Winger from Oxford United scores early on -- Rochdale successful finally (5)
I believe the answer is:
ousel
'winger' is the definition.
(ousel is a kind of bird)
'oxford united scores early on rochdale successful finally' is the wordplay.
'oxford' becomes 'OU' (abbreviation for Oxford University).
'united' says to put letters next to each other.
'early on' says to take the initial letters.
'finally' says to take the final letters.
The first letter of 'scores' is 's'.
The last letters of 'rochdale successful' are 'el'.
'ou'+'s'+'el'='OUSEL'
'from' is the link.
(Other definitions for ousel that I've seen before include "Dark-faced type of yore" , "Flyer" , "Archaic name for blackbird" , "Thrush from Seoul, strangely" , "it goes flying" .)