History of Magdalen College AFC
Magdalen were one of the powerhouses of university football in its early days, winning the first Cuppers trophy in 1883, and a further 6 times by 1898. However, Magdalen failed to win the trophy once during the 20th Century and only managed to regain Cuppers in 2001. That team was the best Magdalen team of recent times, led ably by Tom Green who resisted the calls of the Blues to spearhead the Magdalen strike-force to the old division 2 title in 2000 and back-to-back premier division titles in 2001 and 2002. During that time, Magdalen went on an incredible 18 game winning run in the league, the last 7 matches of the 2000/01 season and first 11 games of the 2001/02 season. Premier Division titles were accompanied by Cuppers victories as Magdalen became only the second club to win successive "doubles".
After a disappointing 2002/03 season in which Magdalen struggled to cope with the loss of Green, the premier division title was again won in 2003/04 as Giles Haytner became the talismanic striker. However, this was the final season that Magdalen were to be a force in college football, the following year Magdalen narrowly avoided relegation as Haytner could not make up for the deficiencies in the team that was a shadow of its former glories and relegation followed in 2005/06. Good freshers such as Rob Ivermee in 2004 and Jon Siah in 2005 spent most of their time playing for the university sides and the rest weren't able to arrest the Magdalen slide. Last season, Magdalen narrowly avoided relegation to the bottom tier of college football, staying up by just 1 point.
