2009/10

The club faced a limited selection of yellow kit designs from Nike’s rather uninspiring catalogue. While Premier League clubs had the luxury of custom kit designs, lower league teams were restricted to choosing from off-the-shelf options.

Unusually, there was no all-yellow variation.

For the first time, Oxford United exclusively wore short-sleeved shirts, prompting players to wear thermal base layers during the colder months. Interestingly, long-sleeved shirts were still available for purchase by fans.

The away shirt featured a very plain round neck design, resembling little more than a basic t-shirt.

For the first half of the season, white socks from Nike's Brazil template were used. These featured black turnovers but were replaced by plain white socks for the second half.

The name of Buildbase's sister company, ‘Plumbase’, was used on the change shirts.

The goalkeeper shirts featured a template that had been used frequently amongst Premier League clubs the previous season.

An odd thick piping band ran around the collar and, rather clumsily, switched position in the centre before crossing the chest.

The royal blue jersey was considered to be the number one choice.

An odd sky blue shirt was used for a handful of games, such as when playing away at York against their blue/red halved shirts.

Exact details of this sky shirt have been hard to research, with only a few grainy photos, but I have found this template worn by continental teams during 2008.

After narrowly missing out on the play-offs the previous year, Oxford United went one better by reaching the Play-Off Final at the new Wembley Stadium.

In an impressive match, they defeated York City 3-1, securing their return to the Football League.

True to Wembley tradition, Oxford United wore specially embroidered shirts for the occasion.