10. A Family Affair

Moment of Truth

Despite the glorious afterglow of Oxford’s victory at Fleetwood, the club’s season is still in the balance. With three games left they sit eighth in the table, four points off the play-off places. With anything less than victory in their last three games spelling the end of Oxford’s season, Karl Robinson’s side must face his old team from Milton Keynes, where he and his family still live.

In the moments before kick-off, Robinson is tense as he addresses his side. His pleas for them to stick together and play at their best, however, fall on deaf ears. The boss grows increasingly irate on the sidelines at the team’s lacklustre performance. At half-time he reads them the riot act, singling out individual players and tearing strips off them for their unacceptable errors and seeming lack of desire, which he says are costing the coaches and support staff their livelihoods.

For Robinson, the match is personal. He was sacked by the chairman of MK Dons after six years at the helm and the ripple effects on wife Ann and daughter Jasmin were profound. In a fascinating portrait of family life with a football manager, Ann details how Karl’s ‘addiction’ to football saw them uproot their lives from Liverpool and nearly cost them their 18-year marriage. She says how much she dislikes “football Karl” as opposed to “husband Karl” and how difficult it has been navigating their lives alongside Karl’s job. The abuse the family has faced has particularly impacted Jasmin’s childhood. She suffered bullying at school over the performance of her dad’s teams and has learnt to avoid her dad after losses. Karl tearfully remembers the lowest point in his life after the death of his close personal friend Andy King, which drove Karl to the edge of despair.

Back at the Kassam Stadium for the second half of the MK Dons match, tension is relieved by Billy Bodin’s late winner which keeps Oxford’s play-off hopes alive – and inadvertently helps Rotherham stay second, despite their defeat to Burton. The two sides will face each other next, in the following episode. Karl reflects on their victory over his former team. “It’s amazing how quickly things change in football,” he says.