Oxford part company with head coach Buckingham

Oxford United say that head coach Des Buckingham has left his role as U's boss

Oxford United head coach Des Buckingham has left his role after 13 months in charge.

After an encouraging start to the campaign the U's have struggled in recent weeks and have dropped to within a point of the Championship relegation zone.

Buckingham was appointed in November 2023 and led the club to promotion from League One via a play-off final victory at the end of last season.

"The club would like to place on record its thanks to Des for everything he has done during his time with us and wish him well for the future," said a club statement.

"The appointment of a new head coach will be confirmed in due course."

The U's lost 3-1 at home to Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday, despite Greg Leigh giving them a 17th-minute lead, and next weekend will travel to face promotion-chasing Leeds United.

Prior to being appointed by Oxford, Buckingham coached in New Zealand, Australia and India, where he was in charge of Mumbai City.

He replaced Liam Manning at the Kassam Stadium with the team second in the table, and although they fell short of automatic promotion, a return to the Championship was secured with a 2-0 win over Bolton at Wembley.

Three wins and three losses at the start of the current league campaign were followed by five consecutive draws, but since then they have only taken four points from the past eight matches.

Speaking following Saturday's defeat, he told BBC Radio Oxford: "I am who I am and we will always be as honest as we can with the media, fans or the players and they know that. We've shown the success of that together.

"We will find ways to make sure we continue to challenge ourselves at this level and also make sure we put things in place to get back to getting the results we all want.

"Our aim this year was to stay in this league, that is the reality of it."

Asked if he had a message for fans, he added: "The key thing for me is they've stuck with us through thick and thin, it's been a rollercoaster since I arrived.

"There's been lots of highs, we haven't had many lows - at the moment, people will look it as a low, but these are the moments we are tested as a playing group and tested as a club."

'Relegation always was a possibility' - analysis

by Jerome Sale, BBC Radio Oxford's Oxford United commentator

When a team has won only once in 15 games it might seem strange to talk about the outright shock that cascaded through Oxfordshire within moments of this news breaking.

It is not about Des Buckingham being a local guy, or even the guy that took Oxford into the Championship for the first time in 25 years.

I did a phone in when of the 100 or so calls, text messages and social media comments we received after Oxford were beaten at home by Sheffield Wednesday, a grand total of one called for a change of manager.

Relegation always was, and remains, a possibility for a club that almost surprised itself by winning the League One play-offs following a late charge last season.

My initial thought is that the fans have been happy just being in the Championship – the club clearly isn't.