Memory Lane 2005-06 Season - 20 years on

[Left Wing Cross]

Did Talbot go on to manage anyone else after us?

I seem to remember he went to Malta

 

[brinyhoof]

I seem to remember he went to Malta

Yep, as referenced in our Brians quiz at the end of this Oxblogger podcast:

 

[Marked Ox]

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 (pen) was always going to be risky though.

Corrected for you.

 

[unification]

20 years ago today it occurred. Unhappy birthday to all those who commiserate.

This one felt much, much worse compared to the relegation of we’ve experienced this year.

 

[Northstandboy]

20 years ago today it occurred. Unhappy birthday to all those who commiserate.

This one felt much, much worse compared to the relegation of we’ve experienced this year.

I remember the day well. Wish I couldn’t!

But 20 years later look at us now!

 

[holdsteady]

At least we have a lot of anniversaries on years that have a 6 at the end, bit of a mixed bag but there you go.

 

[Morris Oxford]

Football wise 2005/06 was a strange season for me.

I was abroad for the whole of it, Mrs MO and I were travelling round the world, a ‘grown up gap year’ if you like. Or as one of my brothers said at the time the ‘denture adventurers’.

This really was a once in a lifetime experience for both of us and to be honest quite out of character. We quit our jobs and caught a plane to Sri Lanka.

I won’t bore you with the rest of the trip, but I deliberately made a decision to concentrate on the here and now of the trip, experiencing new places and meeting new people. On the whole avoiding the internet news sites. Of course I would keep a check on OUFC results but that was as far as it went, I had no idea about performances as such.

Even from far away and the result updates it was clear we weren’t having the best of seasons, but with a handful of games left we appeared ‘ok’.

I was completely shocked when I heard about our relegation into non league, just numb and disbelief is the best way to describe it.

However after returning home later that summer and the sudden realisation I needed to find a job, one of the first things I actually did was get myself a season ticket for Conference level football.

So if you’re going to pick a season to miss, 2005/06 was the one.