The week unwrapped

It seems like the most fun you can have in football nowadays is not playing football. Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Bristol City had glimmers of hope laced through it, but the positive energy about Matt Bloomfield’s debut was nothing in comparison to the signing of James McDonnell and Jin Woo Jeon on Sunday and Tuesday respectively.

Hopefully someone has told Bloomers that this isn’t normal, we don’t just bring a new player every day like a reverse version of The Traitors, it just feels like it. 

The positivity doesn’t disguise the fact that we are in deeper trouble now with Norwich, Charlton and Portsmouth all winning on Saturday. Not that Ben Purkiss is particularly worried. On The Dub he couldn’t be clearer:

“You spoke about being five points off the playoffs and people looking at that thinking, well, you know, we’re not far off. You’re probably closer to not being far off down the bottom if you’re five points adrift than being not far off if you’re five points adrift at the playoffs. 

If you put a couple of wins together, the likelihood of other teams around you winning means that you’re probably not far off. 

I feel like the teams are not too far off in every single game that is played this season, but are just a little bit too far off to win the game and really compete again, if that makes sense. But the point being is that I don’t think the gap is that difficult to bridge.”

“If you get a couple of wins out of games that you perhaps not really expected to, then all of a sudden you’re back in and amongst it. And yeah, you’re not far off it.

And I go back to the point I originally made, which is, you know, the team’s not far off.”

Don’t worry Ben, we understand the point you’re making, or at least hopefully we’re not far off.

Opponents

QPR are fabulously average and currently sitting in 11th place with just one win in their last five games, against whipping boys Sheffield Wednesday. So, we shouldn’t have anything to fear, which, as always, is famous last words.

As an illustration of what we’re dealing with, they’ve rcasually dropped £4.5m on Ronnie Edwards from Southampton and another half-a-million on Justin Obikwu from Coventry in the January transfer window. But still, despite the spending, you can’t help feeling their season is largely done. Maybe that’ll be an advantage, it’s hardly a guaranteed three points, but if we are to survive this season, it’s the kind of fixture that we’ll need to win.

Football friend: Billy Hamilton

Some things come in gloriously small packages, the Beatles were together for ten years, England’s entire Euro 96 campaign lasted 19 days, their Italia 90 knock out campaign just eight. Billy Hamilton’s Oxford career lasted 42 games.

Few players have had as much impact on the Oxford United fans than Hamilton. He’d already enjoyed a stellar career before joining in 1985, scoring twice in Northern Ireland’s World Cup game against Austria in 1982, so his signing three years later was a significant coup.

His first taste of English football was with Queen’s Park Rangers, who he joined from Linfield in 1978. Despite his physical all-action style, he was a gentle homebody. London life didn’t suit him. Three months after he arrived, manager Frank Sibley was fired and Rangers descended into open warfare. Stan Bowles, Phil Parkes, John Hollins and Gerry Francis were just four of the countless players who threatened to leave. 

Hamilton slipped to the margins when Tommy Docherty took over, preferring Clive Allen and Paul Goddard up front. Burnley stepped in to rescue him, offering an entirely different football experience. Hamilton thrived in Turf Moor’s homely, stable surroundings helping to establish himself as an international regular. 

In 1983, Burnley decided they wanted to change direction and brought in the flamboyant manager John Bond who sniffily said that Hamilton’s only quality was his goals. This was good enough for Jim Smith, and in 1984 he moved to sign the striker to partner John Aldridge up front.

The partnership was dynamite, by the end of 1985, between them they’d scored 38 goals. Then, on the 30^th January Oxford drew Blackburn in the FA Cup. Hamilton  injured himself during one of Ken Fish’s fabled pre-match warm ups. Oxford started the game with 10 men, after a few minutes Hamilton hobbled on but was quickly replaced by Mark Jones.

He didn’t score again all season, appearing fitfully as Oxford marched towards the First Division. Jim Smith brought in Jeremy Charles as cover.

In the First Division, Hamilton started up front with Aldridge and scored twice in a 5-0 demolition of Leicester  City. He played the following week at Sheffield Wednesday and then didn’t return to the starting line up until ten days before the Milk Cup final in April. His absence from the side cost him his place as Maurice Evans preferred Charles over Hamilton.

Hamilton knew his injuries were conspiring against him but he wanted to make the Northern Ireland squad for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico so persevered despite the longer term damage he was doing. 

He returned for the heroic 1-0 over Everton and scored his last Oxford goal against Arsenal to keep us up. It was enough to have him selected for the Northern Ireland World Cup squad where he started in a disappointing draw against Algeria. This led to criticisms that manager Billy Bingham was too reliant on his old crocked friends. Hamilton was on the bench for a defeat against Spain before coming on to try and save something from their loss to Brazil. The brief cameo allowed Hamilton to fulfil his dream of playing against the South American giants, but Northern Ireland’s campaign came to an end.

It was pretty much the end for Hamilton too. While he battled on, in private he was done, taking copious painkillers to get through training and games and suffering a series of set-backs. He played just twice more for Oxford before retiring aged 30.

From the archive | Queens Park Rangers 1 Oxford United 1 (1997)

I don’t remember this game, although undoubtedly I was there. As always during the 1990s we faced financial oblivion and relegation while QPR sat comfortably in mid-table. We’d won just one in ten and been beaten 4-1 at Swindon the previous Saturday.

As he often did, Joey Beauchamp’s masterclass saved us. His second which sealed the win, once seemed normal, but now looks like it was created on another planet.

The win would help us scrape our way to survival, finishing the season in 17th.