The week unwrapped

Do we need to rake over it all again? Wednesday saw us collapse spectacularly to Brighton in the EFL Cup with a stinging 6-0 defeat. While looking not entirely awful going forward, a much changed side drew deep on their creativity to invent increasingly eclectic ways of conceding possession, which Brighton gleefully turned into goals. Many years from now they’ll be studying the intricate dynamics of how we did it. And when I say ‘they’ I mostly mean circus performers.

Covfacts

I’m think I preferred Coventry when there was ‘too much fighting on the dancefloor’. Once the country’s most boring club – 34 consecutive seasons in the top flight and just 3 top 10 finishes – they’re now all vibrant and glowing. Say, babe, are you on the Mounjaro?

The thing is, I blame us. In 2017 they were bottom of League One when we met them in the EFL Trophy final at Wembley. By rights we were on the up and they were in the dumper. We didn’t turn up and they lifted the trophy. It was too late to save them from relegation, but they returned to League One a season later via the play-offs and have improved year-on-year ever since.  

Now they’re routinely Championship play-off contenders, last season finishing 5^th  despite a bad start. 

They started the season inauspiciously with a 0-0 draw against Hull but then crushed Derby 5-3 before liquidising QPR 7-1 last week. All this while signing four players, including one on loan, and spending just £3.5m. And then they announced that they’ve purchased own stadium. As a template of our future, Coventry City is a good place to start.

They’ve scored more goals than we’ve had shots on target and on Saturday, found the net more times than we had touches in Birmingham’s box. Still, a 2-1 defeat to Millwall in the EFL Cup on Tuesday means they’re technically on a losing streak.

Since our last win over them in 2019 we’ve drawn one and lost four, conceding at least three goals on four of those occasions. I mean, this all sounding absolutely fine, right?

Football friend | Bobby McDonald

As fine exponent of the 1970s football culture, Bobby McDonald enjoyed being a footballer. He joined Aston Villa in 1972, winning a League Cup winners medal three years later. He joined Coventry City in 1976 before signing for Manchester City in 1980 and playing in the 1981 FA Cup Final against Tottenham. City were led by the flamboyant John Bond, one of a dwindling number of fast living managers of the time.

Bond, McDonald and City seemed to be there good time rather than a successful time as the ill-discipline caught up with them. Relegation from Division One in 1983 resulted in Bond’s sacked and stern Celtic manager Billy McNeill taking the hot seat. 

Before the 1983/84 season, City were due to play Blackpool in a pre-season friendly. McDonald and teammate Peter Bodak, knowing they weren’t playing, decided to go out for a few drinks the night before. On the way home Bodak crashed his car and was arrested for drink-driving with McDonald in the passenger seat.

McNeill used the incident to sack both players for breach of contract. McDonald’s availability alerted Jim Smith, who stepped in and signed him for Oxford. McDonald’s experience helped mould Kevin Brock into one of the most exciting attackers in the country. McDonald pitched in himself, scoring against Leeds and Manchester United during the spectacular 1983 Milk Cup run, and against West Brom on the opening day of the season in Division One. Injury limited his run in the team as we progressed in the top flight. In 1987, he was loaned to Leeds in a move that was eventually made permanent.        

From the archive | Coventry City 4 Oxford United 0 (1982)

After beating Division One side Brighton 3-0 in the fourth round of the FA Cup, Oxford were drawn against Coventry City at Highfield Road. Despite the fine win, Oxford were a state of flux. The arrival of Robert Maxwell as chairman and owner put him on a collision course with the equally stubborn manager Ian Greaves.

Greaves was as confident in his own abilities as Maxwell and didn’t appreciate his chairman meddling in football issues. Less than two weeks after the Brighton win, Greaves left for Wolves with Maxwell threatening to sue for breach of contract.

Greaves’ assistant Roy Barry led Oxford to Highfield Road without Malcolm Shotton who’d been injured in a clash with Gary Briggs against Walsall. Holding out until just before half-time, Coventry took the lead. Things fell apart in the second half with Oxford conceding three more goals against a backdrop of a riot amongst Oxford fans.

Not the most auspicious of games, but significant none-the-less. Elsewhere on the same day Jim Smith who was manager of Birmingham City, took to the dug out for the last time before being sacked. A dinner that night would start a sequence of events which would lead to him joining Oxford. Smith had also given Les Phillips his professional debut. In London Peter Rhoades-Brown announced himself to English football with a famous goal for Chelsea to knock Liverpool out of the cup. All three would eventually make a significant contribution to the glory years to come.

Want more?

If you’re a true glutton for punishment, then sign up to the Oxblogger Newsletter, an eclectic bimonthly online fanzine written by the fans for the fans. The Pre-season issue is out now featuring your pre-season predictions, what happens when you fall out of, and back in love with Oxford United, an appraisal of The Soccer Tribe, the defence of non-scoring defenders and the surge of kit reveals.

Plus, the latest Oxblogger Podcast which originally planned to cover the panoply of owners that we’ve had over the decades, but eventually just talked about our current ones. Still, there’s a very good quiz about historical Brians. 

And, if you’ve really got this far and aren’t aware, this season marks the 40^th anniversary of Oxford United’s first season in the top flight, The Glory Years is out now the remarkable in-depth story of our rise through the divisions during the 1980s.