The past 20 years: Big hopes and false dawns

Greaves was replaced by caretaker manager Roy Barry and, after United's elimination from the FA Cup at Coventry, Jim Smith took over. United survived the ill-conceived idea of the merger with Reading as Thames Valley Royals and suffered due to the 'smoke bomb goal' at the County Ground. United's great seasons under Smith are documented elsewhere, as are his departure to Queens Park Rangers and Oxford's Wembley triumph under Maurice Evans.

Faring well under Brian Horton

United had three seasons in the top flight during which Maxwell moved his football interest to Derby and installed his son Kevin as chairman. The younger Maxwell sacked Evans' replacement Mark Lawrenson when Lawrenson objected to the sale of star man Dean Saunders (to Derby, where he joined Trevor Hebberd).

United fared very well in 1990-91 under Brian Horton, Lawrenson's replacement, but were only spared relegation at the end of the following term thanks to some unlikely results on the last day of the season. The death of Robert Maxwell led to Kevin Maxwell leaving the club. Horton left for Manchester City and was replaced by Denis Smith. United were relegated at the end of Smith's first season and lost an FA Cup tie to a Marlow side which was managed by former United striker Peter Foley and which contained former Manor players Les Phillips, Ceri Evans and Peter Rhoades-Brown, who was then (and is still) an employee at United.

Robin Herd took over the club and United returned to the new Division One in 1996. After so many false dawns and failed planning attempts a new ground was started at Minchery Farm. The developers Taylor Woodrow moved off site after a few months and, after Herd had handed control of the club to Firoz Kassam, the FOUL group of supporters has been very active in helping Mr Kassam to complete the stadium.

Denis Smith had moved to West Bromwich and, after a brief spell when Malcolm Crosby was in charge, former Manor legend Malcolm Shotton returned as manager. He caused an immediate improvement in the team's results but United were relegated at the end of the following season. With the team struggling against consecutive demotions, Shotton left and was replaced by Mickey Lewis. He in turn handed over to a returning Denis Smith and United very narrowly avoided relegation.

Smith lasted until September 2000, when he resigned "in the best interests of the club". After a brief spell with Mike Ford as caretaker boss, chairman Firoz Kassam appointed David Kemp as manager in November, after consultations with former Wimbledon boss Joe Kinnear, who stayed on as director of football. As United's season went from bad to worse, Kinnear left in February 2001 to become manager of Luton Town.

The end of the 2000-2001 season ended with Oxford United being relegated into the third division. This was the final season to be played at the Manor Ground as the club now moved to the Kassam Stadium, where work had been stalled for 2 years with legal problems.

Mark Wright did not last long

By May 2001 ex-England defender Mark Wright had been put in charge of the first team. But he did not last very long and by December had been replaced by Ian Atkins. The season was a poor one and resulted in Oxford finishing in 21st place.

In the summer of 2002-03 Atkins rebuilt the Oxford squad and released 17 players. Thus season fared much better than the last one and Oxford set a new record for number of away wins in one season. They also had success in the Cup when they defeated Charlton. They also had ties against Arsenal, Villa and a match against local rivals Swindon, which they won. But unfortunately in the league they lost out on a play-off place by one point on the final day of the season.

In 2003, Atkins did much the same and strengthened the squad for the upcoming season and it seemed to pay off in the first half of the season with United losing only one league game before the end of the year. But their fortunes changed dramatically in the second half of the season and it resulted in United slipping from top of the table to outside the play-offs. This change in fortune brought about a change in manager, Graham Rix took over in March 2004, a former Arsenal and England winger. But he could not stop the poor run of form and Oxford finished ninth.

The 2004-05 season started off well for Rix and United but results began to slip and by November Rix was replaced by Ramon Diaz, an Argentine who had played in World Cups for his country and brought with him to Oxford a new glamourous look, along with his first team coach, doctor, physical trainer and two translators. But they fared no better then Rix in improving results and left before the final game of the 04-05 season.

Experienced Brian Talbot took over but like many manager before he could not stop United's poor run. It became clear that something else had to give and after pressure from fans, owner Kassam left the club. He sold it to Nick Merry, who was a former player and was popular on his arrival. He bought in old favourite Jim Smith who was greatly welcomed. Statistics show why as he was Oxford United's most successful manager in their history. Unfortunately their arrival to Oxford United took place on transfer deadline day so they were unable to make any new signings but had to make do with the former players. United were relegated from the Football League in May when they suffered a 3-2 defeat to Leyton Orient.

The 2006-7 season in the conference started well for Oxford, they looked in good stead for a return to the football league as they were unbeaten until November. But once again Oxford's form slipped at the turn of the year and the consistent Dagenham and Redbridge took the only automatic promotion spot back to the football league. Oxford finished in second place and faced Exeter in the play-offs.

United look set for a spot at Wembley after a 1-0 victory in the away leg and a 2-0 aggregate lead after Yemi Odubade scored in the home leg. But Exeter started a massive comeback and pulled level and took the tie to penalties, where Oxford were defeated in heartbreaking circumstances.