UPDATE: PATTERSON SACKING: fans relieved

11:02pm Sunday 30th November 2008

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United fans have been reacting with relief at the sacking of manager Darren Patterson.

Patterson was given the boot after showdown talks with chairman Kelvin Thomas following Saturday’s 2-0 FA Cup loss at Torquay United, which capped a miserable run of away defeats.

The 39-year-old former youth team boss replaced Jim Smith a little over a year ago, but Smith will now return to take charge of the team until a replacement is found.

John Ward, Kettering manager Mark Cooper and Steve Fallon, the boss of Histon who beat Leeds United in yesterday’s televised FA Cup tie, were names being bandied about on forums as early favourites to take up the vacant U’s hot seat.

Season ticket holder James Wall, 24, from Bicester, said: “I am absolutely ecstatic [that Patterson has been sacked].

“He always got it spot on in telling the players what was needed, but once they crossed that white line they didn’t have a clue.

“Players were playing out of position – he might as well have been out of the ground he was so tactically clueless.

“Jim Smith would make a good Championship manager, but at this level he finds it frustrating to talk to these types of players.”

Rob Blake, 24, also from Bicester, said: “It is a good decision, but just before Christmas and with games coming up it’s the wrong time.

“We need a leader. Every manager we have had has been linked with Oxford, but we need someone who is going to come in and do his own job, someone with a bit of fire in him.

“I think this is the right decision – but at the wrong time.”

United currently lie 16th in the Blue Square Premier, just 11 points off the play off places but six off the relegation zone.

Season ticket holder Ryan Wells, 26, from Berinsfield, said: “It had to be done. At the end of the day he had the club at heart, but he wasn’t good enough.

“The shocking away form has done it. I am glad he has gone.”

As a player, Patterson was a central defender who played for West Brom, Wigan Athletic, Crystal Palace in the Premiership and Luton Town.

He also made 20 appearances for Oxford United in the 2001/02 season and 19 appearances for Northern Ireland in a five-year international career.

Trevor Lambert, 57, chairman of fans’ group OxVox, said: “I am sorry for Patterson because no one could have given more, he was loyal.

“The cup tie (at Torquay) was the last straw because the run of away defeats has just been unacceptable.

“It is now a good opportunity to make a considered process to appoint a new person in time for the January window.

“The team did not play in an attacking, entertaining style. We were too often trying to hold on and nick a goal on the break.”

gsheldrick@oxfordmail.co.uk