Outwitting Jack Frost vs Barnet (League 2)

A herculean effort by the club and groundstaff got the match on today. One of only two to survive in League 2. Only one survived in League 1. So credit where it's due.

I set off early expecting a longer drive than usual, but that didn't happen. So I got a longer sit in the car park than usual instead. Forgetting the lessons of history, I succumbed to a portion of the catering van's chips. It is a marvel how they can make something that is so hot on the outside, yet so uncooked on the inside. Great if you are making a baked Alaska (reference for fans of 70's cooking), not so good for chips. They went mostly uneaten, and yet again I vow never to have them again.

The snow had mostly gone, being washed away by torrential rain which carried on for the majority of the match. Sitting in my car, picking though fried potato pieces in an attempt to find an edible bit, my thoughts turned to the match. Of course it would be just like Oxford to beat the League leaders away and then succumb to the bottom team at home, but surely we could beat Barnet?

We lined up in a 4-4-2, with Maclean and Craddock taking the strikers positions. Batt, Worley, Futcher and Kinniborough were the defence and Heslop, Wotton, Clist and Hall made up the midfield. The truth is that for the first half we didn't really get out of first gear at all. We were slow and passive, and made few chances. There were good saves from both Clarke and the ex-Oxford Jake Cole in the Barnet goal before Barnet went ahead after half an hour or so. The goal was actually fairly embarassing. Barnet went down the right, beating Kinnibrough fairly easily (not for the first or last time in the afternoon), and it was simply passed across the face of goal and then into the net. Like a hot knife through butter. Although it was too cold for a hot knife and the butter would have been frozen solid, but still... We struggled to the half time break and looked very poor. So why didn't the 4-4-2 work as well as it did at Chesterfield? Well at Chesterfield we went on the attack, as we were already a goal down. Today both sides looked petrified to concede a goal - understandable given their situation in the league table, but a completely different circumstance. Half time came and 1-0 down was probably fair.

The half time entertainment was the hoary old crossbar challenge. This time for 'anyone wearing glasses'. It was as disorganised as the team had been for the previous 45 minutes. Either organise something reasonably interesting or just leave it out altogether. Can't we have five people from the North Stand vs five people from the East Stand perhaps? It would give us something to cheer, maybe. Or maybe not.

We switched back to a 4-3-3 for the second half, with Potter replacing Hall. Alfie added some much needed speed into what was a fairly ponderous attack, and Barnet were soon being pushed back. That became much more apparent when Beano came on for Craddock after about 10 minutes. Some of the invective being directed towards Craddock from the East Stand was fairly laughable. He isn't Beano, he is a completely different type of player who has scored some important goals already this season. He didn't have the best of games, but chanting 'Beano, Beano' when Craddock did something wrong is fairly dense. Probably the same people that were chanting for the departed Midson, when Green missed the other day.

But Beano made a huge difference. The first thing he did was to foul the big Barnet center half, and from then on he was in the action at both ends of the pitch. He harried the defenders, almost scored (it went in anyway), scored, cleared a ball off our line and ran about like the Beano of old. It was great to see and I hope that the current rumours of him going to pastures new are just Chinese whispers. They must be.

Beano and the excellent Maclean were again linking up well, and apart from Beano's goals (lets be generous and credit him with both!) Maclean hit the post and the bar. At the other end, Clarke made a few good (one excellent) saves and we ran out worthy winners in the end.

Best players on the pitch? Clarke, Clist, Maclean and Beano.
Points of concern? As always, rubbish free kicks and corners. Throw ins that a team of 12 year olds could defend. Lack of challenging for 50/50s. Letting the opposition get down the flanks and cross the ball far, far too easily.

But six points from 2 games is good. To come back from a goal down both times shows character. If the team would just get the ball on the floor and play as they did at times in the second half then we would be even higher than the 12th place in the table we now occupy (I'd like to put on record that my prediction on the Yellows forum before the season startred was that we would finish up between 10th and 12th in the table. Let's see if that pans out). It would be good if we could play two decent halves of football in the same game!

Next - Lincoln. I'm intending to be there.