outside the bar after throwing out time and the other would play the role of a psychologist trying to figure out what the matter was.

Ay, them wo't days!

Here's the top twenty the week I started back to invoke some more memories, just to brighten things up...

The Top Twenty in Week One

Jilted John's song, with it's classic lyric "Gordon is a Moron" had a perfect resonance with me in those early uni days...

League form picks up after 200th Forest Match

It was a privilege getting to know Boro, who is, to this day, still my hero in terms of football knowledge. He'd often tell me the Forest scorers of matches I'd been to (but he hadn't) and, if the match had been televised, would be able to describe in detail each goal. As anyone who had read any of these posts will know, my memory is nowhere near that good - and it wasn't even then.

Boro returned to Sherwood with tales of three league Middlesbrough games he'd seen and I'll pick up the story from the last post by filling in the gap since the Liverpool game. 

The Saturday after that pulsating victory, Forest returned to Old Trafford, the place they'd won 4-0 the season before (see my post about that.)  I didn't go but Forest played well, by all accounts, especially the ever-reliable John Robertson making his 94th consecutive appearance for us. Ian Bowyer put Forest ahead only for Jimmy Greenhoff to equalise, resulting in Forest's fifth draw out of six league games.

On that day, Boro was at Ayresome Park watching a shock 2-0 away win by QPR. The match was televised.

In a classic football moment, captured by a photographer, Stan Bowles was caught reading the match-day programme whilst he was waiting for a corner!\

Stan Bowles reading his 'pen pic' in the programme at a corner.

Elsewhere, you've guessed it, Liverpool won yet again, their fifth on the trot, against Coventry City at Anfield, and as West Bromwich Albion lost too, it meant that the gap at the top had widened. Spurs got their first away win, at Leeds.

The following week, Boro and I were both at the same match although we didn't know it. Forest played Middlesbrough at home. It was my 200th Forest match and yet another draw. Forest had gone 2-0 up with Gary Birtles scoring his first league goal and Martin O'Neill adding a second. But Middlesbrough came back, surprisingly, to grab a point with goals from Mills and Armstrong to add more frustration on Forest's attempt at retaining their title.

At least this time, Liverpool were also pegged back to a draw (1-1 at Albion) and so their lead over us stayed at five points - with only seven games played. 

Everton were returning to their form of last season, as title contenders, and beat Wolves 2-0 to go second.

The surprise package of the season so far were Bristol City who won at Portman Road, home of the F.A. Cup winners, Ipswich, to continue their bright start.

The week after that, Forest won for only the second time in the league, a creditable result at Villa Park. Forest won 2-1 with goals from Tony Woodcock and a disputed penalty from John Robertson.

This was the day Forest equaled Leeds United's record of 34 league games without defeat, set in the 1973-74 season, Don Revie's last in charge of the club before Cloughie's ill-fated spell there. It was also John Robertson's 97th consecutive game for the club.

Here are the 34 (league) games...

Liverpool got back to winning ways but despite their near-perfect start (24 goals scored and just three conceded), they surprisingly only had a two point gap over their Merseyside rivals, Everton, at this stage. Middlesbrough lost 2-3 at home to Arsenal.

The table before the League Cup 3rd round tie looked like this...

Souness, Dalglish and Case all featured in the League's top scorers at this time.

Runs Continue 

As I said, the win at Villa marked Forest equaling Leeds' unbeaten run of 34 league games, but this was just one of several remarkable runs Forest were continuing.

Forest were now unbeaten in 37 consecutive games at the City Ground in all competitions...

And, yes, it's a bit contrived I know, if one takes out the F.A. Cup, Forest's win at Oxford United was their 46th unbeaten match, home or away in "all" competitions.

Oops. I let the cat out of the bag a bit early there. Yes, we did beat Oxford that night. But you knew that anyway, from the cover screen.

So, what about Oxford United (or should I say Headington United)?

Oxford United

The club actually began in 1893 - that's 125 years ago here in 2018, as Headington, after the suburb in Oxford on the A40 that my wife and I used to drive through on the way to the Cotswalds, or when visiting the John Radcliffe Hospital. 

They added "United" 18 years later when they merged with Headington Quarry. Then, for almost the next 50 years they were known as that name before re-inventing themselves once again, as Oxford United in 1960.

Headington United in 1910

In 1978, only a small fraction of their history were they known at Oxford United - just 18 years at that time

Their last competitive season as Headington United was in 1959-60 when they finished 2nd in the Southern League.

Southern League 1959-60

As Oxford United, they won that league two years running before being elected to the league in place of the vacancy left by the then bankrupt Accrington Stanley.

