Oxford United players and staff reflect on the crucial day at Wembley:

  • Alfie Potter, on scoring after coming off the bench: “A game as big as that is nerve-wracking. For the first five or ten minutes I was all over the place, but I worked my way into the game and had a moment I’ll never forget.

“Without doubt it was the best moment of my career – probably one of the best of my life.

“We would have gone on to win the game anyway but that moment everyone knew we were back in the league. It was unbelievable.”

  • James Constable, on pointing to the sky after scoring: “It was for my nan. We lost her when I was 16 and she was a big part of my life growing up.

“I’d always promised her I’d be a professional footballer and I never thought I’d get the opportunity to do it.

“I’d been to Wembley with Kidderminster and lost so to come back with Oxford was even more special.”

  • Ryan Clarke on his own goal: “It didn’t matter at the end of the day, but it was obviously gut-wrenching (at the time) and I wanted the ground to swallow me up.”
  • Chairman Kelvin Thomas: “One of the best parts of the day was we got there quite early and we turned up at the hotel and walked down Wembley Way, just talking to people.

“Seeing all the yellow was unbelievable – I think everyone had a silly yellow wig on.

“There was tremendous nervousness around it. We always had that feeling whenever you’re watching the game that it might go wrong.

“Looking back, it was one of the best days of all of our lives.”

  • Coach Mickey Lewis: “It was the best day of my Oxford career.

“The pressure of the game, we were 2-0 up and then in the second half we were just trying to get it over the line.

“It seemed to take forever but the moment the final whistle went was an absolute relief for everybody.”

  • Jake Wright: “It made it extra special that we had so many fans there compared to them.

“It kept us in the game when we were under pressure in the second half.”

“It was probably the best day of my career.”

  • Jim Rosenthal: “It was so important to this football club – I thought there was a real danger we’d be down there for a long time.

“There was a huge sense of relief when that (Potter) goal went in.”