Oxford United Football Club is an English association football club originally formed in 1893 under the name Headington United. The club played in local Oxfordshire leagues until being elected into the Southern League in 1949. It was at this time the club turned professional. The club adopted its present name in 1960 and was elected into the Football League in 1962, replacing Accrington Stanley. Promotion to the Third Division followed in 1965, and the club were promoted again 3 years later and enjoyed an eight-year spell in the Football League Second Division, before being relegated. "The U's" reached the top tier of English football in 1985 after successive promotions, where they stayed for 3 years. During this time United won their only piece of major silverware, the 1986 Football League Cup.
Apart from relegation to the redesignated Second Division (the old Third Division after the creation of the Premier League) and subsequent promotion shortly afterwards, Oxford United remained in the second tier for eleven years until 1999. After this a decline set in, with two relegations in three years to the Football League Third Division, the fourth tier of English football. In 2006 Oxford became the first club to have reached the First Division and won a major trophy to be relegated from the Football League. One of the teams to be promoted were Conference champions Accrington Stanley, 44 years after Accrington lost their league status to Oxford. United gained promotion back to the Football League after beating York City 3–1 in the 2010 Conference Premier play-off final. After six seasons in League Two they finished 2nd in the table and were promoted to League One, the third tier of the English football pyramid.