Clarets back at Oxford after almost a quarter of a century

09/27/2024 06:15 PM

It doesn't really seem that long ago but come next April it will be twenty-five years since Burnley last played at Oxford as we were moving ever closer to promotion in a season when they just avoided relegation.

We've trodden different paths since. We've never been out of the top two divisions of English football since that promotion under Stan Ternent in 2000; Oxford went down a year later and then in 2006 they dropped into what is now the National League. They did return four years ago but this season is their first at Championship level since they were relegated back in 1999 leading to the most recent games against us.

Tomorrow will be just the seventh time we've played a league game at Oxford and it will be the first time since Good Friday 1973 when an already promoted Burnley won 2-0 with goals from Frank Casper and Billy Ingham.

All the previous games were played at the old Manor Ground, where we also played, and lost, twice in the FA Cup. Tomorrow we will playing for the first time at the Kassam Stadium which has been Oxford's home since 2001.

We go into the game in third place in the Championship table, behind Birmingham and Sunderland. We've lost just the one game this season against Sunderland and have since drawn at home against Blackburn before beating Leeds at Elland Road and Portsmouth at home courtesy of a stoppage time winner from Josh Brownhill.

Speaking at yesterday’s press conference, manager Scott Parker said: "I'm really comfortable with where we are and very satisfied considering what the team and what the club had to deal with in terms of the stresses we had in pre-season.

"It's a brand new team we're having to develop now, so to be where we are currently and with a tough start as well, I'm very pleased with the way we've got points and the way we've managed to get points in certain moments, it's been really important and really pleasing."

It's very much a brand new team. If you look back at the first two games when we scored nine goals, four of those seven different goalscorers are no longer with the club and since the Sunderland defeat we've seen seven new players make debuts.

The last of those debutants is Zian Flemming who lined up for us for the first time at Leeds two weeks ago. He has settled in well having moved from Millwall. "It's been quite a good few weeks for me," he said. "We have won two games out of two, so that's obviously a good start on the pitch, but then you have all the practical side of it like moving house, finding somewhere to live and that's gone well too."

Looking forward to tomorrow, he added: "I haven't actually played Oxford before. We're going to have to roll up our sleeves and be really ready for it. There's definitely not going to be anything easy about this game and they are going to be full of confidence going into this one, especially being the home team."

Flemming was used as a substitute last week after having a good debut at Leeds with Lyle Foster returning to the team after a bout of illness. For tomorrow's game, it looks as though Parker will have all of last Saturday's match day squad available with Bashir Humphreys also available again after suspension and potentially Connor Roberts also; he's missed the last two games with the injury that forced him off the pitch in a recent international.

With three games between tomorrow and a week on Saturday, it is likely that there will be changes from game to game. As a reminder, the Burnley team last week was: James Trafford, CJ Egan-Riley, Joe Worrall, Maxime Estève, Lucas Pires, Josh Cullen, Josh Brownhill, Luca Koleosho, Hannibal, Jaidon Anthony, Lyle Foster. Subs: Václav Hladký, Shurandy Sambo, John Egan, Han-Noah Massengo, Josh Laurent, Zian Flemming, Jeremy Sarmiento, Andréas Hountondji, Jay Rodriguez.

In November last year, Oxford manager Liam Manning left to take over from Nigel Pearson at Bristol City. It looked a blow to Oxford who were riding high in second place in the table. Just over a week later they appointed former coach and Oxford fan Des Buckingham but they slowly started to drop down. After losing 5-0 at Bolton in March they were eighth but then came the recovery which took them into fifth place and the play-offs.

Having beaten Peterborough in the semi-finals, they had the good fortune of Bolton not turning up for the final. They won it 2-0 with both goals scored by Josh Murphy in the first half. It was a final in which Bolton, the clear favourites, didn't once trouble the Oxford goalkeeper and the result might have been far more emphatic than the scoreline.

That's brought them back to the Championship and tomorrow we have to break a trend. All of their six games to date have been won by the home side. They've lost at Coventry, Blackburn and Bristol City but have scored in all of them. The home games have brought wins against Norwich, Preston and Stoke, the last one bringing an end to the manager's time at Stoke.

They've scored a total of ten goals in those six games, just three less than us, with Mark Harris having scored four of them and six players scoring one each.

While we will go into the game without Jordan Beyer, Hannes Delcroix, Hjalmar Ekdal, Aaron Ramsey and Nathan Redmond, all of whom are long term injury victims, Oxford will also be without three players for definite. Cameron Brannagan, Przemysław Płacheta and Matt Phillips are all out and could be joined by Will Goodwin and Josh McEachran who are both doubts. They do have Kyle Edwards fit. He returned via the bench in the last game for his first appearance since December.

Their team at Bristol City last week was: Jamie Cumming, Peter Kioso, Elliott Moore, Ciaron Brown, Greg Leigh, Josh McEachran, Tyler Goodrham, Ruben Rodrigues, Sirike Dembélé, Idris El Mizouni, Mark Harris. Subs: Matt Ingram, Owen Dale, Kyle Edwards, Sam Long, Ben Nelson, Malcolm Ebiowei, Dane Scarlett, Louie Sibley, Will Vaulks.

LAST TIME WE WERE THERE

Burnley were chasing at worst a play-off place while Oxford were fighting against relegation the last time we played them in April 2000 but it was afternoon when, for a long time, the points looked set to go with the home side.

Matt Murphy gave them the lead in the 13^th minute and the score remained at 1-0 in Oxford's favour until five minutes from the end before two Burnley substitutes came on and got involved.

One of those subs was Paul Weller who got in the cross for Steve Davis to head home the equaliser with just over five minutes on the clock. And needing to win the game, we went in search of a second.

It was a fairy tale goal too for Weller who had fought back from a serious illness, been on the transfer list when he couldn't get game time but came up in stoppage time for the most unlikely of winners.

The ball looked to be running out of play down our left but the other substitute Ian Wright chased what looked to be a lost cause, got there, crossed and Weller it was who scored with a header to send the drenched Burnley fans into delight on the open terrace at the end where the goals were scored.

Burnley were fifth with five games to go and looked more than set for a top six place. Four more wins from those remaining games saw us finished second behind Preston since when we have never played at that level again.

The teams at Oxford were;

Oxford: Richard Knight, Les Robinson, Mark Watson, Phil Whelan, Paul Powell, Derek Lilley, Eddie Newton, Matt Murphy, Paul Tait, Steve Anthrobus, Jamie Cook (Nigel Jemson 64). Subs not used: Paul Lundin, Neil McGowan, Rob Folland, Simon Weatherstone.

Burnley: Paul Crichton, Ian Cox, Steve Davis, Mitchell Thomas, Dean West (Paul Weller 71), Micky Mellon, Paul Cook (Ian Wright 71), Lenny Johnrose, Paul Smith (Alan Lee ht), Graham Branch, Andy Payton. Subs not used: John Mullin, Ronnie Jepson.