Terry Sweeny - Academic

FA Cup

Tale of two City pitches Oxford and Cambridge against League graduates.

A few miles down the road from Oxford's dreaming spires, from the city of learning, in the English 'A' level classroom of Abingdon College, this term's set text is The Playmaker.

It is an inspiring title for one student in particular, as Oxford City midfielder Terry Sweeney prepares to give his team-mates chapter and verse on Wycombe Wanderers ahead of Saturday's evocotive first-round derby.

It may be 12 months ago this weekend that Wycombe striker Jermaine McSporran scored in his final league game for the Ryman League First Division clun before becoming their costliest export.

But if the £140,000 striker reckons he has a few insights on City, then Sweeney knows how to knock Wycombe out of the Cup. He scored for Plymouth Argyle - his first goal in senior football, and a 35-yard volley at that - just before Christmas last year to clinch a third-round tie at home to Derby County.

Oxford City are the lowest-ranked survivors in the competition proper, having entered in the preliminary round on Aug 21, and have never beaten a Football League side in their 117-year history. The last time they reached this stage was in 1970, when Ted MacDougall scored six times in Bournemouth's 8-1 replay victory.

FA Amateur Cup winners in 1906, over half a century before those

Johnny-come-latelies from Headington dared to embrace the name Oxford, this venerable club were reduced to a parks side on losing their ground 11 years ago before bouncing back to their former status as Isthmian League top dogs, via a Wembley debut in the 1995 FA Vase final and five promotions in six seasons.

One relegation later, however, Paul Lee's team sit three places from the bottom of their division, some 100 places adrift of upwardly-mobile Wycombe whom they once considered their fiercest rivals. It is 19 years since they locked horns from a level footing, back in the days of Isthmian League Boxing Day derbies.
Wycombe waltzed through this year's pre-season friendly, arranged as part of the McSporran sale.

So Oxford City should have no chance, right?

Perhaps not. But they do possess a humble and determined spirit, borne of a nomadic adversity when Brasenose College reclaimed the lease on their old White House Ground, home for 106 years, and left them without a game for two years.

And they also have Sweeney, back at school and full of vim after the bitter disappointment of being released in the summer by Plymouth.

"We have a chance because it's the FA Cup," said Sweeney, 20, who has rediscovered his joy of football at Court Place Farm. "No one has airs and graces here, and now we've got this tie we're going to make the most of it."

And make a name for themselves? "The sky's the limit if you're good enough," Sweeney added. "McSporran made the big step, so the bridge is there to be crossed."