Billy Jeffrey in action against Sheffield Wednesday in November 1977

Please forgive the Inspiral Carpets lyric in the heading. It’s almost the end of the season and we’re a bit like a schoolkid as the holidays approach.

On Saturday, it’s United’s last home game of the season and, wouldn’t you know it, there’s still a Rizla’s thickness chance that we might not get relegated, thanks to Ipswich’s 2-1 win at Charlton on Wednesday. All that has to happen is for Oxford to beat Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday and then also to beat automatic promotion hopefuls Millwall away the following week, while Charlton lose at home to Hull City (still in with a shout of the play-offs) this weekend and then repeat the feat at nothing-to-play-for Swansea City in their final game. Easy, innit.

Of course, we all know that the whole thing is pretty improbable, but yet still we insist on hanging on to that slimmest of threads – what’s the expression about the hope that kills you? Indeed, Oxford might even find out their fate before the Sheffield Wednesday game, as the Addicks play the Tigers in a 12.30 kick off on Saturday, meaning if they don’t lose we’ll be relegated before a ball is kicked. How shitty would that be?

Assuming (lol) that Charlton do lose to Hull, United then have to beat the Owls to take their season to the final game. All very Tranmere ’92. The good news is that we beat Tranmere to defy the odds and stay in the second tier (it wasn’t called the Championship back then, just good old Division Two). The other bit of good news is that Oxford have a winning home record against Wednesday, with eight wins, five draws and five defeats.

After the first meeting between the sides ended 1-1 at the Manor in August 1970, Oxford went on to win the next four home games against the Owls, all by a goal to nil, through the early 70s. The sequence ended with a 1-1 draw in 1976 before Les Taylor got United back on track with another 1-0 win in November 1977 (with both teams now in the Third Division).

A 1-1 draw in April 1979 (on a Wednesday, appropriately enough, exactly 47 years to the day before this season’s meeting) foreshadowed three consecutive home defeats to the Owls in which the U’s failed to score, including a 3-0 FA Cup defeat in February 1984 [Watch HERE].

Oxford were back to winning ways in March 1987, when they beat Wednesday 2-1 in a top-flight encounter, but just over a year later, in April 1988, the visitors inflicted another 3-0 defeat on the Yellows as they plummeted out of the First Division.

The sides met at the Manor in the League Cup in September 1996, when former Owl Nigel Jemson scored the only goal of the game against their Premier League opponents [Watch HERE].

It was another 26 years before the sides crossed swords again, this time as equals in League One in January 2022. A Sam Winnall goal and a Matty Taylor brace were enough for Oxford to come away with a rather fortunate three points [Watch HERE].

In April 2023 the points were shared thanks to a rather brilliant Barry Bannan goal that was cancelled out by a Cameron Brannagan penalty [Watch HERE], while the last time the sides met in Oxford was in December last season, when Greg Leigh’s opener was cancelled out by three Wednesday goals [Watch HERE].

You can see all the results between United and Wednesday HERE.

On This Date

United have played just 11 games on 25th April, winning and losing three times and drawing five. All three U’s wins have been at home, including their first match on this date, a 4-0 hammering of Kidderminster Harriers in the Southern League in 1959.

Oxford’s first Football League game on this date was a goalless draw at home to Southend United in 1964, while three years later their first away game on 25th April was a 1-1 draw in Oldham. In 1979, as mentioned above, United and Sheffield Wednesday shared the points at the Manor.

United’s first defeat on this date was a top-flight game at White Hart Lane in 1987, Tottenham running out 3-1 winners [Watch HERE for some Glenn Hoddle brilliance].

Home defeats by Brighton and Birmingham sandwiched a draw with Ipswich Town during the 1990s and Oxford’s next game on this date wasn’t until 2011, when they travelled to Barnet and drew 2-2 [Watch HERE].

The last two times the U’s have played on 25th April have resulted in wins for the Mighty Yellows. In 2015 they welcomed Cambridge United to the Kassam Stadium and ran out 2-0 winners thanks to the twin strike force of Kemar Roofe and Danny Hylton [Watch HERE], and three years ago, in 2023, Cheltenham Town were thrashed 4-0 in a scintillating performance capped off with some Marcus Browne brilliance [Watch HERE].

You can see all Oxford’s 25th April results HERE.

The Game

This is one of those rare games in that, leading up to it, either everything is riding on it or nothing is. We won’t know for sure until the final whistle at the Valley, which means that we have to plan that it’s going to be extremely important, even if it turns out to be the proverbial dead rubber.

This means that for the game itself the mood is going to be either buoyant or absolutely flat. One would hope that, if the worst does happen in SE7, the fans will nevertheless get behind the lads and cheer them on to ensure that Oxford don’t become just the second side to suffer defeat at Wednesday’s hands this season, while the U’s garner their first double in the second tier since 1997/98, when West Brom were beaten both home and away.

It also means that Matt Bloomfield et al can’t play silly buggers and try experiments like playing Brannagan in the #10 role. He may have been a bit off it in the Derby game, but Jamie Donley is probably the best player we have for that position, and if he’s not to be trusted, then play Mark Harris there, who’s done it before with some success.

In fact, apart from dropping Brannagan back into the heart of midfield (probably at the expense of Jamie McDonnell, who did alright against Wrexham but sometimes them’s the breaks) the only other change I would make is to relieve Myles Peart-Harris of his Oxford shirt and start Aidomo Emakhu on the left. He did enough in his second-half cameo on Tuesday to justify a start; otherwise give Jeon Jin-Woo a runout – he has impressed when involved previously and certainly offers more than an apparently uninterested MPH (I’m sure he’s actually interested, but he hasn’t played as well as we know he can for a while and so a change on the left is probably for the best).

It’s a game that requires Oxford to be on the front foot from the start, taking the game to an opponent that has been relegated since February and has beaten only Portsmouth in the worst Championship campaign in the history of the competition. So get Stan Mills higher up the pitch, allow Brannagan to face the play and make those sweeping passes we know he’s capable of, and let the defence, with Yunus Konak, take care of itself.

Of course, we mustn’t take Wednesday for granted. They may be the worst side in the division by a country mile, but they have improved of late with three draws from their last four games, losing 1-0 to play-off chasing Middlesbrough in midweek. If Oxford relax too much, or take their eye off the ball in the belief that turning up will guarantee victory, well, we all know the likely outcome of that scenario.

Much as I enjoyed our trips to both Hillsborough and the King Power Stadium this season, I don’t particularly want to repeat them next term, so I will be glued to the Charlton v Hull game in the pub before making my way to the Kassam for the main event, hoping that there’s still something to play for other than pride and that we can take the season into a fitting finale at the Den on 2nd May.

It’s the last home game of the season though, so whatever happens, let’s cheer the boys on to victory.

UTFO