Memory Lane 2005-06 Season - 20 years on

[swolley]

Reading this is how I remember the covid time, did it really happen or was it a bad dream? It's crazy how moments remain in your head, the Stockport game I was on a weekend break in Torquay and watching the BBC teleprinter thinking a draw is OK and then the Stockport late winner came up. Bad day I thought at the time but never realising the full consequences of that goal. I still had hope even up to the Orient game, Billy saving a penalty, this will be all ok , we are Oxford United we will not go down . Oh F**k we are conference bound.

 

[tonyw]

I wasn't going much at this time and was on holiday for the Orient game. I remember Hackett, Davies, and Bradbury were sold in January, which I believe was Kassam's doing, to save money? Hardly surprising we went down after that.

On January 3rd 2006, after beating Chester, we were 14th, ten points off the drop and with a solidly middling record of W8 D8 L9.

We then won just three of our last 21 games.

It would have been very difficult to predict relegation in January that year. Yes, we were crap.....but it was League Two, most of the teams were crap. Just looked like it was going to be another boring, midtable season. And then we went into an unstoppable death spiral.......

 

[tonyw]

Reading this is how I remember the covid time, did it really happen or was it a bad dream?

The really crazy time that feels like it can't really have happened was the end of the previous season. Ramon Diaz, Corbo, Cominelli, Raponi and the rest.

Wasn't so much a bad dream as a really, really weird trip that we all went on........

 

[werthersoriginal]

On January 3rd 2006, after beating Chester, we were 14th, ten points off the drop and with a solidly middling record of W8 D8 L9.

We then won just three of our last 21 games.

It would have been very difficult to predict relegation in January that year. Yes, we were crap.....but it was League Two, most of the teams were crap. Just looked like it was going to be another boring, midtable season. And then we went into an unstoppable death spiral.......

It was a Withnail & I ‘We got relegated by mistake’ thing

 

[Londox]

On January 3rd 2006, after beating Chester, we were 14th, ten points off the drop and with a solidly middling record of W8 D8 L9.

We then won just three of our last 21 games.

It would have been very difficult to predict relegation in January that year. Yes, we were crap.....but it was League Two, most of the teams were crap. Just looked like it was going to be another boring, midtable season. And then we went into an unstoppable death spiral.......

Unrelated but apparently Chester was a "lively" away day back in the 2000s

 

[West Oxon U’s]

That Easter Monday away defeat to a very ordinary Boston was a defining moment. Turley gifting them the winner and despite wave after wave of attack we just could not score.

We also played in Boston’s away kit and the players did not have a pre-match as the team coach travelled to Boston via Market Harborough for some strange reason and got caught in Easter traffic. Jim Smith blew a gasket that day. Got back to the car to find Torquay has won again and we were in big trouble.

 

[Essexyellows]

That Orient game will live long with me for many reasons.............

I can remember us going to them to get promoted from Div 3 and doing exactly what they did, on the pitch having a blast because (IIRC) our promotion had already been sealed by other results. It was very bitter sweet when it cut the other way.

Heading home considering life in Non-League was as horribly painful as anyone could think.

However the elation from the Play Off Final far, far outweighed it.

And that is why we love our club, the highs and the lows are always there........ we are rarely "mediocre".

 

[SteMerritt]

I can remember us going to them to get promoted from Div 3 and doing exactly what they did, on the pitch having a blast because (IIRC) our promotion had already been sealed by other results. It was very bitter sweet when it cut the other way.

Yeah our promotion was already in the bag as Wimbledon dropped points before we kicked off. I remember that day so well, we had half the ground, and yeah, celebrated on their pitch.

 

[NorthWestOx]

I had the 'pleasure' of going to all 3 of Stockport away, Wrexham away and Orient at home.

It all made the Alfie Potter moment ar Wembley so much sweeter!

 

[m]

Unrelated but apparently Chester was a "lively" away day back in the 2000s

Remember a 3-1 win up there in the 0s. Me and lady M had a weekend in Chester.

I do remember seeing a few scuffles and a lot of posturing.

(and then there was the football etc)

 

[McXal]

Seeing footage of that Jon Ashton challenge at Stockport is genuinely traumatic. It took me straight back to where I could see it in the ground on the day. I don’t know if the comment around Jerome’s commentary being ‘don’t do it…don’t do it…he’s done it’ is accurate or not. But I can say for sure that in the stadium that day you could hear countless people saying exactly that. I genuinely can’t recall if I’ve ever seen it again since - but bloody hell he really doesn’t need to dive in there. Absolute plank of a footballer (who subsequently always seemed to play well against us!)

