ENTERPRISE NATIONAL LEAGUE NORTH. SATURDAY, 26th SEPTEMBER 2026.

Last Minute disappointment for Morecambe at Oxford City.

Morecambe made the long journey south almost to the Home Counties today to complete a fixture in a supposedly `northern’ regional league. This is what I at least knew in advance about the club we were about to face:

Apart from Oxo Cubes, what is Oxford famous for?

Oxford Blues who apparently like rowing and suchlike snooty and somewhat exclusive pursuits.

Oxford Bags – or trousers for posh boys.

The classic Morris Oxford car of days gone by.

And Philby, Burgess, MacLean, Blunt and the lesser-known John Cairncross, all very posh boys from St Antony’s College who admitted spying on behalf of the Soviet Union during the 1960s. The treachery of Sir Anthony Blunt and Cairncross’ was hushed-up for years by their pals in the British Establishment because they remained basically Jolly Spiffing Chaps. Even though Burgess and Blunt – very ironically the Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures – were blatantly gay when homosexuality was a crime in Britain and many less well- connected men in particular were in prison for this reason at the time. But other more `ordinary’ people have been hanged for a lot less than what the so-called Oxford Five got up to on behalf of Uncle Joe Stalin and the unknown number of deaths in the USSR that their betrayal by these men directly led to. However, these splendid fellows probably played rugger too: a proper toffs’ game, unlike Common As Muck `soccer’. But the City of Oxford – perhaps surprisingly – supports two relatively senior soccer clubs, only one of which plays in a Blue strip. 

Oxford City can be found in the leafy green suburb of Marston, north east of the famous `dreaming spires’ of the University city and 207 miles south east of Morecambe. It is one of the oldest football clubs in England and predates the upstarts United (whose Kassam Stadium can be found about equi-distant from the town centre to the south east) by nine whole years, being founded in 1882. Initially, it played on Brasenose College land at the Whitehouse Ground with St Matthew’s Church on one side of it and the White House pub on the other. The club was evicted by the College which owned its ground during 1988 in a quite acrimonious dispute which led to it having to resign from the Isthmian League and then the actual demise of Oxford City altogether for a couple of years. The site of the original ground has been built over and is now known as Hodges Court ­in honour of the scorer of the first goal in City’s FA Amateur Cup success of 1906.

Not a lot had happened since their inception until City won this prestigious trophy. The club joined the leading southern amateur Isthmian League in 1907. They then found themselves increasingly playing in the shadow of Headington United – which morphed into Oxford United during 1960. In order partly to try and compete with their increasingly more illustrious neighbours, City abandoned its amateur status in 1949. Thirty years later, it became a Limited Company and it is a little-known fact that England World-Cup winning Captain Bobby Moore was the Manager of the club between 1979 and 1981: his first purely managerial job. He was paid a quite staggering £14,000 salary plus a £5k signing-on fee, in itself the cost of a really decent house in Morecambe at the time. His assistant was former West Ham team-mate, Harry Redknapp who later had something to do with the England team as well, I believe. At that time, City were still based at the by now quite ramshackle Whitehouse Ground. The experiment with the former England Skipper wasn’t a success and City were relegated at the end of his first season in charge. He left after the second one.

Nothing much happened then until City were evicted from their long-term home in 1988. Rivals United had been members of the old First Division of the EFL for three years by this time and the Hoops had become very much The Poor Relations. But the rump of its loyal fan base started to organise and a new incarnation of the club was created to join the South Midlands League Division One during 1990, playing at a venue called Cutteslowe Park. City won the new competition first time of asking and by 1993 had re-located to current stadium Court Place Farm (also known as Marsh Lane) in 1993, when they also re-joined the Isthmian League. 2005 saw them relegated again for a single season but by 2007, they were members of the Southern League First Division and a year later had won their way into the Premier Division of this competition. At the end of the 2011-12 season, they defeated AFC Totton in the Play-Off Final to win their place in the Conference North – the highest position in the English football pyramid that the club had achieved at that point. They were saved from relegation when Vauxhall Motors resigned from the Football Conference in March 2014. When the Conference was subsequently re-branded the National League, Oxford found themselves in the initial Southern version of the renamed lower divisions. They won their way into the National League proper via the Play-Offs at the end of the 2023-24 season but were immediately relegated again and placed in the National League North as the Musical Chairs concerning regions and availability continued. Last season, they ended-up seventeenth.

