All time greatest F A Cup Giant Killings
Number 2
Fifth Round [last 16]
Saturday February 15th 1964
Attendance 21,700
Manor Ground, Oxford
Scorers:
Tony Jones 1-0 {13}
Tony Jones 2-0 {51}
Mick Ferguson 2-1 {68}
Bill Calder 3-1 {90}
Kits: Copyright Historical Football Kits and reproduced by kind permission.
Image: Oxford Mail
Since promotion in 1958, Blackburn rarely troubled the business end of the title race, until this season, when a good start was followed by a ten game unbeaten run from October. Rovers were top of the League and crushed West Ham 8-2 on Boxing Day in London. That emphatic result rubber stamped Jolly Jack Marshall's team, dubbed Marshall's misfits, as genuine title contenders but instantly the weight of expectation appeared to get to them as Rovers then lost the return match with West Ham two days later. It prompted a run of four games without a win, which knocked them off the top spot in February, although cup wins over Second Division Grimsby and First Division Fulham broke up the poor run.
Marshall's misfits returned to their League campaign, which fell apart in a disastrous run of seven games without a win and left them languishing in a remote final placing of seventh. Just two years later, Rovers were relegated. Oxford meanwhile went into the quarter final hat with four elite clubs and three from the Second Division. A home tie with Preston North End was viewed as just about the most favourable draw the fans at the Manor could have expected.
Pat Quartermaine was lured into non-League management in 1967 while Tony Jones, whose goals had been so crucial in the cup run and promotion campaigns, left at the end of the title winning season. Passing away at the age of just fifty-three in 1990. Maurice Kyle spent a season in the Second Division with the Us but it was also time for him to move on before also dying young in 1981. Cyril Beavon also left the club after helping them to the second tier as manager, Arthur Turner stepped up into a general manager's role.
Two of the club's biggest stalwarts saw the club safely through their first few seasons in the second tier. John Shuker went on to set a club record for League appearances before he hung up his boots in 1977 to move into Non-League management. By then the only player to have played more games for Oxford than Shuker, including non-League, was now making his name as a manager at the highest level. Ron Atkinson was about to take on the role at West Bromwich Albion, with whom he almost won the First Division title. It earned him the chance to take charge of Manchester United where he steered the side to FA cup success in 1983 and '85. Atkinson however was unable to end the club's long wait for a League title and was fired, remaining in management at the highest level throughout the 1990s as well as becoming one of the most recognisable faces on TV. An ill judged comment, as a TV pundit in 2004, when he thought he was off air virtually ended his TV career amid accusations of racism, despite a great many black players who had played for Atkinson racing to his defence.
Oxford themselves would emerge once again as a major giant killing outfit in the early 1980s. This time around they kicked on further than their 1960s counterparts and reached the top flight in 1985, winning the League Cup the following year. Blackburn meanwhile watched on as a lower division side. This role reversal may have had some bearing as to why Oxford's great cup win of 1964 seems to have been inexplicably forgotten.
Oxford: 1:Harry Fearnley, 2:Cyril Beavon, 3:Pat Quartermain, 4:Ron Atkinson, 5:Maurice Kyle, 6:John Shuker, 7:Peter Knight, 8:Arthur Longbottom, 9:Bill Calder, 10:Tony Jones, 11:Colin Harrington: Manager; Arthur Turner
Blackburn:1:Fred Else, 2:John Bray, 3:Walter Joyce, 4:Ronnie Clayton, 5:Mike England, 6:Mick McGrath, 7:Mick Ferguson, 8:Andy McEvoy, 9:Fred Pickering, 10:Bryan Douglas, 11:Mike Harrison: Manager; Jack Marshall
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