Prestwich_Blue said:
WyongBlue said:
Remember Alan scoring against Middlesbrough in the 75/76 League Cup Semi, I was in the North Stand that night and it was a cracking goal he scored, he was a good midfielder who always put a shift no matter what, and it was pleasure to watch him play for City during the 70's..................
He had an Indian Summer to his career that season (which was his last with us) as he was played further forward and scored half a dozen goals.
IIRC, Ron Saunders didn't seem to rate him and had dropped him, first preferring Tony Towers and then swapping Towers for Mick Horswill from Sunderland. When Saunders was sacked, Book restored Oakes to the team and in 1974/5 he played in a midfield three alongside Hartford and Bell. For balance in that line-up, Oakes as the most defensively minded of the three usually sat deeper. The next season, when Bell was injured, Tommy Booth played most of the season in midfield alongside Oakes and Hartford. With Booth being a converted centre-half, he was happy to cover when Oakes got forward and the result was Alan notching a few more goals.
Oakes left in the summer of 1976 to go to Chester as a player-coach and fairly quickly became player-manager. I do suspect that he dropped down the leagues a bit early and could have played in the old First Division for another year or two.
By the way, there's another long-range shot by him here, in the ECWC against Athletic Bilbao in October 1969:
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfCw_xhbLdI[/video]
EDIT - Actually, according to Wiki, Oakes played only 15 games in 1972/3 and 33 in 1973/4. However, he didn't play in the LC final against Wolves and I think Horswill was seen as a replacement for the role of partnering Colin Bell. However, Oakes fought off that challenge, and was pretty much an automatic choice for his remaining two seasons at the club.