Latest news with #GaryRowett
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
‘We want to be pushing towards the top half, top 10'
MARK Harris hopes Oxford United can make a break for a top 10 spot in Sky Bet Championship next season. The U's finished 17th this year, four points above the relegation zone, but the club's form under Gary Rowett would've seen them finish 10th across the 25 matches he took charge of. READ ALSO:Six promising players United could snap up from League One Harris joined United from Cardiff City in July 2023, and has been with the club on its journey from League One to the Championship, scoring 25 goals in 102 games. He said: 'The last two seasons have been brilliant. To get promoted and then come into the league, and stay in it as well, we're all close enough now to realise what we're doing. 'It's about kicking on now next year. We want to be pushing towards the top half, top 10, and hopefully we get there. 'We got written off this season. Everyone but Oxford supporters and players had us 24th. We were written off last year and I'm sure we'll be written off again, but I'm fine with that.' CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE OXFORD MAIL ONLINE (Image: Newsquest) The Wales international striker added: 'The aim was when I came to Oxford to get promoted, but obviously you don't know whether that's going to happen or not. 'Last season was unbelievable and this year our aim was not just to be safe, but push as high as we can. 'We knew the situation we were in, we knew the league we were in, and we achieved what we set out to do. 'Coming in from pre-season, I thought we had the squad to do it, and I think we showed that over the 46 games. 'It was up and down, we knew that was going to happen, but I knew we had the fight and the determination, and also the quality in the dressing room. 'At times it was a bit worrying, but I never thought 'that's it, we're down'. 'We're all good mates, but we all know when something's not going right or something needs to be said, it's done and said, and it's said in the right way. 'After that, we're not sulking, we're not moaning, we're straight back at it trying to put things right, and I think throughout this season and last season, you've seen when times are tough, we battle through and come back. 'We have got quality in the team. Sometimes we do have to grind out results because of the league we're in and the situation that the Championship throws at you. 'Hopefully now we can add in the summer and go again next season.'
The Sun
19-05-2025
- Sport
- The Sun
Oxford Utd star extends his legendary stay after Championship survival
SAM LONG has signed a new deal to remain at Oxford. The 30-year-old defender has been at the club all of his career. 1 Sam Long has signed a new one-year contract at Oxford United Credit: Getty His new contract keeps him tied to Oxford until at least 2027. While there is also an option for an extra year. Long, who had one year left on his current deal, is known as Mr Oxford because he has never played for another side and joined the club at the age of eight. He has played 272 first-team games for the club having made his Oxford debut against Accrington in 2013. Long played a big part in Oxford's season where they avoided relegation and ended up 17th. Boss Gary Rowett has been impressed with Long and was keen for him to commit his future to the club. Rowett took over in December and also admits Oxford will be looking into Europe to sign players this summer. He said: 'We always want to find a blend. BEST FREE BETS AND BETTING SIGN UP OFFERS 'I'll be very surprised if we don't sign some players from European leagues this summer. 'I think there's great value there. 'I've seen it before where not only is there great value to improve your team, but there's great value to create an asset that maybe you can sell on at some point in the future as well, which is important.' Championship club could be left without a stadium as EFL deadline looms Can you name the famous fathers?
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Swansea City vs Oxford United - team news, lineups, predictions
Swansea City host Oxford United this Saturday at the Stadium for round 46 of the EFL Championship. The match will be broadcast live at 12:30 on Sky Sports +. Swansea City have won 60 points to date and are placed in 11th position. Last time out, Alan Sheehan's team slipped to a 1-0 defeat against Millwall (EFL Championship 2024/2025). Oxford United currently have 52 points and lie in 17th position. Last time out, Gary Rowett's team triumphed 2-0 against Sunderland (EFL Championship 2024/2025). The last meeting between the two teams ended with Swansea City winning 2-1. : Prediction: 0-0 Kristian Pedersen - Hamstring Injury Swansea City ( vs Millwall 2025-04-26): Lawrence Vigouroux, Josh Key, Ben Cabango, Hannes Delcroix, Josh Tymon, Jay Fulton, Lewis OBrien, Gonçalo Franco, Ronald Pereira, Liam Cullen, Eom Ji-sung Oxford United ( vs Sunderland 2025-04-26): Jamie Cumming, Sam Long, Ben Nelson, Michal Helik, Greg Leigh, Will Vaulks, Cameron Brannagan, Przemyslaw Placheta, Rúben Rodrigues, Tyler Goodrham, Mark Harris
BBC News
29-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
How Oxford achieved Championship survival
