To mark Oxford United’s 125th season, we are looking back at what made the news this week in three of the club's promotion-winning campaigns

1965

OXFORD United lost ground after a thrilling 2-2 draw with Rochdale did little to boost their Division Four promotion hopes.

While York City and Brighton – the teams the U’s needed to overhaul to go up – were both winning, Oxford came close to their first league defeat in ten games.

Failure to convert chances was United’s chief fault after they fell behind inside 30 seconds.

But Graham Atkinson’s double earned the draw.

1985

OXFORD United midfielder Gary Barnett returned to the Manor after Fulham refused to pay £15,000 for the player.

Barnett had been on loan to Fulham for a month and impressed boss Ray Harford, who requested another month’s loan.

United boss Jim Smith refused, insisting if the Londoners wanted Barnett they should pay for him.

“In retrospect I asked too little for him,” said Smith, who admitted he wasn’t too unhappy the transfer had fallen through.

1996

OXFORD United’s players were told to wake up and buck up from the start or face an FA Cup hammering in their upcoming match at Nottingham Forest.

The U’s were half-asleep in the opening 30 minutes of their Division Two game at Chesterfield, conceding an early goal and were unable to claw their way back as a 1-0 defeat saw them slip to 14th.

Frustrated boss Denis Smith said: “When you start the way we did you don’t deserve to get anything from a game.

“It’s just not good enough.

“If we play like that in the first ten minutes against Forest we’ll be five down.”