It’s not just the players who are setting records this season at Oxford United.
On Saturday the U’s travel to Newcastle United in the FA Cup with over 3,600 fans backing them at St James’ Park in a crowd which may pass 50,000 and could well be the biggest crowd ever to watch the U’s outside of Wembley.
The current record stands at 51,820 who saw the U’s lose 3-0 at Old Trafford in 1985 in the top division and the crowd on Saturday already looks set to beat the 47,754 who saw United lose 4-0 to Man United in the FA Cup in 1989. Could it be a sell out with a seating capacity of 52,388?
Outside Wembley and Old Trafford, the highest crowd to see the U’s was 42,266 at Anfield in 1987 but sales are already well beyond that for Saturday in a remarkable season for the U’s.
Home crowds are averaging 7,580 this season in all competitions - the highest since they returned to the Football League in 2010 - while the huge travelling Yellow Army on Saturday will lift the already amazing average away following of over 860 per game.
“It’s an amazing crowd on Saturday,” Head Coach Karl Robinson told us. “The home fans are always passionate about their football but so are ours and we want all of them to go up there, enjoy their weekend, and hopefully we give them a performance to be proud of.
“We have talked a lot about the records the players have been setting - record away wins, unbeaten runs and so on - but the fans are setting their own records. We have also had three crowds of over 10,000 in a row for the first time and we performed really well in all three of those matches, and against West Ham earlier in the season, so hopefully we relish the occasion, we respond to our amazing support, and we put in another positive performance.”