Saturday lunchtime saw the top of the table Premier League clash between Chelsea and Manchester City featuring the tantalising John Terry v Wayne Bridge saga at Stamford Bridge live on Sky Sports 1. Following on at 5:15pm was the game between Stoke City and Arsenal which always brings up a talking point or two. This time it was the horror challenge which led to Aaron Ramsey’s broken leg.
At 8:25pm Football First began as usual which allows those who had been working or otherwise engaged to select their match of choice from the day and watch it back in full.
It continued on Sunday as midday saw coverage of the Old Firm Derby between Glasgow Rangers and Glasgow Celtic begin before the 2010 Carling Cup Final between Manchester United and Aston Villa came live from Wembley.
It was just a typical weekend for Sky Sports. But the home of hyperbole and building up the mundane was celebrating the anniversary of a landmark occasion this week.
Eleven years ago on Saturday (27/02/1999) Sky Sports showed its first ever Division One game live via its pay-per-view service; a 0-0 draw between Oxford United and Sunderland at Oxford’s Manor Ground Stadium. The network famous for encouraging the top division’s breakaway to form the Premier League in 1992 was now apologising to the Football League by showing their matches as well.
Unfortunately Oxford United were a club in decline and following on from this momentous occasion they dropped down the divisions back to the basement of professional football in England in 2000/2001. 1999/2000 had seen the club concede 100 goals and suffer the second-highest number of defeats by a club in a season – 33.
But with new chairman Firoz Kassam there was hope amongst the gloom. After purchasing the club from previous owner Robin Herd for a mere £1 in April 1999 he had set about writing off huge chunks of the club’s debt and finished building their new home, which he modestly named the Kassam Stadium.
It quickly diminished. Former Liverpool and England defender Mark Wright resigned in November after only two months in the manager’s hotseat following allegations of racist comments made towards referee Joe Ross.
Ian Atkins took over and fared little better. Oxford finished 21st in Division Three that year, their lowest ever league position, but they didn’t really come close to finishing in the bottom two and dropping out of the Football League.
Two failed promotion charges followed under the stewardship of Atkins and then former Arsenal and Chelsea defender Graham Rix. The managerial merry-go-round continued with no less than three incumbents over the next couple of seasons and Oxford became known as a bit of a revolving door when it came to managers.
2005/2006 saw the return of club legend Jim Smith to the manager’s chair but despite bringing in fresh faces to spruce up the dressing room Oxford suffered relegation from the Football League after 44 successive years. Ironically Accrington Stanley, the club who Oxford replaced when entering the Football League following their bankruptcy in 1962, were the team to replace them.
The season began well for them. Smith led them to 14 wins and 8 draws from their first 25 matches but a dip in form saw them slip to second place where they remained for the remainder of the season. Only the top team from the Conference gains automatic promotion to the Football League.
They were breaking records though. Boxing Day 2006 saw a crowd of 11,065 watch United draw 0-0 with Woking at the Kassam. It was the largest crowd to ever see a Conference match (excluding the Playoffs which began that season to enable two teams to gain promotion instead of one). They faced Exeter in the semi final of those playoffs but after two legs lost out on penalties.
On November 9th 2007 Jim Smith resigned after a poor start to the new season and first team coach Darren Patterson took over. The club never really troubled the playoff places despite a late surge seeing them winning nine of their last 11 games. It was going to be another season of Conference football for the 1986 League Cup winners.
2008 saw further changes. Nick Merry stepped down as Chairman to be replaced by Kelvin Thomas while after Patterson was sacked following poor results and former Halifax Town manager Chris Wilder was installed in his place.
Wilder led the club on a run of 15 wins from the next 21 matches which would have seen The U’s grab a playoff place. But a five-point deduction for fielding an ineligible player meant the club missed out by a mere four points. The heartbreaking decision summed up Oxford’s decade perfectly.
Money mis-management and expensive flops on the field have seen the demise of one of the famous faces of English football. Although now well placed in terms of a sensible chairman and a talented young manager there is still some way to go before the club can repeat the success Jim Smith achieved during his first stint managing the club.
For the likes of Portsmouth, Cardiff, Southend and Bournemouth who are currently in trouble with the tax man it is a stark warning of what could happen. Once you have left the Football League it is pretty hard to regain entry as the Conference is a tough division now packed full of ex-League clubs trying to re-live former glories.
Ask fans of Wrexham, Halifax, Cambridge and the recently-expelled Chester (again for financial irregularities) how hard it is and they’ll show you the battle scars.
It’s a funny old game football. Just not very much for the formerly famous fighting over the smallest column inches in a bid to survive.
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