Last league programme of Accrington Stanley, v Rochdale, Feb 1962

Of course Accrington Stanley, famously followed by David "Bumble" Lloyd, the cricket pundit, made a glorious return to the football league 44 years later and are currently at their highest league position (7th in the 3rd tier) since being finishing second from bottom in the top league in 1893.

Anyway, after a couple of years when they struggled to avoid having to re-apply for re-election themselves, Oxford United won promotion and set off on a few years of remarkable glory.

Oxford United's first season in the league

It was then, still a fourth division side, that Oxford had their best ever season in the F.A. Cup, reaching the 6th Round where they played Preston North End, then a mid-table second division side. The attendance of 22,730 is still a club record.

Here are the highlights of the game that Preston won 2-1. 

Preston would beat Swansea Town (not a misprint, Swansea only changed their name to City in 1969) in the semi-final and then lose 3-2 to West Ham in the final.

Three years later, Oxford United won promotion again, to the Second Division, where they would stay for the next eight seasons.

Oxford United, Division Three Champions

The most famous stalwart for the club during these years was Ron Atkinson (or "The Tank" as he was known.)

Ron Atkinson 500+ appearances for Oxford United including 384 in the league

Atkinson never played a league game for anyone else and was at Oxford from 1959 until 1971.

Of course, "Big Ron" even managed Forest for a spell - the last club he managed - taking us down to the second division in 1999 and thus ending this middle period of Forest's history I'm reporting here.

All-time Forest manager's list as of September 2018. Big Ron, even with a positive twist (sorting by trophies won, then league status, then league position change and then Pts/game) did not have a great record as Forest manager.

Ron famously sat in the wrong dug-out for his first game in charge at the City Ground.

Ron Atkinson was Forest manager for a while.
He started by sitting in the wrong dug out against Arsenal

In 1972-73 season, Oxford United finished above Forest for the first time (of only two) in their history.

Oxford United's first home league game against Forest, in 1973.

The Manor Ground was Oxford United's home ground for most of their history. It was a funny little ground with a peculiar big archway that signaled the entrance.

I missed the first opportunity to go to Oxford as a Forest fan in the 1974-75 season.

But I did go at the start of the next season, 1975-76, to watch Forest win 1-0 . George Lyall got the only goal.

My first visit to Oxford United's Manor Ground in 1975 - they failed to get our name right

Bizarrely, the next time I'd see Oxford was at Old Trafford in an F.A. Cup 3rd round tie which Man Utd won 2-1. The weather was cold and most games were called off that day so we decided to venture across the Pennines to see Cup football!

Oxford played at The Manor Ground for 76 years from 1925.

Largely at the Manor Ground

In 2001 Oxford United moved to a soulless ground on the south side of Oxford, the Kassam Stadium.

So, to summarise, Oxford United's brief league history alongside Forest... For a change, we are easily the top dogs.

Oxford, had a surprising good record against Forest throughout this time, though. Before this league cup tie, we'd only beaten them three times in nine attempts.

Desmond Morris 

Oxford United had a peculiar addition to their back room staff in the same year of this game: Desmond Morris was elected Vice-Chairman of the club.

I didn't know it at the time, but Morris was going to have quite an influence on me. In a few years he'd publish a famous book "The Soccer Tribe" which really struck a note as it discussed football and football supporters in the language of science and anthropology.

Oxford fan - Desmond Morris

The Soccer Tribe - Published in 1981

Later on, I'd be influenced by him even more, when he planted the seed of the so-called "aquatic ape" in my head through a BBC documentary in 1995. His book "The Naked Ape" had inspired my heroine, Elaine Morgan to become fascinated with the idea in that moving through water might have influenced human evolution in 1967, and I would follow in her footsteps.

Isn't it funny how these things happen?

Anyway, finally to the match...

The Teams

Oxford United
1 Roy Burton, 2 David Fogg, 3 Gary Watson, 4 Andy Bodel, 5 Malcom McIntosh, 6 Billy Jeffrey, 7 Hughie McGrogan, 8 Les Taylor, 9 Peter Foley, 10 Hugh Curran, 11 Jason Seacole.
Substitutions: Archie White (12) came on for Hugh Curran(10).

Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Ian Bowyer, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Archie Gemmill, 9 Gary Birtles, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.
Goals : Viv Anderson 1, John McGovern 1, Martin O'Neill 1, Gary Birtles 1, John Robertson 1.

Substitutions: John O'Hare(12) came on for Tony Woodcock (10).

This was John Robertson's 98th consecutive appearance for Forest.

