Roger Alton Roger Alton

Three sides to our success

League Two giant killers are in the running for three titles... and their stadium has no fourth stand

issue 23 January 2016

In the middle of Oxford is a socking great cinema: once the Ritz, it’s now an Odeon multiplex. Back in 1962, in the intermission of, I think, The Longest Day, the curtain moved and on walked a group of men, young I suppose, though to my 15-year-old eyes they seemed impossibly grown-up. It was the Oxford United team, led by their manager Arthur Turner, and including such titans as Ron ‘The Tank’ Atkinson, his brother Graham, John Shuker and Maurice Kyle. They had just won promotion from the Southern League to the Fourth Division (today’s League Two). They were introduced to the audience, and I have been a fan ever since.

Supporting a lower-league team is not always fun, but I would guess it’s a damn sight more fulfilling than supporting a global brand such as Chelsea or Manchester United. There are bonds with the players: a lot of people on the terraces will be earning similar salaries to the guys on the pitch.

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