1985-86: League Cup final (build-up)

ITV's build-up to the 1986 League Cup final between Oxford United and QPR, with presenter Jim Rosenthal making no attempt to hide his loyalty to Oxford.

[@damienspurs147]

💙😔⚽️back when football finals at Wembley were magical

[@carlesq.]

heavy frost on the pitch

[@TB.....]

The best years of my life.

[@PeaveyPV20]

Always good to see saint and greavsie i ain't seen before. Back in the day when we had pundits who knew the crack

[@anglowarrior3871]

I remember QPR being very heavily fancied at the time and this was quite a big upset that Oxford pulled off.

[@thebeast2746]

Greatest day in Oxford’s history just a shame a lot of that team left the following season.

[@mrkipling2201]

Best big match theme by far

[@MrJonno85]

Agreed - but I thought they got rid of it at the end of 1984-85

[@mrkipling2201]

Jon Cole they had it for 85/86 then they brought a new theme tune out for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. I was actually gutted when they got rid of that theme music!!

[@MrJonno85]

@@mrkipling2201 Thanks - I probably wasn't aware of it being used that season because football tv coverage was so disjointed, what with the first 4 months being blacked-out. Even after that period I'm sure MOTD & The Big Match weren't shown every weekend. As I'm sure you're aware the Mexico 86 music was eventually used by Saint & Greavsie.

[@mrkipling2201]

Jon Cole that’s right I think it was called golden Aztec or something similar still preferred the one played here though !! I just looked and it’s called Aztec gold.

[@carlesq.]

hey mr kipling how goes it?

[@garethnoall2843]

I loved English football back in those days. Good stuff

[@thejudethecat]

One of the worst days of my life (was only 17 yrs old at the time)

[@thelstanedwardsson4374]

I doubt I was alone in expecting QPR to have hammered Oxford that day, instead of the reverse. QPR had the tougher route to the Final.

[@stevemarchant3469]

Love it ,,,

[@rickrowlands001]

I was so glad Oxford won

[@alanevans9604]

Final score was Oxford 3 QPR Rangers 0

[@williambuchan4778]

Jimmy Greaves states that most people wont have heard of QPR & Oxford Utd! Really jimmy. Millions watch MOTD & Big Match etc & go, well I never QPR & Oxford who are they...

[@scoop2963]

Jimmy on the sauce?

[@alexwilliams5819]

Can you imagine the outrage now if a presenter did what Rosenthal did here?

[@RW-nr6bh]

Have you seen Jeff Stelling and the rest of the Sky pundits on the final day of the season in 2017?

[@yoviealamsyah4843]

What? TV-am's David Frost playing football as goalkeeper? 😰😰

[@ianjones3568]

13:00 you could land a plane on that!

[@scherben8870]

06:40 For fuck's sake 😞

[@mrkipling2201]

scherben it was on the plastic though !!

[@scherben8870]

@@mrkipling2201 That was a bad time; and we never really recovered till 1991. Stapleton missed an absolute sitter in that same QPR match.

[@mrkipling2201]

scherben I never really took to Stapleton, certainly not like robbo, big norm, remi Moses etc.

[@scherben8870]

@@mrkipling2201 I liked him, but we should have bought Lineker in '85, and sold Stapleton to Bordeaux. Even better, not buying Alana Brazil instead of Lineker in '84 (and keeping Beardsley).

[@mrkipling2201]

scherben I don’t know why we bought Alan Brazil then and I still don’t . His best days were obviously behind him and the injuries had caught up with him, letting Beardsley go was a huge blunder and lineker was offered to United and he was quite keen to come but it was just the wrong time. Fergie sold Stapleton to Ajax not long after he took over though so he probably didn’t fancy him either.

[@mrkipling2201]

I miss saint and greavsie. And I forgot what a decent side Oxford had back then. Houghton, Aldridge, Jeremy Charles etc. Mind you QPR weren’t bad either especially beating Liverpool in the semi final

[@scherben8870]

Aldridge and Houghton, yes; but Oxford were shite, and were nearly relegated that season.

[@mrkipling2201]

scherben I was definitely surprised that they didn’t get relegated until the 87/88 season. I hate to say it but I’m glad they did because I hated going to the manor ground. That away end was awful!!!

[@scherben8870]

@@mrkipling2201 There and Plough Lane were shitholes. The sterile 'arenas' of modern football don't engender the same passion, mind.

[@mrkipling2201]

scherben very true I would rather stand on the away end at the manor ground or plough Lane or even the shay ground at Halifax ( league cup 2nd round 1990) than the sterile identikit boxes that’s what constitutes a ground now.

[@scherben8870]

@@mrkipling2201 I was impressed with the atmosphere at OT today. Equally pleased with the United style returning under Ole.