Making a Manager - The Story

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Experienced Joe McNerny joined the club. He was a top-notch player, for our level, and would (almost certainly) become a key player in his veteran years. Having already played for Crawley Town and AFC Fylde this season, he would only be available to play for us in the next season. However, he was too good a player not to sign early on.

Ben Rowthorn left the club. Despite showing glimmers of his ability, the good performances were heavily outweighed by the bad ones and his attitude was horrendous. He was toxic to the football club and he had no future. We made quite an impressive profit on a player we bought for free, and we were confident of making up the full £68,000 on a player who played his role in our season.

It was a very testing month, physically and mentally. U18s winger Sam Pickles returned to the first-team fold to score a sensational stoppage time winner against Dulwich Hamlet to kick start our penultimate month of the season. Three draws and one victory followed in the remaining four league games of the month, as we struggled to retain our early-season defensive composure.

Our focus was on the FA Trophy. We wanted to win it for a second consecutive season. Wrexham stood in our way in the semi finals. We fought for a 2-2 draw in the first leg before stoppage time goals from Kabongo Tshimanga and Adam Coombes secured a remarkable 4-3 win in the second leg for us. We were through to the final once again! We were going to Wembley once again!

Kabongo Tshimanga was at his brilliant best as he scored six important goals for us in March. His most memorable goal was a stoppage time equaliser in the second round of the FA Trophy semi finals. Legend.

Despite a mixed bag of results in March, we had one-and-a-half hands on the trophy. A ten point gap, with a game in hand, left us in a position where three wins from seven was enough to guarantee the title. Realistically, we only need one more result.

The cup runs have put our finances into extremely good shape. Should we earn promotion to the Football League, we had the money in the bank required to expand our stadium to the required capacity.

Our final month. We had six league games remaining, as well as a cup final on the horizon. We were hoping to have two more trophies in our cabinet at the end of it all. Almost there.

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Oxford City midfielder and captain Josh Ashby has signed a new contract with the club. The twenty-three year old had been on a month-to-month contract at the club since the summer, having let his previous contract at the club expire. He had been free to move to another club but has since given his future to Oxford City, at least until next year.

News of Josh Ashby's new contract comes soon after Oxford City's FA Trophy semi final victory over Wrexham. The win meant a second consecutive final in the competition for Oxford City, who top the National League by ten points with just a handful of games remaining.

Ashby's new deal is worth an estimated £525 per week, making Ashby one of Oxford City's top earners, with clauses which will see his wage rise with promotion, as well as an annual wage increase which will kick in on 1st July. Ashby's contract also contains bonuses for league performances.

The former Oxford United midfielder admitted that he had been hoping for an opportunity to move to a club in the EFL but is delighted to be on the brink of securing promotion to the EFL with his beloved Oxford City. Ashby has committed himself to continue working hard for the benefit of the football club.

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Josh Ashby:

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"I'm delighted to sign a new contract with Oxford City. I have captained the club with pride over the last couple of years and City has a special place in my heart after some incredible moments in the blue and white shirt.

I must admit that I wanted to make the move to the EFL and to play in England's top four tiers but I am excited about how close we are to achieving promotion to the EFL for next season. I look forward to making promotion a reality and to play in the professional leagues of English football."

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We struggled in the early games of the month. Defeat to Eastleigh hurt while we were held, annoyingly, by Fylde and Barrow. We bounced back with a narrow, and somewhat lucky, win over Wrexham before comfortably brushing Morecambe and Southport aside. Three back-to-back wins set a nice tone to end the month on.

Nathan Ferguson showed his industrious character at the heart of our midfield in a tough month of football. The box to box midfielder put in a real shift for the team and proved to be an invaluable asset for us.

Champions once again. We were well ahead of our nearest challenger and with one game left, we were miles above the pack. Hoorah.

Our balance dropped a little bit but we were still in a seven-figure position. We were in a strong position for a semi-professional club.

First, a dead-rubber league game against Maidstone United. We're not interested in that. We are interested in the game versus Dover Athletic. That'll be the next update.