The rivalry with Oxford United continues. In March of this year, the confusion about the clubs’ identities in some quarters was underlined when Sheffield Wednesday sent 4,000 tickets intended for an upcoming game against United to Marsh Lane instead:

Morecambe have never played Oxford City in any competition and their game on Saturday 26^th September 2026 at 15:00hrs at Court Place Farm on an artificial pitch will be their first ever meeting. Their second in the league will be in Lancashire on Saturday, 23^rd January 2027, at 15:00 hrs. 

Not many players have been employed by both clubs but Ludwig Francillette is an exception.

Oh – and Oxo Cubes were not really invented in Oxford – I told a Big Lie when I claimed that. They are a German import and were created by the chemist Baron Justus von Big Lie – sorry – Liebig – during 1910…

At the beginning of proceedings today, City Manager Ross Jenkins’ team was in exalted second place in the National League North, just three points behind leaders Hereford. They started the match on the back of four wins and two losses in their last six league games plus a 0-2 win at Dorchester Town last Saturday in the FA Cup in which Ludwig Francillette scored the opening goal.

Morecambe, by contrast, also qualified for a tie in the next round of the FA Cup against Darlington by beating Southport 2-0 in Lancashire last Saturday. Adam Lakeland’s team arrived in tenth position in the National League North and with identical form to their hosts: four wins and two losses in recent league fixtures plus the Cup win a week ago. After the Southport victory, Adam said this about today’s fixture and an element of it which he clearly thinks gives the home side a big advantage:

“Obviously, it’s never easy when you’re jumping from grass to 4G. I think this league’s a good, competitive league but I think there’s far too many artificial pitches in it now: is it nine – or ten? So you’re playing probably fifty percent of your away games on artificial pitches. I don’t think it’s ideal but it is what it is. It’s going to be a difficult game. Oxford City are a good team. They play good football. They’ve obviously had a very good start and we’ve got to be ready for that. But we’re a good team; we’re in good form and we’ve got a week to prepare and it’s important that we’re ready for it.”

There was no place for Will Smith in the team again due to injury and last Saturday’s leader of the line against Southport – Ronnie Blois – didn’t feature in the squad at all despite only six substitutes being named. His place was taken by Joe Garner. The home team started without a second-string goalkeeper on the bench for whatever reason.

The weather in Oxfordshire today had been bright at times and overcast at others. But it was sunny and dry as the match started with a negligible breeze and it got warmer the longer the game went on.

The contest was pretty tedious and quite scrappy for most of the first half. The first thing even approaching a half-chance occurred after a quarter of an hour when ex-Accrington stopper Jonny Maxted was caught out of his ground after passing the ball in a panic straight to Elliot Newby on the Morecambe left after being rapidly closed-down by Matty Daly. Unfortunately, Elliot’s aimless pass into the middle was then completely wasted. Joe Garner then headed a free-kick by Jake Cain from the right narrowly wide with twenty-five minutes on the clock. But it turned-out that he was in an Off-Side position. Meanwhile, Myles Boney had found little to do so far and a wild shot from the Oxford left after 27 minutes didn’t trouble him. The best chance so far arrived with just over half an hour played when Ben Williams’ lovely forward pass on the left found Daly, whose powerful strike when well placed went just over the angle of bar and Maxted’s right-hand post. Garner made it clear to his team-mate that he wasn’t impressed, given that he was in a much better position to score and expected a pass. Myles made his first save of the game from Tyrone Marsh with 34 minutes on the clock but it was a pretty easy one. Morecambe then got lucky a minute later when, following a quickly-taken Hoops’ free-kick, Lewis Baines clearly pulled back Scott Pollock by his shirt in the away penalty area. But Referee Thomas Wall – who made some poor and puzzling decisions this afternoon particularly when he played advantage after fouls when there actually wasn’t any – was unmoved. Maxted then punched a free-kick which he should have caught after 39 minutes but also got away with it and then Cameron Coxe lost his bearings and almost headed Myles into trouble as an Oxford forward tried to take advantage and failed with just four minutes left to play.

So a pretty soporific contest ended all square and goal-less at the break.

Almost straight from kick-off, Ben Williams did superbly to clear a low cross-come-shot in his penalty area away for a corner which came to nothing. Then Garner forced the home goalkeeper into a save with a sharp volley from the right flank with 48 minutes gone. There was a sort of comedy moment in the fifty-second minute as Garner constantly tried to get between Ludwig Francillette and another big Hoops defender from a Morecambe corner-kick. Ludwig is 6`6” and built with it. Joe is relatively small. There was only ever going to be one winner. But Mr Wall blew his whistle; stopped the game and told them to stop wrestling. Then he blew his whistle again – and the grappling continued unabated. So what’s the point of speaking to them?

