5 May 1986 – Oxford U (a) 0-3 – finished 7th – Lukic,
Anderson, Samson, Keown, O’Leary (Allinson), Adams, Robson, Davis, Nicholas,
Woodcock, Rix.
Looking at that line-up, how did that Arsenal team lose?
Well, let’s not forget: Oxford were the League Cup winners that season and we
had a caretaker boss in charge.
By that time, I was preparing to leave UK for sojourn abroad
with Bacchus International as a DJ. It was too good an offer to turn down: a four-month
contract in Oslo, Norway starting on 15th July with all expenses paid.
I would have to defer my BEd in Drama place at Roehampton for that opportunity,
but little did I know what awaited me in what I later came to know as
Noggieland! (Not my word, I hasten to add, as I find it mildly offensive.)
Returning to Arsenal, this era was full of disappointments.
We’d been knocked out of the FA Cup on Luton’s plastic pitch and now our empty
trophy cabinet and absence from cup finals since 1980 was reminding many of the
1953-1968 ‘Long Sleep’.
That season, I remember Terry Venables being linked with the
Arsenal manager’s job but, in the end, ex-Gunner and Double-winner George
Graham stepped into manager Don Howe’s shoes. It’s hard to imagine, but only about
17,000 turned out for Howe’s last game in charge: a 3-0 win in March over Coventry
which put Arsenal eight points behind the league leaders, Everton, with two
games in hand. Howe resigned and Steve Burtenshaw took over the reins until the
end of the season.
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