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Oxford City successfully retained the FA Trophy with a 4-1 win over Dover Athletic in the final at Wembley, after extra time. Dover took the lead early in the first half but Oxford City captain scored a goal of the century contender with a sweet volley from twenty-five yards to level the game late on, before Oxford City scored three more in extra time to become the first side since Grays Athletic in 2006 to win a second consecutive FA Trophy title.

Having emphatically secured the National League title, and a second consecutive promotion, this season, Oxford City headed into the final as sure favourites to lift the trophy but it was Dover Athletic who took the first bite of the cherry. Chay Tilt found himself in an incredible amount of space on the edge of Oxford City's area and the Dover midfielder pinged an incredible drive into the far corner to give Dover the lead.

Ryan Dickerson rescued Oxford City from going further down in the first half as he successfully denied Inih Effiong, who had run free of Oxford City's defence in a moment of madness.

Jordan Wright had made a rare start for Oxford City in this game, with manager Ryan Ferguson looking to utilise his trickery to fashion out chances. Wright fashioned out a brilliant opportunity for himself on the stroke of halftime as he slalomed through Dover's defence but failed to do much more than test the Dover Athletic goalkeeper with a simple shot at the end of his run.

It was going to take something magical for Oxford City to get back into the game and up stepped the skipper Josh Ashby to rescue the day, with ten minutes to go. Kgosi Ntlhe whipped in a cross towards the near post but the ball was cleared by Connor Essam, as far as Josh Ashby. Ashby twatted the ball on the volley into the top bins innit fam, sending the Oxford City fans into raptures. The game would go into extra time.

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The goal sparked something in the Oxford City players, who absolutely dominated the extra time spell. Elliot Moss picked out the top corner with a thirty yard free kick, sending Oxford City into the lead. Dover were out of their depth against a team with this kind of quality and heart.

Elliot Moss created a goal for talismanic striker Kabongo Tshimanga. Moss had time and space in midfield to pick out the perfect through ball for Oxford City's number nine, who made no mistake with a perfectly taken sweeping finish into the top corner. It was game over for Dover Athletic. Oxford City were comfortably in the ascendancy.

Ashby had started the magic for Oxford City and he rounded off the game with a brilliant fourth for Oxford City. City executed a training ground move from a corner, with Longman picking out his captain on the edge of Dover's penalty area. Ashby took one touch before finishing low into the far corner. He celebrated by lifting the trophy.

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Oxford City's Court Place Farm will undergo expansion works in order to comply with EFL stadium regulations. The expansion will comprise of the addition of 1,250 more seats, taking the total capacity of the stadium to 5,750 and total amount of seats to just over 2,000.

The expansion comes after Oxford City's National League title victory, earning them promotion to the EFL League Two. The EFL has strict stadium regulations which must be complied with, and Oxford City have decided to invest a total sum of £1,640,000 into this project. £725,000 has been collected as a repayable grant from local authorities.

The expansion works will conclude on 26th September, and the stadium will pass all regulations to play in EFL League Two, EFL League One and EFL Championship (England's Tiers 2, 3 & 4). Should Oxford City gain further promotions, it is likely they would stick with Court Place Farm.

Oxford City will, meanwhile, play their home games at Oxford United's Kassam Stadium, as they have done previously. The ground share will begin immediately, but Oxford City will show a preference to play pre-season games away from home, to accustom themselves to difficult away trips.

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Brian Cox (Oxford City Chairman):

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"We are pleased to begin expansion works on Court Place Farm once again. The stadium has only been reopened since the last expansion works for a couple of months but to fulfill EFL regulations, we must expand the stadium. We are happy to give our players, staff and fans the best possible stadium to work, play and support at.

It'll be a monumental change in terms of playing surface. We are going from playing on an artificial surface to playing on grass. It'll take a bit of time to adjust but we are well used to playing on the grass of Kassam Stadium, Wembley and other stadiums. We look forward to making the transition.

The expansion of the stadium is a sign of the times for the football club. The club is growing and so now too does the stadium. We are delighted with the progress we have made and we have some more major news for the football club coming very soon."