My father died in February 2006 and I remember distinctly reading Oxford Mail articles about the boardroom unrest as he was in his final days…and one of the last ‘real’ conversations I had with him was his hope that things would get better once Kassam was out. I still think about that now, and how it’s nearly 20 years later and FK still isn’t truly ‘gone’.

Oddly the Orient game isn’t quite such a traumatic as away trips like the Rushden debacle, Stockport and Wrexham. I remember sitting in my seat at the Kassam (that I still sit in to this day, it was my dad’s, but I asked to transfer my ST seat to his after he passed) and just feeling totally empty as the ground emptied other than them celebrating. I hadn’t expected us to win the game going in and actually on the day my abiding memory is that it was a CRAZY game considering the high stakes for both.

There are some good memories though. The feel good vibe around the stadium for Smith’s return, Rosie’s voice cracking on the PA as he announced Smith walking out…and the N’Toya backflips. I still vividly remember those.

What’s weird is we’re still not out from under the shadow of 2006. Kassam still holds us under his boot. At Championship level we are arguably ABOVE what should be the ceiling of a football club with the restrictions our ground situation puts upon us. I’m not sure - even after 20 years of upward trajectory, some amazing days at Wembley, Appleton providing my favourite Oxford team ever (and I’m 40 so do include the 95/96 promotion team in that) - that I’ll truly feel ‘over’ the scars of 2006 until we get out of the Kassam Stadium and truly emerge from his shadow.

 

[OX11yellow]

I remember driving home from FGR following the 5-1 victory with Rob Duffy scoring a hat trick.
I was actually enjoying the experience of the Conference at that time. We were playing well and winning.
I was convinced it would be a short visit

How wrong l was.

 

[Marked Ox]

I remember driving home from FGR following the 5-1 victory with Rob Duffy scoring a hat trick.
I was actually enjoying the experience of the Conference at that time. We were playing well and winning.
I was convinced it would be a short visit

How wrong l was.

"3-1 and you can't go home".

 

[unification]

What’s weird is we’re still not out from under the shadow of 2006. Kassam still holds us under his boot. At Championship level we are arguably ABOVE what should be the ceiling of a football club with the restrictions our ground situation puts upon us. I’m not sure - even after 20 years of upward trajectory, some amazing days at Wembley, Appleton providing my favourite Oxford team ever (and I’m 40 so do include the 95/96 promotion team in that) - that I’ll truly feel ‘over’ the scars of 2006 until we get out of the Kassam Stadium and truly emerge from his shadow.

OxBlogger said the very same in the BtB podcast that I mentioned in the opening post about us being at the highest level we can realistically reach under current stdium conditions. I'm inclined to agree as we simply have nowhere to grow being in a leased stadium with no revenue streams from it.

It's one of the reasons why I raised this thread. Despite being nearly 20 years ago, the events of the first half of 2006 have had a massive bearing on the club. The years of mismanagement, bad decisions and declining fortunes on the pitch cast a massive shadow over us still.

I remember driving home from FGR following the 5-1 victory with Rob Duffy scoring a hat trick.
I was actually enjoying the experience of the Conference at that time. We were playing well and winning.
I was convinced it would be a short visit

How wrong l was.

Whilst it could be its own thread in a year or so from now (!), we were on fire for the first half of 2006 in the first year of the Conference. And then the first defeat came in an FA Cup to Wycombe and the doubt crept in. Only two wins in 17 across all comps allowed others back in. We treaded water, Dagenham overtook us and the momentum slipped. Shock and awe didn't work anymore.

» Season

rageonline.co.uk

Seeing the results again, too many draws did for us. Jim Smith scrabbled around for silver bullets to revive us and a host of random signings never really took off (Gregg Coombes, Kristaps Grebis, Martin Foster*, Marvin Robinson, Jamie Slabber, Georges Santos).

*When the inevitable playoff semi-final second leg 2007 XI quiz is conducted by You Are My Oxford, he is going be a forgotten answer.

 

[m]

OxBlogger said the very same in the BtB podcast that I mentioned in the opening post about us being at the highest level we can realistically reach under current stdium conditions. I'm inclined to agree as we simply have nowhere to grow being in a leased stadium with no revenue streams from it.

It's one of the reasons why I raised this thread. Despite being nearly 20 years ago, the events of the first half of 2006 have had a massive bearing on the club. The years of mismanagement, bad decisions and declining fortunes on the pitch cast a massive shadow over us still.



