Next Match at Home-Pre-season Friendlies............................Next Match Away to- You tell me.....................................................
 

                                                   Sunday 4th May 2003
    
Sav with Gill and Grandchildren          Sav kisses the Cup                Sav with his Tankard Award
    
Gill with my flowers by goal        Firoz and Nathan before game    Dave and Oakley with his award

Well yesterday was a very emotional day, And that was before a ball was kicked,
Congratulations to Dave Savage  who walked away with the Andrew Knapton Supporters Player of the Season Award,
Handed over by Gill and Her 2 grandchildren, I then gave Gill a bunch of Flowers from this website, I asked her to put them behind the goal for me, Where Nappy's ashes were scattered after his funeral, whilst I paraded the Plaque in Andrew's memory that will go in the Oxford Mail stand concourse, A huge thank you to the crowd who made Gill and her family feel very proud to be out there, you made the day a lot easier for them and Me, I have to admit that when I reached the corner flag at the Mail stand end, with the crowd applauding, it all hit me a bit and it was very hard to hold back the tears, It was very touching that we should hand the Plaque over on the 2nd Anniversary of his passing, All of his family were overjoyed with the response of the crowd, they were on the top tier of the South Stand for the game, just in front of the PA Box where I was.
After racing up the stairs to get to the PA box for the game, I was welcomed by Chris Williams who was doing the Announcements as Nathan Cooper was at Pitch level for Radio Oxford with the Radio Mic, Chris Said" You did well, Andrew would have been proud", He was then close to tears, but with the turmoil that was to follow, All the crowd were
close to tears, With Oxford taking an early lead through Steve Basham, then the news filtering through that Ex U's triallist
Martin Gritton had got a goal for Torquay at Lincoln brought elation from the Kassam Stadium crowd, the players knew
straight away and proceeded to play beautiful Football, we were never going to lose against York from that point.
For Bash to get his 2nd after the interval was superb, the whole ground was on there feet then, Thoughts were then of
how many are we going to get.?
With the Radio in my ear listening to the report from Sincil Bank, it came over that Lincoln had missed a penalty, the U's fans roared with delight, but it was infact Torquay who had missed it, when they found out, delight turned to silence, that knocked the stuffing out of them a little, With our game effectively over, most fans including me just listened to the Lincoln game
for Good news to come through, but that was never to come, with around 4 minutes to go, the Imps equalized and our
season was over, Torquay had missed sitter after sitter, aswell as the penalty, so when our final whistle went, the fans
all stayed behind to applaud the team, who played superb, it was a minute later when news came in that Lincoln had drew,
And that was it for another season, It started with me sat in the Oxford Mail stand in August until November and Finished with me doing the scoreboard in May, I have had a great season doing the Photo's and Scoreboard for the club and I'm really looking forward to doing the same next season, it took a while to say goodbye to everyone at the ground after the game, I have made a lot of new acquaintances while working for the club and have been made very welcome,
A big thank you to you all in the press area for doing so.
Chris Hackett's mum Linda was distraught at the end, running into the box to give me a hug, it was like that throughout the club, But then the players only have themselves to blame really, Anyone disagreeing will be picked up by the yellow van later.
After a swift trip to the Red bar to see Dave Waterman, his wife and Little Oakley, who I must say was nice to see after
all his illnesses this year, He is a lovely little lad and just melts your heart when you see him face to face, it was then off to the Office to pick up the trophy for Engraving, Say cheerio to Mick Brown and Chris, before being invited over to the Hotel for a glass of Champagne by Phil and Vanessa Beesley from Sponsors B-Line Graphics, then it was one final look at the ground before departing after another 9 months of ups and downs in the life of an Oxford United fan,
The ups:- Beating Bristol City at Ashton Gate and then Charlton on Penalties in the Worthington Cup , before going out to Villa at home 3-0, then the FA Cup at Dover when it could have been easy to slip up, then the biggy of the season,
Beating the SCUM 1-0 at the Kassam Stadium in our first FA CUP encounter with our local Rivals and a great christening of the Kastad, then after destroying!! the Scum it was off to Highbury, home of the Cup holders Arsenal, we never looked like winning the game, but you never know what might have happened had Basham's goal been allowed after a few minutes,
we can only dream, just before that for me was a trip to Sky Sports to appear on Soccer Am with the U's fans, oh and not being relegated.
So now to the low points,
Just not being promoted really, it has been a great season, but the only thing we have won is a lot of friends,
Here's to next season......and a 3 month wait..



                                                   Saturday 3rd May 2003

That is the message that will be on Flowers laid behind the goal before the match today at the Kastad.

This site has been a first for a lot of things, Nothing more special than this though, Below is the Plaque that I have
had made on behalf of the Andrew Knapton Memorial fund, it will go up in the Oxford Mail Stand Concourse,
Next season it will be on view, This is the earliest time that we have been able to put it up, it is hard to take a picture
of the plaque because it is so shiny, but here it is.

