Terry Dolan decided to shake things up a bit for the last match of the season, leaving Nogan, Potter and Edmondson on the bench, and much to the delight of many of the travelling fans, leaving Gary Hobson out of the squad entirely. Jon Parkin reverted from attack to defence after a series of unconvincing displays, allowing loanees Graydon and Shandran to operate together up front. In midfield, youngster Leight Wood was given a start and Christian Fox returned from a lengthy injury.

 

Things started badly on a windy day at the Kassam Stadium, as Steve Basham gave Oxford the lead after just three minutes. Oxford continued to press for the rest of the first half and Dolan, evidently unhappy with his team's efforts, replaced Graydon with Nogan before half-time. During the interval Dolan made another change, with 'Super' Michael Ingham being subbed off in his last match before returning to Sunderland. Young goalie David Stockdale replaced him for his first taste of Division 3 action.

 

Stockdale held out until the 63rd minute when Steve Basham was allowed to head in unmarked at the near post to double Oxford's lead and virtually wipe out the Minstermen's hopes. Elsewhere, news had filtered through that Torquay were 1-0 up at Lincoln. As things stood, Oxford would reach the playoffs. Dolan shored up the City defence by replacing the unimpressive Shandran with Stuart Wise and enabling Parkin to adopt a striking role.

 

The last 20 minutes of the tie were uneventful, unlike events at Sincil Bank, where out-of-sorts striker Simon Yeo equalised in the last few minutes for Lincoln to make Oxford's win irrelevant. The only positive to take from the match from City's point of view was the impressive display by Leigh Wood, but the final league table makes sore reading for all York fans, as the side finished in 10th, when in truth a top seven finish should have been achieved.