Attendance 14,287

The Match 

The game apparently gave Oxford United their record receipts to date, but this was only £13,825 according to my Rothman's - it must be an error, surely.

Gary Birtles scored again just one among the five who made the score sheet..

No Programme

Oxford United were one of those teams (like Derby County and Notts County) who were using a newspaper format for their programme at the time. What a blady rubbish! I think I did get hold of a copy but it has been lost over the years.

League Cup 3rd Round

In the round of 32 as it is sometimes called, perhaps the biggest shock was Watford's 2-1 win at Old Trafford with two goals from 20 year old Luther Blissett. The Hornet's were still then a third division side whilst Manchester United were doing pretty well in the top flight.

The biggest crowd of the round, though, saw Leeds' impressive 4-1 win at Yorkshire rivals, Sheffield United. The Blades, remember, had beaten Liverpool at home in the second round.

In the next Round Forest got a very tough draw - Everton away. But let's leave the 1978-79 season for now and fast forward more into the future.

What Happened Next?

By the time Forest next played Oxford United, things had changed dramatically for them. In 1982 a certain Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch bought the club, saving them from bankruptcy, and signalling a remarkable upturn in their fortunes. 

Who? Jan Judvik Hymen whatsit? 

Robert Maxwell to you and I.

Maxwell was born in 1923, in what was then called Slatinske Doly in Czechoslovakia, (now part of the Ukraine near the Romanian border) into a poor Yiddhish-speaking Orthodox Jewish family. He had six brothers or sisters and most of them were put to death by the Nazis in Auschwitz. Maxwell had luckily already escaped to France and joined the Czechoslovak army in exile in May 1940, according to Wikipedia.

 After the defeat of France, Maxwell retreated to England and joined the Royal Pioneer Corps. He was involved in a lot of war action and won the Military Cross achieving the rank of sergeant. He became a British subject in 1946 and changed his name two years later.

After the war he got heavily into the publishing business, eventually running Pergamon Press. He quickly became very wealthy and in 1959 leased a mansion in Oxford for the business, called Headington Hill House, from Oxford City Council. After a few years Maxwell, his wife Betty, and their eight children (he wanted to make up for the concentration camp killings of his family, apparently) made it their home.

Maxwell's House

In 1964 he was elected Labour MP for Buckingham and was re-elected two years later.

Maxwell MP 1964

It seems Maxwell was an early pioneer of the modern day football phenomenon of laundering ill-gotten riches when he acquired Oxford United in 1982. Certainly, there had been stories of dodgy dealings with Pergamon and he already had reputation of someone who found it difficult to repay his debts. He earned the nickname of "The Bouncing Czech" for this reason, originally by Harold Wilson, apparently.

Oxford's Manor Ground was only a 17 minute walk from his mansion.

The old site of the Manor Ground was just a quarter of an hour's walk away

Controversially, just months after taking over Oxford, he launched a crazy plan to merge them with Reading, a club 26 miles away - on the other side of the Chilterns -  and form a new club called Thames Valley Royals and play at Didcot. What a plonker!

Of course fans of both clubs protested and the deal never went through despite a lot of nasty bullying pressure from the big man.

Plotting Thames Valley Royals

To be fair though, one should not forget that it was Maxwell who hired Jim Smith as manager in March 1982 - probably their best managerial appointment ever.

Maxwell appoint Jim Smith in 1982

He settled the club down and soon had them going in the right direction. Oxford won the 3rd Division in 1983-84 and then...

Smith with the 3rd Division Title Winners

... amazingly, the second division, the very next season. So Oxford found themselves in the first division just 23 years after entering the league.

Oxford United promoted to the top flight for the first (and only) time in 1985

Despite this incredible success, Maxwell refused to improve Jim Smith's contract and as a result Smith resigned and moved to Queens Park Rangers before the next season began.

Jim Smith's chief scout , Maurice Evans took over and managed them in the First Division for almost three seasons.

The first was their most successful, with Oxford finishing in their highest league position ever - 18th - but more significantly, they also won the League Cup (then called the Milk Cup) - still Oxford's only major trophy.




Ironically, they played Jim Smith's QPR in the final, beating them 3-0. Here are the highlights.

The Milk Cup

Oxford's only major trophy win. Can you spot Maxwell?

Oxford United would have played in Europe the next season but for the Heysel Stadium disaster, when English clubs were banned.

One of the more famous names in that side - later to move to Liverpool

The next season Oxford bettered their league record, finishing 18th again, but with more points. They were knocked out of the League Cup in the 3rd Round by West Ham United.

