Soooo many memories of the Manor days .... here's a few of mine from way back in the mists of time....
from my very first home game there on a bank holiday monday in the first season after the ( vehemently opposed by 'City) name change from Headington to Oxford United against Bath City ..... we lost (1-3 I think? ), after beating them at their place on the good friday a few days before.ad
Watched that one from the Beech Road wooden seats
Walking to and home from The Manor and going to games with me dad, invariably stopping to buy the Green Mail (on a saturday) on the way home off a chap at Green Road roundabout..... my Dad's still a ST holder (SS Lower)..... my dad had a habit (still does even 'today') of sharing a sweet every time the U's scored....... after our record home league win v Barrow ( 7-0 I think? ....we scored 7 in that one for sure) the sugar rush I had mustve seen me bouncing off the walls for hours after the game!
Watched that game from the Osler Road terrace near the kiosk (which was in the corner, under the floodlight pylon, close to the to the Cuckoo Lane turnstiles)
THAT historic and record setting FA Cup run, where then high flying Blackburn rovers, in the old First division were deservedly beaten 3-1 by then old 4th division (mid table) Oxford United, watched that game from a temporary scaffolding terrace on the Beech road, close to the London Road end, couldnt see much of the game that day, so amused myself by kicking a bent nail in the scaffolding plank I was standing on.
Was on the same section of temporary terracing for the FA Cup 1/4 final at the manor v Preston North End, albeit with a better view than the Blackburn cup tie, which we lost , albeit by the input or lack of from an incompetent referee not aux fait with the then, relatively new offside rule, (inconsistant & incompetent referees are nothing new!)..... grainy b/w footage of that game shows both Preston goals were at the very least questionably offside!
First league home game V scum , on a bank hol monday, it was absiolutely packed everywhere at the Manor..... went with my Uncle Roger (who is a North Stand ST holder these days) and watched that from what was briefly known as the boys stand, a raised terrace at the side of the Cuckoo Lane.
As I graduated from anklebiter to young teenager, Id
started going to home games with mates, and the London Road end was my prefered terrace. My younger sister had been going to home games with my Dad (she still does a few home games a season, my middle nephew goes to pretty much every home game with my Dad, my nephew is also a ST holder in SS Lower), she had been badgering him into taking her into the London Road end.... the one (and only) time that happened was the home FACup match v Watford, when in explicably BOTH teams played in changed kits (if memory serves we were in blue and white, they were in red and white ? ) ....match ended in a draw, but more memorable that game was when the London Road end wall collapsed. My sister was sitting on the wall when it gave way!.... her first and only time in the London Road end
