When the prize is so enormous, potentially era-defining for your little corner of the footballing world, you avoid tempting fate by displaying pride too soon. As such, it was the 95th minute that one end of the national stadium really began to bounce.
Before then, there had been little outbreaks of ultimate celebration: the occasional ole, the hugs between friends and family, that age-old chant in which every word becomes its own sentence. But with only half of stoppage time remaining, they sang it loud and proud and all as one at last: We. Are. Going. Up.
For those of us in Wembley of a neutral persuasion, that result had been written in pen and then stone a long time ago. Bolton Wanderers came into the League One playoff final as favourites and failed to have a single shot on target. They were spooked by Oxford’s resilience, then their counter-attacking threat, then by their own inability to do anything well.
To trail for 70 minutes in the biggest game of your season is unideal. To manage five measly shots in 104 minutes despite chasing the game should be a cause of great resentment. Bolton Wanderers supporters have been through an awful lot over the last decade, bringing each other so close. And Bolton were booed off at half-time. That tells you how bad things got.
Because life in the EFL is generally tough, a land of sweat and tears rather than milk and honey thanks to the avarice of English football’s elite and the financial inequality that greed decrees, most promotions contain strands of fairytale.
Bolton going up would have been redemption. For Oxford United, it is a sign of extraordinary progress and resilience in adversity this season.
Our protagonist is Des Buckingham, one of the more remarkable characters in the EFL this year. Buckingham is 39 and has been coaching for two decades, a career taking in New Zealand Under-20s, Wellington Phoenix and Mumbai City. When Liam Manning left for Bristol City, Oxford were in the automatic promotion places.
Buckingham inherited the pressure and expectation with none of the preparation time. The slump came and Buckingham did fabulously well to ride it out, in his first senior managerial role in European football.
His team were second favourites against Peterborough United and squeezed through. They were second favourites against Bolton and they outplayed them throughout. They lost to Bolton 5-0 nine weeks ago. He who cheers last, cheers longest.
That is only part of the story, for Buckingham was made in Oxford. He began his coaching career in the youth teams of this club, making his way up to first-team coach under Chris Wilder, but even before then he was loyal only to Oxford United.
Born in Cowley, he watched the club in the old Division One as a young boy. He still has the ticket stub from the first match he attended, with his grandpa. Now he’s taken them back to the second tier for the first time in 25 years. Few know how important all this is more than Buckingham.
The time in between has not always been kind to Oxford. Those days of Robert Maxwell and Jim Smith, John Aldridge and Dean Saunders, when First Division football almost became normal, existed only in the stories of a generation who gave up on them ever being repeated.
Oxford spent four years in the comparative wilderness of the Conference National (now the National League). Then, even the third tier felt like someone else’s dream.
For Oxford’s owners, this is vaguely unthinkable vindication for their own grand ambition. Indonesian businessmen Anindya Bakrie and Erick Thohir became majority shareholders in 2022 and stated their intention to take the club up to the Championship’s top half.
Last season, Oxford barely escaped relegation to League Two. Their decisions since have been masterstrokes; they have earned this too.
Next season will be difficult, given the budgets. Buckingham will likely be the subject of boardroom discussion within Championship clubs this summer, given his age and coaching background.
Josh Murphy, their Wembley hero, has a contract that expires this summer and he may have supercharged his own career prospects. The second tier can be a steep learning curve for those unfamiliar with its requirements and investment will be needed. There are more Rotherhams than Ipswich Towns.
But who cares now, when 30,000 people wearing yellow are screaming the same words and holding onto each other in an embrace that will last all summer? It’s amazing how quickly things can fall apart at football clubs, but infinitely more astonishing how momentum can build to create something beautiful.
A new stadium is in the offing. A new manager arrived who understood those who paid to watch his team. That team stood up tallest when it mattered most. Oxford United are living their best life.