The week unwrapped

We’ve hit that time of year; what is known in the trade as Satdeetuesdeesatdeetuesdee. Or, in this case, Wednesday, with the midweek visit to QPR. As such, there’s not much to unwrap after Chris Wilder returned to do Chris Wilder things at The Kassam on Saturday, sending us to a 1-0 defeat.

What’s more to say? How about a little stat I’ve been saving for a rainy day? Where would we be if we’d played the same teams this year in the same order last season? It’s a calculation complicated by the fact we’ve played two teams we didn’t play last year, so, for them, I’ve taken the average points haul from all the teams that were promoted and relegated last season (1.3 points per game).

Taking that into account, we picked up 5.6 points last year from the teams we’ve played so far compared to five this year. Not great, but not awful and if we pick up anything from the next two games we’ll be back in the green zone. No need to panic yet, but picking up anything from Watford or QPR will very useful indeed.

Opponents | Hoopfacts

Queen’s Park Rangers sit ninth in the Championship, a position that may be a bit inflated by a relatively easy start to the season. After being pounded 7-1 by Coventry in their third game, they picked up three wins in a row against Stoke, Wrexham and Charlton, all teams we might hope to pick up points against. A draw with divisional whipping boys, Sheffield Wednesday, on Saturday might just be the chink of light that we’ve been looking for.

Otherwise Rangers are perennial mid-table dwellers, this is their eleventh straight season in the Championship and they’ve only finished higher than tenth once. That said, they did the double over us last season, so such averageness is probably an aspiration for us right now.

Football friend | Kevin Brock

Before Tyler Goodrham there was Joey Beauchamp and before Joey Beauchamp there was Kevin Brock. The Dalai Lamas of Oxford United, reincarnations of each other. They’re quick and dribble like the ball is stuck to their feet; just the sort of player Oxford fans have loved for decades.

Brock, like Beauchamp, was surprisingly stubborn for a quiet unassuming local boy, so expect Goodrham to be tricky when Real Madrid come knocking with an £8 billion bid in January. Even signing him as a schoolboy was difficult, his parents insisting that chief scout Fred Ford mentored him while he was at the club.

Brock played for England Schoolboys, including in a 3-0 demolition of Scotland at Wembley in 1978. He made his debut for Oxford a year later under Bill Asprey scoring his first goal against Swindon five months after that. 

In his second season; he was linked with a £150k move to Brighton, but Brock turned them down, Beauchamp-esque, with Brighton’s manager Alan Mullary claiming he’d told him his team was rubbish (a quote he eventually had to retract after Oxford’s board issued a stinging rebuke). A powerful manager bullying a young insecure player, sounds familiar, Harry Redknapp? 

Despite Brock’s star rising, Oxford were going in the wrong direction, running out of money and threatened with relegation. Asprey was sacked and replaced by Ian Greaves.

Greaves selected Brock just five times in the league, preferring a more defensively assured formation. When Greaves left and Jim Smith replaced him, his career was on the brink. Smith needed to trim his squad, and a quiet, stubborn, lightweight reserve winger could easily have been high on his list of players to jettison.

But Brock was perfect for what Smith wanted to do; exciting, attacking and with an unerring ability to deliver pinpoint crosses. He played 20 times in Smith’s first season and 44 the following year. At the start of 83/84, Smith brought in Bobby McDonald, giving Brock the defensive assurance to roam, raid and hone his craft. He missed just one game all season, scoring seven goals along with a mountain of assists.

But, it was a moment of madness which would define his place in history. A goal up to Everton in the quarter-finals of the Milk Cup, Brock’s blind back pass to Steve Hardwick was intercepted by Adrian Heath who rounded the keeper to score bringing a stellar Milk Cup run to an end and propelling Everton towards a golden period of domestic dominance.

Brock recovered as we secured the Division 3 title and was selected to play for the England Under 21s. After a man-of-the-match debut in the semi-finals of the European Championships, he was selected for the final against Spain, winning 3-0 on aggregate.

A second promotion in 1985 took him into the top flight, but Maurice Evans’ arrival signalled another change of direction. Oxford needed more defensive assurance and  Brock was sacrificed. 

Evans brought in the experienced Sprurs legend Steve Perryman, but as he was cup-tied and Peter Rhoades-Brown injured, Brock was selected for the Milk Cup Final, cementing him into Oxford folklore.

1986/87 proved more successful, but at the end of the season Jim Smith offered him a chance to move to QPR where he played 40 games in two seasons. When Smith moved to Newcastle he brought Brock with him where he played for five years before starting his gentle dissent towards retirement. 

Game: Oxford United 2 QPR 0 (1987)

For all the success Jim Smith brought to Oxford United in the 1980s, he haunted the club throughout their time in the topflight. He was there when we beat QPR at Wembley (though we’re not doing that one), he was at Loftus Road when Maurice Evans spat his dummy out at players being late for the coach leading to John Aldridge handing in a transfer request (we’re not doing that either).

QPR fans had a love/hate relationship with Smith, he delivered them to Wembley in 1986 but failed to secure their first major trophy for 19 years, he delivered some memorable victories but didn’t really improve on what had come before.

At the beginning of the 1987/88 season QPR started in blistering form. In their opening seven games, they won six and drew one. Oddly, for Smith, the success was built on a solid defence, having conceded just two goals. He was also benefitting from the signing of Kevin Brock whose two goals included one on his debut.

On 19^th September, the league leaders headed to The Manor. Oxford’s season had started less auspiciously with just one win and two draws leaving them third from bottom. What’s more, Maurice Evans was struggling to bring in reinforcements while his star man, Ray Houghton, was being pursued by a host of top clubs.

Days before the game, Evans had finally got the players he needed; David Bardsley and Richard Hill signing from Watford. Both went straight into the starting eleven. 

Smith’s preference to attack meant Bardsley could raid the QPR wing. An unknown force, he found space after just sixteen minutes to cross to Hill who beat David Seamen for the opening goal. Houghton, who discourteously said the game was an opportunity to put himself in the shop window, was determined to put on a masterclass. Three minutes before half-time, he ran through the Rangers defence to make it 2-0.

Asked whether losing Houghton would mean relegation, the mild mannered Evans said “You have to interpret the way you want. I wish I could write your bloody articles; I really do.” A month later Houghton signed for Liverpool. By the end of the season Oxford were relegated while Jim Smith’s high fliers finished 5^th.

Want more?

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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.