Season Four: 2008/09

A very successful season, as my Oxford side reached the top 2 on a wave of good from in about November, and stayed there after a record-breaking winning streak. At one stage, the gap was 10 points, but that was whittled to about 3 by poor form, possibly due to being distracted by the prospect of an FA Cup 3rd round tie with Portsmouth. Form was renewed in the Spring, however, and with three games to go, Oxford were 7 points clear of 3rd-placed Preston, with an away match against lowly Stockport. The result was not the expected one! I'll let the picture tell the story:


So with two games to go, the gap was four points... a home game against Wycombe, another bottom half team. For the first half-hour, Oxford completely dominated, but Wilson and Cárdenas missed several chances. Then on 38 minutes, Wycombe break away from an Oxford corner, and Chadwick outruns the defence and slots the ball home. 1-0 to Wycombe, and that was the half-time score. Wave upon wave of Oxford attacks followed, until finally on the hour mark, a sweeping 13-pass move was finished by Anderson Silva blasting the ball in for the equaliser. Then, with just five minutes remaining, Madjid Bougherra hit a long ball from the edge of his own box, and suddenly Barrett was in the clear, one-on-one with the goalkeeper... GOOOOOOOOOOOAL! Not just a "punch the air" moment, a "punch the air and shout loudly" moment. As the text commentary said, "That has to be the winning goal!!!"
BUT.
In the 91st minute, a hopeful Wycombe ball finds Chambers in the penalty box... he squares for Adonis Shala with an open goal... and the ball is in the Oxford net. 2-2. Bugger.

BUT BUT!
The flag is up! Shala was offside - no goal!
The air gets another good punching, and after a few nervous minutes, the game is over... Oxford 2-1 Wycombe, and promotion to the Championship!
The final table, and the key players:



As you can see, the stable backbone proved very important. Centre-back Madgid Bougherra finished with the best average rating out of the permenant players; Striker Kyle Wilson not only weighed in with 33 goals, but also the most assists (12); and youngster Cárdenas was so impressive, he was listed in the League One team of the year. His 14 goals were very important. In addition, midfielders Anderson Silva and Sebastian Larsson (the latter, mainly used on the left, was signed from Arsenal on loan for a season, and then permenantly once the loan had finished) contributed several assists each as well as a good tackling average. Also worth a mention is Graham Barrett, who only started 18 games (coming off the bench 13 times), but scored 13 goals, including the one that sealed promotion.

Meanwhile...
Arsenal won the Premier League for the 2nd season in a row, and add the FA Cup to complete a fourth Double. Newcastle beat Chelsea to the last Champions League spot, and Man United won the European Cup. It's not all good news at Old Trafford, however: they finished 7th in the league and were knocked out of the FA Cup by losing 1-0 at home to non-league side Bradford Park Avenue.

Promotion!
Up next, a busy summer with a few surprises...