Whilst it could be its own thread in a year or so from now (!), we were on fire for the first half of 2006 in the first year of the Conference. And then the first defeat came in an FA Cup to Wycombe and the doubt crept in. Only two wins in 17 across all comps allowed others back in. We treaded water, Dagenham overtook us and the momentum slipped. Shock and awe didn't work anymore.

» Season

rageonline.co.uk

Seeing the results again, too many draws did for us. Jim Smith scrabbled around for silver bullets to revive us and a host of random signings never really took off (Gregg Coombes, Kristaps Grebis, Martin Foster*, Marvin Robinson, Jamie Slabber, Georges Santos).

*When the inevitable playoff semi-final second leg 2007 XI quiz is conducted by You Are My Oxford, he is going be a forgotten answer.

No. Just looked Martin Foster up on Wiki. Plainly not real.

You need to learn to fact-check.

 

[Stranger]

OxBlogger said the very same in the BtB podcast that I mentioned in the opening post about us being at the highest level we can realistically reach under current stdium conditions. I'm inclined to agree as we simply have nowhere to grow being in a leased stadium with no revenue streams from it.

It's one of the reasons why I raised this thread. Despite being nearly 20 years ago, the events of the first half of 2006 have had a massive bearing on the club. The years of mismanagement, bad decisions and declining fortunes on the pitch cast a massive shadow over us still.



Whilst it could be its own thread in a year or so from now (!), we were on fire for the first half of 2006 in the first year of the Conference. And then the first defeat came in an FA Cup to Wycombe and the doubt crept in. Only two wins in 17 across all comps allowed others back in. We treaded water, Dagenham overtook us and the momentum slipped. Shock and awe didn't work anymore.

» Season

rageonline.co.uk

Seeing the results again, too many draws did for us. Jim Smith scrabbled around for silver bullets to revive us and a host of random signings never really took off (Gregg Coombes, Kristaps Grebis, Martin Foster*, Marvin Robinson, Jamie Slabber, Georges Santos).

*When the inevitable playoff semi-final second leg 2007 XI quiz is conducted by You Are My Oxford, he is going be a forgotten answer.

'Going to be'?

 

[RgYellows]

Who the hell is Gregg Coombes.

Edit: Jamie Mackie on the bench for Exeter in the second leg!

 

[SteMerritt]

Who the hell is Gregg Coombes.

The unknown fifth member of Supergrass?

 

[m]

The unknown fifth member of Supergrass?

Was obsessed with sausage rolls.

 

[unification]

Who the hell is Gregg Coombes.

Edit: Jamie Mackie on the bench for Exeter in the second leg!

One game wonder. Signed on loan from. Cardiff. Played in a televised tie against Rushden for 76 minutes. Made the bench five more times and never came on.

Now a sports masseuse in his native Cardiff.

 

[Jonny G]

The unknown fifth member of Supergrass?

I should coco

 

[Steve Gilbert]

I went to the Wrexham game what a nightmare that was couldn't get tickets for the orient game so stood on the mound or climb a tree behind the fence end

In a perverse kinda way I actually enjoyed playing in non league we were a very big fish in a little pond nearly every away game we had more fans than the home team did . It was fun until the Exeter play off home leg that was another dark moment because after that it all went downhill until wilder took us on a journey

I tend to agree about the non league days, had some great days out at places like Dagenham, Ebbsfleet, the night game at FGR, St Albans, going to Grays away and being in a cafe at 9am and a little Chinese lady trying to sell us knock off porn DVD’s, Exeter away in the play offs was a great day/night but the home leg was horrible. Rushden away in the play offs was another great afternoon/night to be an Oxford fan. Those games against Luton which weren’t for the faint hearted. Even Eastbourne away last game of the season when Wilder wasn’t their due to scouting our play off opposition and we lost was a great day out. Stafford away taking over their stadium bar. The birth of the Ultra’s (thank you @WuTang).
As a fan who just enjoyed the days out, a few beers and sign song I look back on that time with many fond memories.
On the flip side, some of the home games were hard going in those days and teams turned up treating it like a Wembley final and parked the bus which made a lot of games a hard watch. Along with the away games such as losing to Barrow on a Friday night and Droyslden away both live on TV.

Where we are now is a million miles away from those days.

 

[Danny777]

Had a season ticket this year, but started giving my refereeing a good go so didn’t go to many games. And this ended up being my last year with a season ticket!

The orient game I actually refereed the youth team at brasenose college in the morning beforehand, and they gave me a lift up to the game on the minibus so I ended up milling around in the tunnel beforehand… you could cut the atmosphere with a knife.

