AFTER visiting Wembley just once in their first 116 years, Oxford United have recently become accustomed to a trip to the national stadium.

Monday’s Sky Bet League One

play-off final against Wycombe Wanderers will be the U’s fifth trip to the iconic arena and their fourth in just over a decade – but their first, of course, without tens of thousands of fans in the crowd.

Their maiden visit 34 years ago saw the Wembley turf play host to United’s greatest moment.

On April 20, 1986, more than 90,000 people watched Maurice Evans’s side blow away Queens Park Rangers 3-0 in the Milk Cup final as the club won their first and only major trophy.

Man-of-the-match Trevor Hebberd scored five minutes before the break, before Ray Houghton and Jeremy Charles completed the scoring.

It was an unforgettable day for U’s fans, who had to wait almost a quarter of a century to return to Wembley.

While United were in the top division for their previous visit, the Blue Square Premier play-off final against York City in May 2010 sought to end four years in non-league.

The stakes were high and the U’s appeared to be coasting towards the Football League when Matt Green and James Constable put them 2-0 up.

Ryan Clarke’s fumble into his own net made the second half an agonising watch, but the tension evaporated in a glorious 91st minute, when Alfie Potter finished off a counter-attack to send 33,000 fans wild.

The pressure was less acute for the U’s two most recent visits, which both ended in defeats.

Callum O’Dowda and Danny Hylton were on the scoresheet as Michael Appleton’s side lost 3-2 to Barnsley in the 2015/16 Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final, although United sealed promotion from League Two a month later.

Fast forward one year and Appleton tasted defeat again, Coventry City upsetting the odds to win the Checkatrade Trophy final 2-1, despite Liam Sercombe’s strike.