Garner had the last laugh though. Just three minutes later, the impressive Williams set-up Newby on the left to send over a superb cross which an unmarked Joe smashed home at the far post to put the visitors one-nil to the good.

Oxford upped the pace and the ante after that and enjoyed a long period of possession during which the men in the red strip rarely saw the ball. But they did nothing with it and Marsh’s weak deflected save was easily saved by Boney in the sixty-fifth minute at the end of it all. City then won a free-kick in a dangerous position to the left of Morecambe’s penalty area a minute later. As Myles seemed to be impeded, first Liam Hogan and then Coxe did brilliantly well to block Oxford efforts on the goal line. Morecambe substitute Isaac Buckley-Ricketts then went on a good run on the Shrimps’ left; passed to Newby and saw the resultant cross headed away from the danger area as the home goalkeeper was a spectator in the seventieth minute. As the game flowed from end-to-end, Oxford Skipper Josh Ashby tried his luck from distance with 75 minutes played – and missed. Then substitute Lewis Leigh performed another miracle by somehow managing to block another effort by Marsh on the goal-line with his keeper beaten in the eightieth minute. Three minutes later, Cain picked-out an unmarked Paul Lewis in the centre of the home penalty area with a pin-point cross from the left but Paul only managed to head the ball against the bar when he really should have buried it. Right at the death, substitute Ruben Curley sent over a cross from the left after more good work from Buckley-Ricketts which Daly hit first time at the near post to draw the save of the match from Maxted.

It looked like Morecambe were heading for their sixth win in seven matches until almost the last kick of the game. They conceded a doubtful free-kick; Curley headed it away from the centre of his box only to see the ball fall to City substitute Alfie Potter, who scored with an instant volley which Myles made a valiant attempt to keep out.

So that was it: the spoils were shared. The Shrimps rode their luck at times this afternoon. But they also played some good stuff in patches. On a plastic pitch against a leading team in front of their home supporters, this is probably a point gained as opposed to two points lost. But they came so close to leaving Oxfordshire with all three.

Both clubs slipped one position in the National League North table as a result tonight: Oxford to third; Morecambe to eleventh. This is what Manager Adam Lakeland made of it all at the end of the game:

“That, for me, is our best performance away from home. We deserved to win the game and we haven’t. I thought my team were superb. Thought that everything we asked them to do; the way we wanted the game to go: the organisation; the discipline – playing for moments… I thought the players were tremendous and they deserved to win the game. And that hurts – especially when you concede a goal so late. The Referee’s absolutely gifted them a foul. And it’s cost us. I felt for my players because – as I’ve just said to them in there – if we think back to what we looked like at Harborough: similar conditions; blistering hot; away from home; artificial pitch – we’re like a completely different beast now to what we were in that game. We’ve got to take the very, very many positives from that performance and replicate that on the road. If we do that, we’ll win plenty of games.”

Oxford City: 1 Jonny Maxted; 3 Evan Humphries; 4 Josh Ashby (C); 5 Ludwig Francillette; 6 Darnell Johnson; 7 Scott Pollock; 8 Dejan Tetek (Y) (10 Zac McEachran 64’); 9 Tyrone Marsh (Y); 11 Ellis Brown (16 Alfie Potter 75’); 20 Briar Bateman (12 Max Smith 64’); 22 Deago Nelson.

Subs not used: 2 Keegan Bloom; 18 Tyrea Njogu; 19 Canice Carroll; 24 Kauan.

Morecambe: 13 Myles Boney (Y); 2 Cameron Coxe; 3 Ben Williams; 4 Liam Hogan (C); 6 Lewis Baines; 7 Teddy Collis (Y) (14 Isaac Buckley-Ricketts 68’); 9 Joe Garner (8 Lewis Leigh 72’); 10 Matty Daly (Y) (27 Adam Fairclough 92’); 11 Elliot Newby; 17 Paul Lewis; 20 Jake Cain (22 Ruben Curley 85’).

Subs Not Used: 31 Alfie Scales; 26 Lennon Dobson.

Ref: Thomas Wall.

Att: Unknown (Plenty from Morecambe.)