Saturday 18th May 2024 ko 16:15

EFL League 1 play-off final

BOLTON WANDERERS 0

OXFORD UNITED 2 (Murphy 31 42)

Att 70,472 at Wembley Stadium

Entry (Club Wembley level) £59

Programme £10

It may surprise you dear reader, but Oxford’s appearance at Wembley completely took me by surprise. Just before Easter I’d been on a stadium tour at Exeter City and Martin the tour guide mentioned that our two clubs would play each other there in the final game of the league season. At that point I couldn’t see that anything would be riding on it.

Although Oxford had been in the promotion hunt all season a thin squad and the departure of manager Liam Manning to Bristol City in early November had seen United’s form slump. Manning’s replacement was Des Buckingham, recruited from City Group club Mumbai City.

His background was Oxford to his bones, growing up in Cowley, coaching our youth team before coaching the first XI under Chris Wilder. He’d left in 2016 and learned his trade in such diverse places at Wellington Phoenix, Stoke City, Melbourne City and the New Zealand Under-23 national team. He joined Mumbai as head coach in 2021.

And it very nearly went wrong for the man from Cowley, an uncertain start to his tenure reached its nadir with a 5-0 defeat at Bolton Wanderers. He could have easily departed at that point but a metaphorical line was drawn in the sand, and only 5 more goals were conceded during the rest of the season. That game at Exeter City proved to be pivotal. A win was needed for Oxford to nick the final play-off spot and other results to go our way. We won 2-0, and the results were really kind, we finished 5th not 6th and played Peterborough United in the semi-final.

I was on North Berkshire League duties for the first leg at home, and I did note that no local league altered the kick-off times of their finals that day which did seem rather self-defeating. As it was I helped with the NBFL’s presentation, then dashed home to watch the second half of the first leg on TV including our winning goal, then a few days later Oxford drew at London Road with Posh manager Darren Ferguson taking defeat rather badly! So unexpectedy Oxford were off to Wembley, and I had a problem.

The problem was Dad aged 89 and an Oxford United fan since 1949. He’s been in care home now for over 4 years, and is confined to a wheelchair. I knew he’d love to go, and that was via the same way we got to Wembley for the two Football Trophy finals in 2016 and 2017 . That was via a coach organised by our local pub, The Mason’s Arms in Headington Quarry. Landlord Chris once again organised the transport, but I knew Dad would be unable to climb aboard the coach, so I looked at alternatives. None seemed ideal, or even suitable, and I began to feel guilty about the whole thing.

In the end Dad decided he was too frail to go to Wembley but his care home organised for him to be able to see the game on TV in the dayroom and built an “Oxford United” day around him! I’ll always be grateful to them, it allowed Robyn and I to go to the game, knowing that Dad could see the game safely and on his own terms. We travelled from the Quarry in comfort, but I was getting nervous.

Like many others I’d attended all the Wembley finals where spectators were allowed- we’d lost to Wycombe in the League 1 playoff final in 2020 behind closed doors due to Covid. The others I explained to myself thus. The League Cup win in 1986 I was 15 and didn’t understand the incredible achievement it was, and in the 2010 Conference play-off win we were hot favourites anyway. The two losing Football League Trophy appearances didn’t matter, (who am I kidding, all Wembley finals matter when you’re there) but this unquestionably did.

In fact, so much did it matter that the prize of promotion to the Championship didn’t cross my mind, my thinking was that I just didn’t want to watch us lose again at the national stadium again. The trouble was that I couldn’t imagine a set of circumstances where we could win. Bolton had beaten us 5-0, they had finished 10 points ahead of us, and had both scored more goals and conceded fewer than we had. It couldn’t happen, could it?

Our arrival at Wembley reinforced my view. I looked, I listened and while I couldn’t call the Bolton fans arrogant they were supremely confident. I could see why, but could do nothing but hope. We’d paid the extra tenner or so for seats in the mezzanine “Club Wembley” tier, you do get padded seats and the concourses are notably less crowded too. I sat, worried, and at one point Robyn honestly thought I was going to keel over- it was that intense.

History will tell that Oxford won, and that metaphorically Bolton didn’t turn up. Inevitably the truth is more nuanced. Yes Josh Murphy had one of his unplayable Saturdays but that doesn’t give enough credit to Ruben Rodrigues whose pass found him for both goals. Other than that, I’ll remember the game for a few moments. One was Sam Long’s crunching tackle on Paris Maghoma in the open few seconds. We’d worried that converted centre half Long might struggle against the pacey wing-back. The tackle was clean, Maghoma was injured in the follow-though, and Bolton never threatened again on the left, and in the entire game failed to register a shot on target.

Then there was what Oxford forward Mark Harris did off the ball. Des Buckingham had clearly identified Josh Sheehan as Bolton’s play-maker from holding midfield. So, every time centre half Ricardo Santos got the ball, he looked to offload it to Sheehan, but every time Harris blocked off the potential pass to him. Sat next door to me, a bloke wondered why Harris didn’t high press Santos? He didn’t need to- Santos’ options had been reduced to sideways and backwards.

Hindsight being what it is we now know that Josh Murphy signed for Portsmouth in the close season. An acid test of how seriously I’ve taken the comments on his departure is how important he was to our promotion push. Yes, he was important, but he wasn’t as important to us as Tyler Goodrham, or club talisman Cameron Brannagan.

Brannagan seems to have made it his personal mission to get Oxford United promoted, and had turned down two transfers to then-Championship Blackpool to do so. For this game he was clearly carrying an ankle injury, it got worse during the second half then just after the hour mark, he realised he couldn’t carry on. If we’d have lost that look on his face would have haunted my thoughts for a long time. At the final whistle young Goodrham had the wide-eyed celebration of the local lad come good, while just after the trophy lift there was Brannagan phlegmatically leaning on the parapet rail quietly taking in the scene. You earned that Cam, and the eternal gratitude of 30,000 Oxford United fans.

But this was unquestionably the Buckingham Final. He set up his team perfectly and both players and management staff produced something remarkable on the day. As the game reached its climax I found myself thinking of a picture I’d seen in the boardroom at Glentoran of each one of their managers who won the club a trophy. If such a thing exists here, and if it doesn’t it should be, than Buckingham’s place is assured.

The pictures of him at his Aluma mater, Our Lady’s Primary School, Cowley surprising the pupils were wonderful, as well as his leading the crowd in the “Sw!ndon Town is falling down” chant on the open-top bus outside the Town Hall during the parade brought a tear even to my cynical eye. Because what I learned from Oxford United’s sixth visit to Wembley was that it matters so much more when it’s one of your own.

As a postscript the next day we took Dad out for a meal to celebrate his birthday. Two of our guests at the restaurant really don’t understand sport, or even why this game was so important to us. I have no idea how we kept the conversation away from football for those two hours! We made up for it later though!