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First County Visit:	Tuesday 28th February 1995
Competition:	Endsleigh League Division 2 – (Tier 3)
Result:	Oxford United 4 – 0 Stockport County
Attendance:	4,594
Away Trip:	68
Away Day:	296
County Line-up	1 Matt Dickins; 2 Tony Dinning; 3 Mick Wallace; 4 Paul Ware; 5 Mike Flynn; 6 Matt Bound; 7 Jim Gannon (14 Michael Oliver); 8 Martyn Chalk (12 Deiniol Graham); 9 Ian Helliwell; 10 Alun Armstrong; 11 Chris Beaumont
Manager:	Danny Bergara
County Visits:	3

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THE CUCKOO LANE END & A DISMAL DISPLAY FROM MR BRANDWOOD

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It went the way of all flesh back in May 2001, and Oxford decamped to the Kassam Stadium.  At the risk of repetition, the replacement might provide for better accommodation, but it is of course at a loss of a traditional ground.

I’m quite certain that on my first visit with County, on a bitterly cold, and exceedingly damp February evening in 1995 that there was no thought that within 18 years we would be visiting the other side of the city of dreaming spires.  Not to the Kassam, (been there and done that a couple of time by then), but to Court Place Farm, home of Oxford City, then resident in the third tier of the Isthmian League, 5 divisions below us. But more about that when we reach that point.

I’d always found Oxford a strange city.  Yes, the Dreaming Spires provided the place for not only academia, but also throngs of tourists.  I’d spent a bit of time there in my last year at Exeter University, when I went for a weekend to see a friend of mine.  He’d got into Oxford University, more than I ever did.  Which is worth a little digression at this point.

I was lucky enough to attend the Manchester Grammar School in the days when education policy provided for all, irrespective of background.  I have little doubt that many reading this will determine that I was privileged.  Not so.  MGS then was a direct grant grammar school; open to all, irrespective of background.  Fee paying – yes.  But in those more enlightened days scholarship schemes and local authority support allowed the whole breadth of society to have access.  Class 1 Alpha in 1965 had lads from the leafy suburbs of Hale Barns and Alderley Edge, but it also had an equal number from what can be termed the arse end of Oldham and similar towns. 

I’m just sad that things have changed.  But I am critical of the policy of MGS which, because of my birthday, led me to taking O Levels at 14 and A Levels at 16.  The latter was too early and led me to spend 1971/72 retaking A levels when the original intention was to sit the Oxford entrance exam.  No matter, because I ended up at the right place for me.  But I spent an interesting weekend in Oxford at the back end of February 1975, looking round the colleges, seeing the sights and also taking in a game at the Manor Ground.

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But as I said earlier Oxford is a strange city.  The university area is hugely attractive, and prior to that weekend I had seen part of it previously.  A firm fan of football, but certainly with no aptitude on the field.  I worked out very early on that I was never going to be in the school football team, so I played lacrosse.  It was a pretty popular sport in the Manchester area, but other than for a small pocket in and around London, didn’t seem to have currency anywhere else in England. The school team had an away game against Oxford University, and it provided me with the opportunity to both see and play on The Parks. 

I’d heard a lot about that through my interest in cricket.  The OUCC team always had games against the counties, and at that time they had first class status, and many of the greats of the game had turned out on the Parks.  It was a chance to see the ground, because just as I am a football groundhopper much the same can be said of the summer sport. 

Oxford may have an academic heritage, but it is a strange place.  My career in social housing had as a reference point the Blackbird Leys Estate.  Built in the late 1950’s it had a bit of a reputation (from my perspective as a senior manager in a large housing association), as being hard to manage; problematic tenants; a fair degree of tension and all in all a place that was looked to as “how not to do things”. 

It all blew up in 1991 with three days of rioting and the police being stoned after a spate of car thefts, with the vehicles then being used for racing around the estate.  Many studies since then have sought to identify the root cause, and it is not my place within the space of a paragraph to comment further.  I identify it purely to show that there are two aspects to what is regarded as the “City of Dreaming Spires”.

Turning to the Manor Ground.  My weekend in Oxford back in 1975 took in a game there.  Turning up on spec my friend and I got onto the open end.  It was significantly more occupied than when I stood on the same spot some 19 years later on my first County visit.  We were in the Cuckoo Lane Terrace – an open end.  The reason for the big crowd that day was the visiting team.  Spending a sole season in Division 2, (the second tier), after relegation the previous April were Manchester United.  They were set for a swift return and were clear at the top of the table.  They lost that day, 1-0, as they had when I made the trip to Ashton Gate three months or so earlier, 

The extremely useful 11 v 11 statistics site tells me that turning out for them that day were Sammy McIlroy and Stuart Pearson, who were both the have future managerial roles at EP.  (McIlroy was manager for 13 months from October 2003 and Pearson was coach in 1985/86). 

