The CEO of Oxford United, Tim Williams, wrote the following programme notes for the Sky Bet League One game against Wycombe Wanderers:
Thank you to everyone attending today’s game, and a warm welcome to Wycombe Wanderers and their supporters who have made the short journey across to us this afternoon.
This is a day of mixed emotions. The day we are choosing to commemorate Remembrance Day also coincides with the club celebrating its 130-year anniversary.
Only yesterday the club reached this significant milestone. On 27th October 1893 the club was founded as Headington Football Club, and it is that ongoing thread of 130 years of history that brings us to where we are today. And from where I am looking now, the prospects for the next 130 years look very good indeed.
Football is about history, it’s about community and it’s about recognising the fact it is not just about 90 minutes each week of first-team football for the men’s and women’s teams. Football is embedded in our community, our culture. It permeates so many aspects of society and with 130 years of history behind us it is more important than ever that we look to put the club in the best possible place to face the next 130 years and beyond.
While there is rightly a huge focus on the new stadium, I want to use today in particular to acknowledge the day-to-day things we do to keep this fabulous club where it is. Grass doesn’t cut itself; the kits don’t wash themselves and magically appear in the changing rooms, and the ticket office and turnstiles don’t work without people there to manage them. The lights don’t work unless someone is there to put the light bulbs in and pay the electricity bills when they come. So, I want to use this opportunity to say thank you to every member of staff who has worked for this club in the past 130 years - you all make a difference.
I would also like to take this opportunity of remembrance to pay my respects both personally and on behalf of the club to the late and incomparably great Sir Bobby Charlton. It is the mark of his life that alongside the recognition he has been given for his footballing abilities, there has also been an overwhelming response to the kind of person he was. Words such as gentleman, humble, kind, thoughtful and caring have been used to describe him. For those of us who were lucky enough to meet him, I would also add ‘gentle’. Not typically the kind of words you see describing those who have achieved such incredible things. And that is the point. Much like the late, and also great, Gianluca Vialli, of whom similar words were said, greatness is achieved not by what you do but how you do it.
It will be a privilege for me today to lay a wreath of remembrance, but an even greater privilege to be joined by one of our own in John Elliot, or ‘Spike’ as we all know him, whose light and airy persona around the club belies his 23 years of military service which took him from Germany to the Falklands, Bosnia, Kosovo and more. With me also will be Bob Phillips MBE. I am humbled to share the stage with these amazing individuals.
Finally, I would like to pay a particular thanks to Andrew Crowley, who will be playing the Last Post this afternoon. Andrew was with us last year providing a spine-tinglingly beautiful rendition, and it is particularly poignant that Andrew is back with us this year while in the middle of his treatment for cancer. Andrew, we thank you so much for being here, and I hope we can all give him an extra special round of applause this afternoon and wish him well for a speedy recovery.
With all the complexity in our lives, all of our issues and difficulties we face, we can use today to remember and thank those past and present for all they have done to allow us the chances and choices we have today. And we can look forward to what I hope will be a great afternoon for Oxford United and an even greater next 130 years. Thank you.
Tim Williams