The week unwrapped

Pass me another Lemsip, because I’ve caught FA Cup fever this week. It all started on Sunday with a solid 1-0 defeat to Sunderland for the men. Although it was a fairly limp attacking performance, after the debacle against Norwich, we could be reasonably pleased with how it turned out. 

Then, on Wednesday, it was the FA Youth Cup with the Oxford United Muppet Babies hosting the Manchester United Rugrats. In driving rain and in front of over 3000 fans, the Red Devils cruised to a relatively straight forward 3-1 win. Now, it’s down to the Women (isn’t it always the way, sisters?) in their 5^th Round tie against Charlton Athletic on Sunday.

With the mild diversion of the cup out of the way, it’s time for the men to focus on Championship survival. While we’ve turned our backs looking at shiny cups, both Blackburn and Portsmouth have registered important wins. Elsewhere, Leicester City have appointed everyone’s favourite short term contractor, Gary Rowett and have appealed their points deduction. With all that up in the air, we go into the weekend six points from safety. 

Opponents

Middlesbrough look like they’re on their way to the Premier League despite a 3-1 defeat to Coventry on Monday night which saw their brief stay at the top of the table come to an end.

Before that, they’d registered six straight wins in what is promising to be a fruitful season. 

Boro are another reminder of what we’re up against, transfer budgets are measured in tens of millions and they look more than ready to take their place in the top division.

On paper, frankly, we have no hope, with games against West Brom and Blackburn in the next few weeks more likely to define our season. That said, going in without expectation might suit us just fine, as it did against Coventry a few weeks ago.

Football friend | Gary Briggs

Only one player played more top flight games for Oxford United than Trevor Hebberd. Gary Briggs played not only the first and last games in the top flight, he made over 500 appearances in total, the third highest in the club’s history.

During the 1980s, alongside Malcolm Shotton, Briggs was one of the most terrifying players in English football, in a career littered with concussions, shattered cheekbones and suspensions.

Briggs thought his football career was coming to an end at the beginning of 1978 when, as a Middlesbrough youth team player, and on the verge of joining the police, he was approached by manager Mick Brown to join Oxford on loan.

He made his debut, aged 18, on 11 January 1978 against Cambridge United partnering Ian Stott, a part-time civil servant from Wallingford. The deal was made permanent in July, with the fee decided by the first ever Football Tribunal. He was due to be the second case heard, but the first struck a deal before the hearing. The £12,000 fee was some way short of Boro’s £60,000 valuation.  

By the end of the 1979/80 season, Briggs was a firm favourite winning Player of the Season, an award he picked up at the start of the final home game of the season against Lincoln. He ended the day in hospital with concussion after a clash of heads.

It wasn’t just his own injuries he was responsible for. In 1982, against Walsall, Briggs shattered Shotton’s nose when the two players went up together for an aerial challenge.

His partnership with Shotton became the beating heart of the club as it climbed the divisions. Off the field he was surprisingly taciturn and famously frugal, he rarely giving much away. On the pitch, he gained the nickname Rambo but rejected the idea he was a dirty player, despite a litany of red and yellow cards including being sent off in a Milk Cup tie against Newcastle after scything down former England captain Kevin Keegan.

Briggs didn’t take long to settle into the First Division, gaining his first booking after 12 minutes in our opening game against West Brom with a crunching challenge on Garth Crooks which saw the player limp off.

In truth, Briggs and Shotton found the top flight hard as the team were propped up by the goals of John Aldridge. Shotton left in 1987, but Briggs pushed on, eventually enjoying a testimonial season and scoring a remarkable diving header against Manchester United in the Littlewoods Cup. With relegation confirmed at end of 1987/88, the only player to have navigated the whole of the club’s Glory Years, left to see his career out at Blackpool.

From the archive | Middlesborough 3 Oxford United 2

Well obviously. Perhaps Oxford United’s greatest ever defeat, which came down to just 90 seconds of joyous mayhem. In 2017, having comprehensively beaten Newcastle United in the previous round of the FA Cup, Michael Appleton’s side headed up to Premier League Middlesbrough to try and do a North East double. 

The game looked like it was going to form when Middlesbrough raced to a 2-0 half-time lead, despite Chris Maguire having goal harshly ruled offside immediately after the Middlesbrough opener.

Then, just after the hour mark the moment happened; Oxford won a free-kick on the edge of the box which Chris Maguire delicately lifted over the wall and into the net. Immediately from the re-start, Oxford surged forward with Rob Hall driving through the midfield. Boro retreated and Hall laid the ball off to Maguire whose low drive was parried into the path of Toni Martinez to side-foot the equaliser into the net.

The mayhem in the Oxford end was legendary, a forest of limbs and lost minds. Many Oxford fans remain unaccounted for, lost in the seas of delirium. 

It wouldn’t last, four minutes from time, Christhian Stuani gave Boro the winner, but that didn’t really matter. That 90 seconds of madness had cemented itself into Oxford’s history.