The first visit told me that this was a ground, without a great deal of room for expansion, with a series of stands seemingly built piecemeal. But it had character.  Simon Inglis, (The Football Grounds of Great Britain), writing in 1987, when the clamour for a move elsewhere in the city was resounding loud and clear sums it up for me. “Maybe United would lose their heart and soul if they left this cloistered quadrangle for some brave new world out on the ring road”.  Got it in one – certainly the 3-sided Kassam Stadium has little to commend is in comparison.

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The first County visit came on a Tuesday evening. It was a re-arranged game with the scheduled fixture a month or so previously having fallen victim to the elements but sadly only 90 minutes before kick-off when the assembled Fingerpost throng was safely ensconced in the local Railway Club. The thick end of 380 miles for no return!! Four weeks later we went back to find the Manor Ground provided seven (!) different stands together with open terrace on Cuckoo Lane.  It was a real hotch-potch undoubtedly.  The Main Stand itself was only 50 yards long and ran from just one side of the halfway line to the corner.  Next to it, and adjoining Cuckoo Lane, was little more than a lean to providing seated cover for a total of 108 patrons. 

On the far side of the ground was Osler Road.  Three different, and separate, stands occupied this area.  The original, and largest of them, had been upgraded in the mid 80’s at a time when one Robert Maxwell was bankrolling Oxford to a couple of promotions.  The demand had been so great that two smaller covers, (both seating no more than 400), had been put up at that time as well.  It had been a case of using the available space, which wasn’t too great, with a bowling green and club, backing right up to the rear of the stands.  Indeed space, (or the lack of it), was clearly a driving force to the Club’s eventual relocation.  The London Road End was the home terrace.  The roof was low and would have provided the acoustics and environment for the generation of a fair atmosphere.

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The Cuckoo Lane End was where the County fans were directed that February night in 1995.  It was a strange enclosure, wedge shaped, with not much room where it abutted the Main Stand side but expanding pretty significantly as it headed towards Osler Road.  The following was not large that evening.  Jeff and I went on the Fingerpost Flyer, and apart from the 45 or so on there; a few who had made the trip under their own steam; and the southern based support it must have come to around 100 or so. 

It was a foul night; perishing cold and with rain and hail alternating made for an unpleasant experience.  At the top of the Cuckoo Lane End was some kind of police look out post.  It always reminded me of one of those bunkers so prevalent in World War II films.  It was the only source of cover on the whole terrace, and even then acted more as a wind brace.  We both sought solace and temporary respite there.  A foul night off the field and on it too. 

Little did we know that Danny Bergara’s reign had but a month left.  There was no real expectation of a decent result – after all the previous 5 league games had seen a paltry return of 2 points and we had slipped away from any prospect of challenging in the promotion race and were in mid-table obscurity. 

The teams took the field and we immediately noticed a change in goal.  Wearing the custodian’s shirt was our 4^th keeper of the campaign.  John  Keeley had started the season, then there was an alternation between Ian Ironside and Neil Edwards.  Edwards had kept the shirt since late November, but an injury the previous Saturday, (a 3-2 home defeat by York), had seen him injured and subsequently substituted by Matt Dickins, who was to make his full debut at the Manor Ground.  He had joined us from Blackburn and was to feature another 10 times.  It was a baptism of fire, as he picked the ball out of the back of the net on four occasions.  We barely threatened at the other end particularly after Ian Helliwell had first use of the soap after being sent off. 

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I can’t recall the exact circumstances but vividly remember dashing away from the shelter of the bunker at the top of the terrace to berate the official, Mr Brandwood of Staffordshire.  The second half saw another County debut.  Michael Oliver came on as sub. 

A midfielder, he had come to us from the youth system at Middlesbrough.  After his debut he played the majority of the remaining games that season, but few thereafter.  He went on to have a decent career at Darlington and Rochdale.  I thought he was a decent player but seemed to have little respect for authority.  Most County fans of that era probably recall him not for his contribution on the field but an alleged comment after a game at Wycombe in February 1996, when after a 4-1 defeat, (in  which he wasn’t involved), he was reported as shouting “Taxi for Jones”.  The statistics tell me that he never featured for us again!!

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I went twice more to the Manor Ground, both of which ended in defeat, so hardly a happy hunting ground.  The last trip was in February 1998, in Division 1, (the Championship these days).  I recall little about the game but I would put fair money on the assertion that not a single fan in the ground that day would have said that within 13 years both of the Clubs would have descended to the Conference.  But they did.  Oxford recovered and regained League status.  As I write in May 2020 my fervent hope is that the strides made in the last 3 years will see us on a similar trajectory.

May 2020

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VISITS

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Day	Date	Competition	Tier / Round	Opponents	Res	F	A	Crowd	Away Day
Tues	28/02/95 (Highlights)	Endsleigh League Division 2	Tier 3	Oxford United	L	0	4	4,594	296
Sat	07/10/95 (Highlights)	Endsleigh League Division 2	Tier 3	Oxford United	L	1	2	5,646	309
Sat	28/02/98 (Highlights)	Nationwide Football League – Division 1	Tier 2	Oxford United	L	0	3	6,650	380

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ON MY JOURNEY WITH COUNTY AROUND 180 GROUNDS

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Previously – McALPINE STADIUM Next stop – ADAMS PARK