2006 is a year that Oxford supporters will view with mixed emotions. The year started with a 1-0 win at Chester on 2 January, thanks to a Steve Basham goal. However, that turned out to be the last win that the team achieved under the management of Brian Talbot, who was sacked by Bill Smith and Brendan Cross. These were employed by chairman Firoz Kassam in March, when he decided that he no longer wanted a hands-on involvement with the club that he took over in April 1999. During the January transfer window, the club lost three important players, with Chris Hackett moving to Hearts, Craig Davies to Verona, and Lee Bradbury, who was in a contractual dispute with Kassam and Talbot, left for Southend United. Coming in were Andy Burgess and John Dempster from Rushden, Tim Sills from Aldershot, and Yemi Odubade from Eastbourne Borough.

Bill and Bren's first act with their delegated authority was to sack Talbot and appoint youth team coach Darren Patterson as first team manager. Patto's first game in charge was preceded by a large demonstration by United supporters, who initially blocked the coaches carrying the visiting Bristol Rovers fans before they distributed Kassam Out leaflets to the passengers. The Oxford supporters then proceeded to charge up the stairs to the Christchurch suite, where visiting directors were eating their lunch. Again, leaflets were distributed before the peaceful demonstrators left of their own volition. Meanwhile, the OxVox committee and invited members were having a frank and vociferous meeting with the new board members. The match ended with a 1-0 win to Oxford, thanks to a Basham penalty. Patto's next two games in charge were both drawn, away to Notts County and Bury.

During the next week it was announced that Kassam had sold the club (but, significantly, not the stadium) to a consortium led by former youth team player Nick Merry, now a businessman based in Florida, and included United legend Jim Smith, who had led the club to successive championships of the third and second divisions, back in the early 1980s. Smith was installed as manager, with Patterson eventually reverting to his former responsibilities with the youth team. It is possible that Patterson's reign of three games in just under a week is the shortest tenure of a contracted manager in the league.

The new era for United began in the best possible way, as Tcham N'Toya scored the only goal of the game against Peterborough United in front of 7,486, the largest home attendance of the season so far. Unfortunately, the side could manage only one more win that season, 2-0 at home to Barnet, before they lost the final match 3-2 at home to Orient in front of 12,243. As a result, United lost the league status that they had gained 44 years earlier, when the Southern League champions replaced Accrington Stanley, who had been declared bankrupt and gone out of business in March 1962. Ironically, some might say, one of the sides that replaced United in the league was also called Accrington Stanley, which was formed in 1968 to replace the earlier incarnation.

During the summer United shipped out several players, brought in several others, while Barry Quinn, Billy Turley, and Chris Tardif signed new contracts. Among those leaving were Player of the Season (somehow) Lee Mansell, who joined former boss Ian Atkins at Torquay, Matt Robinson who went to Forest Green Rovers, Sills went to Hereford United, and Jon Ashton, who joined Rushden. Players joining included former United centre back Phil Gilchrist, who was made the club captain, as well as Carl Pettefer from Southend, Gavin Johnson from Northampton, Eddie Hutchinson, who turned down Swindon when he moved from Brentford, and Rob Duffy, who came from Cambridge, possibly.

Oxford's first season in the Conference started with a home game against much-fancied Halifax Town, which Oxford won 2-0 thanks to a Duffy penalty and a Burgess 30-yarder. That was the start of an unbeaten run that lasted for 17 games, which set a new Conference record for an unbeaten start to a season. The run came to an end at Gravesend & Northfleet, when Oxford lost 1-0 on 18 November. United won only one more game in 2006, beating Tamworth 2-1 at home, but they went on to break another record, the 11,065 who watched the Boxing Day game at home to Woking setting a new Conference attendance record. That game ended 0-0, and the side's last match of the year was a similarly disappointing 1-1 home draw with Crawley, which knocked them off the top of the Conference for the first time since early August.

So, in 2006 Firoz Kassam and Brian Talbot left the club, to be replaced by Nick Merry and Jim Smith, which is surely an acceptable trade off. The side lost its league place, but ended the year second in the Conference, on goal difference, and looking in a reasonably strong position to regain league status at the first time of asking. Still unresolved is the issue of ownership of the Kassam Stadium, despite Kassam's statement at a fiery open meeting early in the year that he would not sell the club and ground separately. After the events of this last year, 2007 could be one of the most important in the history of the club, as the difference between promotion back to the league or remaining in the Conference in 2007/08 could determine United's long-term future.