season. The club remained full-time in their first season outside the Football League since 1950, as the U's finished in second place, two points behind Barnet and missing out on promotion much to the dismay of the United chairman Jonathan Crisp. Atkins made 41 league appearances for the club and scored seven goals. After leaving Colchester, Atkins returned to Birmingham City as player-coach, but made only eight appearances between 1991 and 1992. In December 1992, Atkins took the managers position at Cambridge United, but spent just six months with the club, unable to prevent them from relegation. He returned to Sunderland as assistant manager to Terry Butcher in 1993, before being sacked alongside Butcher. Atkins was approached to succeed Steve Beaglehole as manager of Doncaster Rovers in January 1994, making seven appearances as player-manager. He left in the summer of 1994 following disagreements with club owner Ken Richardson. Atkins became manager of Northampton Town in January 1995 and was quick to turn around the fortunes of the fledgling club. He took Northampton to Wembley twice, in the 1997 Football League Third Division play-off Final, which Northampton won 1–0 against Swansea City to gain promotion to the Second Division, and the 1998 Football League Second Division play-off Final, which the team lost to Grimsby Town 1–0. The following season, Northampton were relegated back to the Third Division, and Atkins departed in October 1999. His next challenge was at Chester City, joining as manager in January 2000 but by the end of May 2000, with Chester relegated from the Football League, he severed his ties with the club. In June 2000, Atkins was appointed manager at Carlisle United. Despite leading the Cumbrian side to safety from relegation in Division Three, Atkins was threatened with being sacked by owner Michael Knighton. Atkins left Carlisle to become assistant manager to Alan Cork at Cardiff City in July 2001, but was sacked in October. Soon after, he took over from Mark Wright as director of football at Oxford United, and was appointed manager in April 2002. 2001–02 was Oxford's first season in the bottom division of the Football League for over 30 years, and they finished a record low 21st place in the final table. Atkins rebuilt the team during the 2002 close season and the new-look squad looked capable of achieving a far higher position in the coming season. Oxford United occupied the automatic