Wycombe v Oxford: Is it a rivalry?
Morning all,
Our Wycombe correspondent has written this piece on the "rivalry" between Oxford & Wycombe. Have a read below...
Very interesting take on things.
d3d4football.com/oxford-wycombe-are-they-rivals-by-phil-slatter/
Thanks
James
0
Comments
The ‘rivalry’ is based purely on the comedy value of the PNL (if you know your history) living under the deluded belief that they are a ‘big’ club, predicated, primarily, on a ‘glorious’ cup heritage (!). This fantasy is perpetuated by BBC Radio Oxford who dedicate airtime as if they were covering Barcelona. That they can’t see the delicious irony in their ‘away end’ being a cinema car park, they were none League a few years back, they changed their name, wear a yellow strip etc. means we can continue the wind up of the ‘M40 derby’, after all we are poor little Wycombe and this is our cup final - ha!
Also we are frequently referred to as just a pub/village team, yet have beaten them on more than the odd occasion!
Good article. To me it isn't a rivalry, they're just an obnoxious bunch who have ideas above their station (similar to Lu'un), nothing more or less than that. Oh yeah, and they have the most soulless stadium on the planet.
Let's not forget that they also bought the league cup with money stolen from the pensions of innocent people but are still inexplicably proud of it.
Rivalries don’t do much as exist rather they are earned and I think we have far deeper rivalries elsewhere.
You certainly seem to @marlowchair
No feeling either way about Oxford.
I've never liked yellow shirts and Maxwell and his clan were appalling crooks...but I find it hard to get that heated about them.
No rivalry they are just deluded morons , living in the Oxford area makes it worse for me.
I agree with Phil's summary. Geography dictates that it's undeniably a local derby, but there isn't necessarily the strength of feeling for a full-on rivalry, or not at the moment anyway. That could change the more we play each other and as the article states, if we both end up battling relegation then our April meeting could be a feisty affair.
I'm sure plenty of Oxford fans don't give a toss about Wycombe, but there's clearly quite a few who do and I find the on-repeat cries of 'we don't care about you' a bit disingenuous, especially when you see how much some Oxford fans go on about us.
Personally, I dislike Oxford a lot more than most other local/ish clubs. Indeed, apart from Lu'on, they're probably the only opposition side close to us that I remotely consider to be anything like rivals these days. However, when I first started watching Wycombe in the late 90's, I remember games against them more as a bit of a piss-take, where the super-massive Oxford would regularly be embarassed by little Wycombe, as they gradually slid down past us and into non league, before sitting around the lower reaches of L2 as we yo-yoed between L1 and L2 for a few years.
They're a much better side now and having firmly established themselves back in the Football League, there is the chance that more regular meetings, with more riding on them, could lead to more intensity.
You'd probably have to be over 40 to even remember Oxford as anything else but a lower league outfit.
They are nice to have as an easy away, but not a team who whip up too much feeling either way. Luton generate more dislike as we get to see some of their rabid fans up close in that dreadful away end.
Having a three sided stadium is a plain joke though.
It's only a bigger than normal game for me as I live in Oxford and am surrounded by Oxford fans. Their delusion about how big they are is both hilarious and tragic.
If I lived in Lu'on, or Swindon or Rochdale I might feel similarly about games against those teams. Beyond that, games against against them are nothing special.
My uncle was a tremendous Headington Utd fan when they were non league in the first place. My father was brought up in a town midway between Reading, Oxford and Wycombe. My uncle lived there nearly all his life and I remember that he used to walk up the High Street to the pub on a Saturday night ringing a bell if Oxford had won and Reading had lost.
We moved to Wycombe when I was six. I have supported Wycombe for as long as I can remember. I used to stay with my grandparents and I can remember going to the Manor with my uncle and cousin when Oxford were a glamourous league club with a glossy programme. In the 70s I most wanted us to draw Oxford in the FA Cup.
I think Luton are the worst club in the football league. I wish franchise didn't exist. I sang "We hate Slough Town and we hate Slough Town" with some vehemence. Beating Colchester will always be special.
But for me it goes quite deep for me with Oxford. It is the game I most want us to win. I think in my ideal world they would turn up from the division below us every two or three seasons, we would take six points off them and we wouldn't see them for a little while.
You will struggle to find more deluded and arrogant fans than the PNL, and the fact you come into contact with them on a far more regular basis than we ever did with Enfield,Slough or Colchester makes it more significant.
The fact that one of their supporters had to be ejected, after falling a sleep and puking
up in the away end, sums the Headington name changers up for me.