games against Reading certainly had a serious 'bit of spice' about them
While, at the Skip, taking the Town end (before segregation was introduced) was a given, every time we went there ....
first visit to the skip after segregation came in, May 82 I think? - if memory serves it was Jim Smiths first experience of an away derby v scum, Smoke bomb chucked on the pitch from the town end ( unusually populated by scummers in a home fixture againts Oxford!) at the start of the second half, Roy Burton was engulfed in smoke and unsighted, scum score, referee Eric Read allows it to stand. Stratton bank was a terrace back then, full of Oxfords finest,, 'we' also had some of the lower terrace at the side. Read was felled in a hail of coins the first time he ventured anywhere near where Oxford were. Meanwhile, in the Stratton bank several crash barriers were uprooted and chucked over the wall towards the pitch, advertising hoardings kicked to pieces. We ended up losing 3-2 ( due to Eric Read's shocking descision Id say!)... Wiltshire police decided to lock Oxford fans in the ground to allow scum to scuttle off into the shadows, except, that was the first of several times that despite being locked in the ground the Stratton bank exit gates were removed rathe quickly, with an angry mob of Oxfords finest storming out. Mayhem ensued.