 

[Stranger]

That Orient game remains my least favourite game ever - even worse than that 7-0 roasting by Wigan under Pep. Had my son in tears at the end and I wasn't much better. Still. the 3-1 win over York on 16 May 2010 put a lot of ghosts to rest. To me, that sums up being an Oxford fan - for every low there's an equal high and that's the way it should be. Games like Orient make games like York that much more special. Losing the play-off final to Wycombe made the Bolton win that much sweeter, etc.

 

[West Oxon U’s]

Other memories from 2005-06 included playing Cheltenham four times in three weeks and struggling in every game and feint memories
of an issue on an away trip where the team coach doors flung open and some players almost ended up on the motorway?

We won FOUR league games between January and May that season and kept two clean sheets in that period.

 

[LittlemoreYellow]

Just off the original posters point about lack of goals, I actually thought Sabin (despite being ex-S*****n) was actually a quality player and had we had some better creative players around him would have scored a shed load. He was electric and could finish, everything League Two defences usually hate. Unfortunately that season, we just weren't good enough in pretty much all areas of the squad. Too much youth who were thrown into a tough situation and some loan players that didn't work at all. The Orient game is genuinely the worst I have ever felt after a football match, been going since 1995.

 

[Kernow Yellow]

As others have said, the turning point was selling our three most creative players in January. I challenged Talbot about this at a fans forum* held shortly afterwards. He said [paraphrasing] - Bradbury had to go to avoid triggering an appearance-linked clause in his contract, and Talbot didn't want to keep him on the money he was on; he didn't want to stand in Hackett's way, and his move was a good opportunity for the lad; and Davies was basically a waster - 'let's see what he's doing in a couple of years time' were roughly Talbot's words. [Well, Brian, he played at L1 and Championship level for most of the next 12 years. Shame you weren't strong enough to manage him, eh?]

*The same fans forum where Kassam, on being strongly 'urged' by those present to sell the club, said he had an offer on the table but would only sell it together with the ground, as otherwise the sale wasn't in the club's interests. Turns out he was right, even if he did exactly that soon afterwards, and we're still trying to extricate ourselves from the issue now.

 

[greatunclekip]

Ultimately it was the start of our traditional shite January window, clearly our worst ever with only the Taylor/Smith/Konate one coming close..

Ultimately, 3 things sent us down.

1) Brian Talbot having one plan of Burgess creating for Onandi Lowe. With Craig Davies as an alternative that could work. When you fail to sign Lowe and trade Davies for Neville Roach you genuinely should just be relegated automatically at that point.

2) Ian Atkins doing an incredible job. Genuinely almost a miracle, but again with good organisation and players knowing their role. We missed a trick not making the call.

3) the return of Jim. Anybody who has spoken to any players from that time will share that whilst the aura remained, perhaps some of the methods had dated a little. To a team of weak individuals like Andy Burgess, that was never going to work. In a relegation situation you bring in trusted league 2 performers, as Atkins did at Torquay, and as proven with Smith and Ntoya. You can’t take risks with Andrea Guatelli, Liam Horsted etc.

That first year of the conference was great fun. Our absolutely mad dependence on Rob Duffy was always going to be risky though.

 

[Left Wing Cross]

Ultimately it was the start of our traditional shite January window, clearly our worst ever with only the Taylor/Smith/Konate one coming close..

Ultimately, 3 things sent us down.

1) Brian Talbot having one plan of Burgess creating for Onandi Lowe. With Craig Davies as an alternative that could work. When you fail to sign Lowe and trade Davies for Neville Roach you genuinely should just be relegated automatically at that point.

2) Ian Atkins doing an incredible job. Genuinely almost a miracle, but again with good organisation and players knowing their role. We missed a trick not making the call.

3) the return of Jim. Anybody who has spoken to any players from that time will share that whilst the aura remained, perhaps some of the methods had dated a little. To a team of weak individuals like Andy Burgess, that was never going to work. In a relegation situation you bring in trusted league 2 performers, as Atkins did at Torquay, and as proven with Smith and Ntoya. You can’t take risks with Andrea Guatelli, Liam Horsted etc.

That first year of the conference was great fun. Our absolutely mad dependence on Rob Duffy was always going to be risky though.

I still don't understand why Talbot kept thinking he could sign Lowe.

Peterborough had tried to sign him and he couldn't get a work permit. Why did Talbot think it would be any different?

 

[holdsteady]

Did Talbot go on to manage anyone else after us?