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Thousands of away tickets sent to wrong football club

Oxford City FC Oxford City fans cheer from the stands, in their blue and white striped shirts.Oxford City FC
Oxford City play in National League North, four divisions lower than their Oxfordshire neighbours

A non-league football team has poked fun at Sheffield Wednesday after it mistakenly sent tickets for an upcoming Championship game to the wrong club.

Oxford United are due to travel to Hillsborough next month, but the 4,000 away tickets were instead sent to Oxford City, a team that play in National League North, four divisions lower than their city neighbours.

In a message on X, Oxford City thanked the Yorkshire club for the tickets, and joked that they would forward 3,997 of them onto their intended recipients.

The tickets have since been passed to the correct club.

The message, which was posted on X on Monday, read: "A big thank you to Sheffield Wednesday for the delivery of 4,000 tickets for your game vs Oxford United."

It included a winking face emoji for the "intern at the Hillsborough ticket office," adding: "Don't worry, we've all been there!"

It also said "don't panic" to United fans, promising to deliver the tickets "after lunch".

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Andy Gate, Oxford City commentator and press officer, told the BBC: "We do get calls now and then for people who want to get tickets to Oxford United and get the wrong number, and usually I'm quickly googling the Oxford United website to give them the number for the ticket office there.

"But we've had nothing like this, not at all."

He said officials from United visited the ground afterwards to collect the tickets.

"They mustn't have trusted us," he joked.

He said the mix-up also happened in the middle of a "busy week" for the club.

"We've got South Shields away today, and we've got a massive game on Saturday at home against Warrington [on Non-League Day]," he explained.

"So with the risk of sounding like Mick from Gavin and Stacey, it's not the thing you expect when you come to work in the morning is it?"

United Vs City

Getty Images/Oxford City FC Pictures side by side of an Oxford United and an Oxford City player on the pitch at their respective grounds.Getty Images/Oxford City FC
Both Oxford clubs have long, proud histories

Oxford United FC

  • Ground: Kassam Stadium (capacity 12,573)
  • Founded: 1893
  • League: EFL Championship
  • Highest league played: Division 1 (Premier League equivalent)
  • Greatest triumph: Milk Cup winners 1986

Oxford City FC

  • Ground: The MGroup Stadium (capacity 3,100)
  • Founded: 1882
  • League: National League North
  • Highest league played: National League
  • Greatest triumph: FA Vase 1995 runners up

You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.

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