Oxford's best ever league season

Robert Maxwell resigned in 1987 to take over Derby County and left Oxford United to his son, Kevin. This signaled their inevitable slide back down the pecking order.

Maxwell never achieved success with Derby either. In fact he would only live another four years. He was found drowned at sea, presumed to have fallen in from his private yacht after a heart attack in November 1991.

His last few years were typical of his life, seemingly spending money willy-nilly, buying companies or parts of companies like Nimbus Records, MTV, MacMillian Publishers and Berlitz language schools. He was very litigious and had many infamous run-ins with the satirical magazine Private Eye.

Financial scandal surrounded Maxwell even after his death when it became apparent that he'd plundered his employees' pension funds to help fund his business interests.

Still, it's remarkable that for three seasons Oxford United had the 17th best record in the land.

Oxford United 1985-88 - 17th best in England

I can't write about Oxford in the late 1980s without at least a brief word about the detective series Inspector Morse, which  started in 1987. I have to mention it because my wife, Lesley, is a massive Morse fan and she also lived in Oxford in the 1980s, doing her midwifery training.

Here's a clip from the first episode.

After Oxford United's brief spell in the top flight, the next time we played them was in the second division, in 1993-94 after the relegation of Cloughie's last season. Frank Clark, brought Forest straight back up as Oxford got relegated. Despite the difference in league positions, Forest lost 1-0 in Oxford and could only draw 0-0 at home.

Forest bounce back to the top with Frank Clark

Here are the highlights of the 0-0 draw at home. Unlucky, Forest! ...

By this time, I'd moved to High Wycombe and as I always support my local team, I started following Wycombe Wanderers, especially after the arrival of my old Forest hero, Martin O'Neill and later John Roberstson as his assistant.

O'Neill, of course, took Wycombe Wanderers into the football league and then won them promotion to the 3rd tier at the first attempt. The Boxing Day fixture in that first season in Division Three was at the Manor Ground, where I was part of a massive contingent from High Wycombe that made the short journey up the M40. 9,540 saw The Chairboys gain a famous 2-0 away victory to keep them in the promotion chase.

I saw the return match at Adams Park the following April, Wycombe winning again, but, alas, it wasn't enough to keep them up with the pack chasing a place in the second division. Oxford too had fallen away from the promotion chasing teams by then and would finish below Wycombe.

I saw Oxford for the 7th time the following season, again at the Manor Ground, but Martin O'Neill had moved on by then and Wycombe lost 4-1.

The last time I saw Oxford was at the start of the 1997-98 season. I was still living in High Wycombe and Forest were playing "up the road" so I had to go to the characterful little ground for the fourth (and final) time. Forest won 1-0, a great start to their last promotion winning season.

Forest's record against Oxford continued to be poor though, and we lost at home later in the season...

The last time Forest played Oxford was in the F.A. Cup 3rd round of 1999-2000. Forest won 3-1 at the Manor Ground after drawing 1-1 at home.

So, here are the rest of the 24 Forest v Oxford United games...

So, since the league cup match that night, Forest have never finished below Oxford in the league and only twice ever.




Oxford United was one of the first away grounds I went to and as the 1990s ended I managed, through no small part being a member of the (Official) Nottingham University Football Supporters Club, which we formed at the start of the next season, to go to all 92 grounds before the end of the millennium, the last being The Stadium of Light, Sunderland's new ground.

The Official Nottingham University Football Supporters Club
Started 1979-80 - More on this next season

First 46 grounds visited - Oxford United's Manor Ground was the 14th

The last 46, (Stadium of Light, Sunderland, was actually the one that finally ticked off the 92 for me)

Although I did revisit Sunderland, and many other clubs that changed their grounds since then (I've seen Bristol Rovers play at three "homes"), many more clubs have changed their grounds whilst I've been living in Australia, and so the number of grounds visited continues to slide.

One of those is, of course, Oxford United, who, as I said, now play at the Kassam Stadium. Oxford are one of twelve league clubs who have dropped out of my 92 this way.

Clubs who have changed their grounds since I went to see them

And, of course, since I've been down under, several clubs have come into the league who's ground I've not been on. Nine, in fact.

New league clubs I've never visited

Ironically Forest Green Rovers aren't one of those  - I've actually been to their cute ground, "The Lawn" in Nailsworth, twice when they were a non-league club.

And there are 13 ground I have been to who's clubs are no longer in the league...

Grounds of clubs I'd visited that are no longer in the league

So, somehow, by my reckoning, I have currently been on 70 of the current English league clubs' grounds...

Aren't personal football statistics fascinating!?

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