Former United striker Nigel Cassidy has died following a short illness. [@player]cassidy, nigel[/@player]To show our respects to one of our early Manor heroes, and a man who has true claim on the title of Oxford Legend, we're reproducing below an article that we had published in the Oxford United programme, entitled Curran and Cassidy:

Cast your minds back to the mid-1970s: A time of dodgy music, dodgier dress sense, and dodgiest haircuts. Back then, bubble perms weren't just sported by stereotypical Scousers, but just about every youngster who fancied themselves as a footballer, or who just fancied themselves. An even greater crime against fashion was the tendency by grown men to wear moustaches, presumably in the mistaken belief that it made them look suave and sophisticated. Two of United's '70s icons were both guilty of these errors, and they can't be forgiven for using the excuse that it was the spirit of the age. However, they can be forgiven because of the goals they scored during a partnership that was both flamboyant and productive.

Hugh Curran and Nigel Cassidy first played together in September 1972, starting their new partnership in the best possible way by both scoring in a 2-1 win over Millwall. This was Curran's debut following his move from Wolverhampton Wanderers, although Cassidy came from Scunthorpe in November 1970, making his debut in a 0-0 home draw with Swindon Town. In their first season together, they notched up 29 games in which they both appeared, with Curran pipping Cass in the goalscoring stakes, finding the net 14 times in those games, including a hat-trick in a 5-1 win over Sunderland, a match in which Cassidy also scored (David Sloan got the other one). Cassidy scored six goals in those matches. The other game in which they both scored was United's historic 3-1 win at Swindon Town, where Dave Roberts scored the other goal.

Nigel Cassidy scores his first Oxford goal, against Cardiff City

In 1973/74 the pair played in 20 games alongside each other, the partnership coming to a premature end when Cassidy was sold to third division Cambridge United for