Mickey Lewis was known by many for his tenacious and hard working playstyle on the pitch, but off the pitch one of the most genuine and selfless people around.

Alfie Potter, who played under Mickey for Oxford United gave us some of his memories and thoughts about Mickey and the game on Sunday;

“The worst thing I ever heard about Mickey was ‘maybe he was too nice’ when he first took over as caretaker manager.” said Alfie.

“If that’s the worst thing that’s been said about him, then that pretty much says it all about Mickey, as he was an unbelievable guy.”

“No matter what was going on, no matter how bad or good times got, he was always the same when he came in. Mickey always remained level headed and he had the same enthusiasm no matter how good or bad it was.”

“He would lift the boys a lot of the time; if we had a bad result, he would be the one to get everyone going.”

Lewis was also head coach for the Velocity programme at Oxford City, where he would work full time managing U19’s. His ethos and attitudes remained the same whether he was working with a professional first team or 17 year olds who hadn’t been playing football for that long.

“I’ve seen him coach the kids, and he was exactly the same with them as he was with the first team.”

“Anyone that came across Mickey just loved him.”

“I think Mickey was the kind of character who liked everyone and would give everyone the time of day. I got on really well with Mickey and felt I had a really good relationship with him and there were times I’d have dips in form, and he’d be the one to drag me out of it.” 

The match on Sunday will be a great occasion for everyone, whether they knew Mickey personally, played football alongside or under him, or watched him from the stands each week as a fan. 

“It will be a good occasion to show his family just how highly everyone thought of him.” 

“What he’s done for the county on a whole and in football is unbelievable. He was a proper football man and I think everyone knows that.”

“When he did little bits in training he was like a bulldog.”



“All he wanted from anyone was hard work. Whether you had the technical ability to go with it, he didn’t care.”