Today is the 2nd Anniversary of Andrew" NAPPY " Knapton's sad and very early Death,
He is still missed by us all, how fitting that we should be at the ground today, his resting place for this
very important match against York City, I hope that with the Spirit of the Big Guy behind us, we can go on and
get a result today and with the help of Torquay we can make this sad day into a very happy one,
Get behind the team and give Gill, Nappy's sister a huge cheer when she enters the field, this is a very sad
day for Her and her family, with your support behind them, they will make it through the day. Thank You.

Oxford will be without Dave Savage for this crunch match with York, lets hope the weather is nice,
I am not doing the scoreboard today as i will be at pitch side taking Pictures for the Official Website,
Home Photographer Steve Daniels is unable to make it, so I will be stepping into his shoes (I hope he's a size 8).


                                                   Thursday 1st May 2003
There was something good to come out of Shrewsbury getting relegated, Nigel Jemson is considering hanging up
his boots.
How fitting that Shrewsbury should play Scunthorpe on Saturday at Gay Meadow, 53 years after playing in their
first ever league game against them, that will be a very emotional day for them, lets hope they go out on a high,
Ian Atkins is Favourite to take over the job according to the Daily Star today, Yeah Right...!!!!
 

Voting is closed for the our annual Supporters Player of the Season award, As you all must know by now,
 Andrew Knapton was a good friend of ours and fellow supporter , He sadly passed away on May 3rd 2001,
 Just 2 days after the last ever league game at the Manor Ground, his biggest wish was to see us play in the Kassam Stadium, all he spoke about at the last game was us finally playing at the new ground, Sadly he didn't get to see it,
 but the ground is his last resting place, his ashes were scattered on the pitch at the Oxford Mail stand end and
 is forever in our thoughts, All his family will be at the Kassam for the York City game, the 2nd Anniversary of his
 sad and early death, If Nappy was around today, He would have been proud of the way the players had played this season, So lets have one final Give us an O'ooo for the season non Saturday in NAPPY's memory.
 The Award will again be presented to the winner by Andrew's Sister Gill, She is a Female version of Nappy,
 Also has a heart of gold and screams just as loud at the matches as the big guy did, So make her feel welcome when she
 walks out onto the pitch for the York City game on Saturday.
 




                             

Myself and Dermot at the Kassam Stadium for the Senior Cup Final




Had a wonderful evening at the Kassam stadium last night, All the awards were thoroughly deserved,
Dave Waterman was voted Players Player of the Season, Andy Crosby won the Sports writers player of the season
and Dean Whitehead was Young Player of the Season.
Dave Waterman's award was a very special and deserved one,
It was quite emotional to hear Ian Atkins talk about the ex Portsmouth midfielder and the troubles he has had
over the last year, but for Dave to stand there and personally thank everyone for there great support through what
has been and unbearable times was very touching.

Crosby (sports writers) Waterman (Players Player) and Whitehead (Young Player) at Last nights Awards Evening.


Dave Waterman's award                             Matt Bound and his Sponsors-The Hailey Supporters Club


Myself and Dave with his award, The Players Player of the season award was well and truly deserved for Dave,
He has been through so much this year, I have spoken to Dave a lot this season and he is so overwhelmed with the support for him from the players and the fans this year, I can't thank you all enough he said.


    
I was told by the steward to get my kit ready by the goal, "when the final whistle goes you will have to run, the fans are coming on the pitch", I was thinking, what the Oxford fans......GREAT, she meant the Iron's fans, so I packed up my kit and waited with the camera at the ready, but my running shoes were not required in the end, Scunthorpe fans never made it past the halfway line, because that was where the queue for the pub was, the Horse and Hound wasn't it.!!!!
The last time I saw horses and dogs together on grass, was in the film BABE, how fitting that there were loads of PIGS their to spoil the day.

Only Fools and Horses..............On the pitch

U's fans who were great, no matter what Atkins said.

Definite penalty ref.(????)

Minutes silence before the game.
                          




             

Anyone interested in a PC badge with Oxford United on or a United We Stand pin badge with AVE IT on can
Email this site for further information.
 
As promised last week, here is the picture of Nicky Banger playing for Eastleigh on Friday night at Andover,
Andover slaughtered them, Even with Matt Le Tissier and Banger!!! Playing.




              
                                  
Futcher points to the ground and says" Look Foley a blade of Grass" !    Scott skips a challenge

   
Crosby get rough              Woody in Action             Foley in the box
 
Chris Williams and Atkins   Is this the worst pitch in the league
 
To read a good joke on Drinking, Click here

U's fans who want a pair of the Oxford United Glasses that I modeled in the Exeter Programme last season , 
email Me for details.
                                                
Anyone wishing to have an Oxford United Logo on there Mobile Phone and have a Nokia handset
Please Email this site for further details, Other Logo's are available too so please ask.

Anyone interested in Playing pool on the net during the pre-season,
visit http://www.flyordie.com and register, it is free and is awesome,
You will find me in there as Utdwestand, need any help-Email this site.
                                                
             
       Click above or call on 01993 702010