There will be no parade, no pictures on walls or stories to tell the grandchildren. When more than half the league has been proven to be better than you, should you even be celebrating at all? The answer is an unequivocal yes, if you are Oxford the battles for the title, the play-offs and the race to stay up chaotically going to the wire, the U's securing their own place in the Championship for next season has barely been remarked upon nationally. Not like last year. No Wembley final, no fairytale. Just desire, hard work, togetherness and of course, those connected with the club - from the very top to the rank-and-file fan - all know that what United have achieved over the past season equals, maybe even eclipses what was hard-earned 12 months ago. Oxford's miraculous run to promotion from League One saw them arrive in the second tier, ahead of schedule and with only a few short weeks to put together a team for it. The Championship has been everything they hoped for and feared in equal measure - joyous, loud, exciting and colourful, but also hard. Really United from the outside might look a very different club to the one that left League One. The most obvious upheaval was the installation of Gary Rowett - with all his Championship know-how - in place of hometown hero Des Buckingham. "This is going to hurt, but it will be worth it," could have been the mantra. Oxford, known as a stable club for managers, now have had a change in each of the past three seasons. Wins, though, healed the wounds, draws were vital in the final reckoning. United have also broken their transfer record - twice - and were not skimping with the signings of players like Jamie Cumming who played every minute of every league game in goal and has been one of the top performers in the division. Or Michal Helik and Alex Matos who suffered relegation with Huddersfield last season and played like that was not an experience they ever wanted to repeat. The ownership group has shouldered record losses as they continue to work towards a new stadium, which they see as essential to not just long-term success, but the club's very Kassam, though, has been sold out every single week. Those big crowds and big atmospheres, that built up in the League One run-in, carried on all the way through the season. The three-sided stadium has been as much a surprise asset as an embarrassment. Oxford have picked up the same points at home as West Bromwich Albion, more than Norwich and only one fewer than Middlesbrough. But it is the smallest in the Championship, and that compounds the financial illustrate the challenge of the Championship, with the Premier League parachute payments to clubs who draw double Oxford's attendance and more, Oxford twice had long barren runs - one under each manager. But Buckingham's United produced performances and results to create belief that the U's could Rowett the overall form would have them on the fringes of the in the win against a full-strength Sunderland at the weekend, nine of those who featured for the U's were Wembley winners under Buckingham, and player of the year Ciaron Brown was a free-transfer signing by Karl Robinson three years ago. United again relied on Cameron Brannagan to dig them out of trouble when the going really got tough - he's been doing that for seven years for the club. Sam Long, who got the winner at Sheffield Wednesday this month has been with Oxford since the age eight. He's 30 more things change, the more they stay the same? Maybe. Or you could argue that this is sustainable growth in action.
BBC News
28-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Why Rowett used 'effective' football to keep Oxford up
Oxford United boss Gary Rowett always thought it would be a "massive task" to keep the club in the second tier this season. He admitted there were times when he wondered if they would avoid the drop-zone. But after beating Sunderland 2-0 on Saturday at Kassam Stadium, the U's status as a Championship side was confirmed for another season."When I got here I thought keeping the club up would be a massive task to be honest," Rowett told BBC Radio Oxford."I thought it would be the hardest one I'd had in terms of trying to do it. I'm super proud of the effort everyone has made."In this division sometimes you have to roll your sleeves up and dig in. To beat a lot of the teams we beat at home is an amazing achievement this season." Despite an encouraging start to the campaign, the U's hit a rough patch around Christmas that ended with previous boss Des Buckingham losing his job. Buckingham's sacking was met with a fair bit of criticism by some Oxford fans. He was a popular figure at the Kassam, having led them to promotion the summer before. But in his place came former Millwall boss Rowett, a man with plenty of experience in the Championship."When we first came in, there was a clear defined system of trying to play, build and play in a certain way," Rowett said. "We then reached a point where we lost a few players and it became apparent to me very quickly that we had to find a different way."That way didn't need to look super pretty and didn't need to be perfect, it needed to be effective and efficient."Long term we want a lot more than that. Given the opportunity, we'd be able to build something a lot different."Oxford go into their final game against Swansea on Saturday, 3 May, safe in the knowledge they can start preparing for another season in the second tier. "If I'm being really honest, I didn't have a plan for us in League One," Rowett laughed. "I'm pleased for everyone that we'll have a chance to build something more sustainable in the Championship."We want to improve every aspect of the team, we need to strengthen certain areas. Those conversations now become real because we achieved safety." 'Staying up is why we need a new stadium' Oxford United chief executive Tim Williams has doubled down on his stance that the club need a new ground after retaining their Championship status. The lease on the Kassam Stadium, where the U's currently play, expires in June 2026 and the club is still awaiting a decision from planners about a proposed new 16,000-seater venue, which is expected this in April Williams said that without a new stadium, there would be no Oxford United, and that there is "nothing more important"."Staying up is why we need a new stadium," he told BBC Radio Oxford. "If people had any doubts, then Saturday showed why it is needed."Up or down it doesn't matter, Oxfordshire needs a football club with its own stadium in the heart of the county and that is the most important thing. We're a Championship club for the second season and we deserve a Championship stadium."We've been through some tough times this season and we made some very difficult decisions on the way."But we've done it for the right reasons and they are that we stay in the league for another year. It's an extraordinary and brilliant achievement."
