By later this evening, we will know who has secured promotion to the Championship. Oxford United have suffered three relegations after stepping out of the second tier 21-years ago, but are potentially just 90 minutes away from a return. Wycombe Wanderers, meanwhile, have never been in the second tier.
The build-up is nothing like it has been for previous occasions. In 2010, when the U’s secured promotion from the Conference, the players went down to Wembley a couple of days beforehand for final preparations in what would be a match backed by over 30,000 Oxford supporters. This time, however, the U’s are heading down today, with no fans in attendance as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The 2010 game was the first of what would be four Wembley appearances in ten years. Despite losing in successive Football League Trophy Finals against Barnsley and Coventry City respectively, the club have made it count when needing too, securing promotion ten years ago after winning the Milk Cup in 1986.
Of those four Wembley appearances in ten years, Oxford-born defender Josh Ruffels will make history this evening when he becomes the first U’s player to feature in three appearances at the home of football.
Although his previous two ended in defeat, the 26-year-old is hoping to make it third time lucky this evening.
Speaking to the Oxford Mail, Ruffels said: “We went the day before the last time to take in the surroundings. I don’t need to do that now, you know about the changing rooms, the pitch size.
“I think the experience can go a long way in these games and it will definitely help I played there before.
“When you compare it to the Trophy games, you’re disappointed but you get over it fairly quickly.
“But we’ve been grinding all year for this moment, so it will definitely mean a lot more. It’s a lot bigger than anything I’ve ever experienced.”
Meanwhile, manager Karl Robinson has been surprisingly calm heading up to the final. He saw his side progress past a resilient Portsmouth side on penalties after both legs ended 1-1.
Although Robinson suffered back-to-back playoff defeats while at MK Dons, he did secure promotion with the Buckinghamshire club.
Right now, the U’s boss is focussing on winning promotion but is aware that League One could be a much tougher animal next season.
He said: “It would probably be almost impossible next year, it will be that hard.
“If Wycombe go up then we’d stay down with Fleetwood, who will be better next year, Portsmouth, Peterborough, Sunderland, (maybe) Barnsley, Middlesbrough, Hull.
“Then you’ve got good sides coming up in Swindon and Plymouth.
“There will be an awful lot of teams that are going to be very competitive, which would make it very difficult for ourselves.”
He added: “It’s (a division) we’re desperate to get out of and I’m sure Wycombe will be the same.
“We’ve both got bottom-half budgets and to think we’re going to be competing for a place in the Championship.
“It just shows the enormity of what these two sets of players have really achieved.”
If the U’s fail to secure promotion, the chances of keeping hold of some of their key players will decrease drastically. However, the U’s boss has used that as motivation for his players.
Robinson said: “The only way we can keep this team, I hope, is by finding ourselves at the next level, where a lot of my players keep telling me every week that’s where they deserve to be.
“If they deserve to be there, then get there wearing yellow – and that’s the message I’ve tried to get into them.”
Elsewhere, U’s chairman Sumrith ‘Tiger’ Thanakarnjanasuth has insisted that the club will be ready for next season regardless of what happens tonight and that they have prepared financially for both divisions.
Tiger said: “No matter what happens we know our position. “From January we had two scenarios – staying in League One or (going up to) the Championship.
“We’ve planned very well and we know the players we want to use if we’re in the Championship.”
Despite losing a vast amount of money as a result of lockdown and games being played behind closed doors, the chairman insists the club are in a good place.
He added: “During lockdown, we had no income at all, so it really hurt the club.
“But we’ve tried to be very conservative with the money we’ve spent. We’ve planned well financially going into next season.”
