2005/06 SEASON

Flip player to see back

League:

Level

Coca Cola League 2

Position:

23rd

Relagated from the Football League.

FA Cup:

Second Round

League Cup:

First Round

Chairmen:

Firoz Kassam, Nick Merry

Managers:

Brian Talbot, Darren Patterson, Jim Smith.

Top Scorer:

Steve Basham (13)

Notable Players:

Jon Ashton, Steve Basham, Lee Bradbury, Chris Hackett, Chris Hargreaves, Lee Mansell, Barry Quinn, Leo Roget, Chris Tradiff, Chris Willmott.

Firoz Kassam sold Oxford United, (but retained ownership of the Kassam Stadium), to a consortium of businessmen led by former manager Jim Smith. Although Smith had previously brought success to the club, including two promotions, his return was not enough to prevent Oxford from being relegated from the Football League.

Kit Manufacturer

This was to be the last of 5 seasons that TFG produced Oxford United's kits.

Football League Branding

After six years of using the same style, the Football League introduced a new custom design for numbers and lettering, this remained in use until the 2015 season.

Again, the Coca-Cola competition patches featured.

Home Kit & Away Variations

Long
sleeves

A new home kit was introduced with the previous season's yellow shorts and socks often paired away from home. Indeed, the clubs official first-choice colours were only worn once away from the Kassam Stadium.

For reasons unknown, the all-yellow combination was worn for the final home game of the season.

Away Kit

Long
sleeves

The previous season's black change kit was retained, however, for this season it would only feature in its all-black variant.

Embarrassingly, Oxford United twice had to wear their opponent's kit during this season (details below).

Goalkeeper Kits

A new goalkeepers shirt template was introduced, with the club crest and TFG motif positioned centrally on the chest.

All keepers shorts featured the old style numbers, rather than the new number set introduced for 2005.

Goalkeeper - 2004 shirts

Silver/Grey 2004 shirts were usually worn by Billy Turley.

Opponents Kit - Barnet

Oxford United had planned to wear black shirts and white shorts, believing that Barnet would be wearing their traditional combination of amber shirts and black shorts. Barnet had registered these colours with the football league, indeed they'd worn this colour combination during their pre-season friendlies.

However, in a most unusual move, Barnet decided to swap their home and away kits just two days before the start of the season. This important detail appeared to have been poorly communicated, and presumably, the league handbooks had already been printed. The result was that Oxford United arrived at Underhill with a near identical colour combination.

Oxford United was asked to wear Barnet’s reserve team away shirts, paired with their own white shorts. I assume the red socks were mustered from Barnet's kit room.

Kit Clash

Opponents Kit - Boston

The away match at Boston was always going to be a tricky one for Oxford United, as neither their yellow nor black shirts were really suitable for the trip to York Street.

Oxford United sort advice prior to the fixture, reportedly from the match referee Mick Russell. It was agreed that United should wear their all-yellow strip.

However, once at the ground, the referee had a change of mind and decided that Oxford’s yellow shirts were too similar to Boston’s gold and black hooped shirts.

Boston’s white and blue youth team kit was provided for Oxford United to wear.

Kit Clash

Match by Match

Grimsby
Away

Torquay
Home

Wycombe
Home

Lincoln
Away

Gillingham
Away

Stockport
Home

Shrewsbury
Away

Rushden
Home

Bristol Rov
Away

Darlington
Away

Bury
Home

Rochdale
Away

Barnet
Away

Carlisle
Home

Northampton
Away

Brentford
Away

Boston
Home

L Orient
Away

Eastbourne
Away

Wrexham
Home

Eastbourne
Home

Carlisle
Away

L Orient
Home

Grimsby
Home

Cheltenham
Away

Cheltenham
Away

Torquay
Away

Cheltenham
Home

Lincoln
Home

Cheltenham
Away

Notts C
Home

Mansfield
Home

Chester
Away

Shrewsbury
Home

Peterboro'
Away

Macclesfield
Away

Darlington
Home

Rushden
Away

Rochdale
Home

Macclesfield
Home

Cheltenham
Home

Wycombe
Away

Stockport
Away

Bristol Rov
Home

Notts C
Away

Bury
Away

Peterboro'
Home

Mansfield
Away

Chester
Home

Barnet
Home

Boston
Away

Northampton
Home

Wrexham
Away

L Orient
Home