Made to Measure vs Burton (L2)

The third home match in a row, but the first one to be on a Sunday. I guess it was so that people could watch the Wales/England match on the box at 3pm on Saturday. Personally I'd rather watch paint dry, not that I am particularly unpatriotic - but most of the players really look as if they'd rather be somewhere else most of the time. If they can't be bothered, then I'm not sure I can be either. Never mind, there's an exciting England/Ghana friendly on later this week (can you wait?!!) - although most of the 'first team' seem to have been let off (including the new 'permanent' captain) so they can go home and play with their consoles or send dodgy texts to young ladies who aren't their girlfriends.

Anyway, back to some proper football (rather than an 'Oooh blimey, how much did we pay for Wembley, better get our money back' fixture). The weather was warm, always a sign that, depending on your position in the table, the season is either sputtering out or racing towards an exciting climax. For us, it isn't quite clear yet. A defeat would probably (if not mathematically) mean our season was winding down, a draw was not really any good (especially looking at some of our remaining fixtures), only a win would do. In fact, as I drove down through sunny Beds, Northants and Oxon, I wondered about my determination to go away to Bury next Saturday if we did anything other than win today. It's been an expensive month, as well as the away matches I've shelled out for next season's Season Ticket. I'm sure those around me in the East Stand are delighted. Another season of my bad singing, bellowing at the ref and mood swings awaits them!

Got to the East Stand car park a little later than I hoped, (I'd had to go to a surgeon to have an arm and a leg removed to pay for the petrol) and doubted if there would be any spaces left. But luckily a straggler from the morning's car boot sale and his family were still packing his white van full of no-brandname cooking utensils and plastic toys, giving me a space to slide into. I amused myself watching them putting all the tat back into the van while I ate my lunch. Watching someone else work is so relaxing! The radio said there were no changes to the Yellows team, with Woodley coming onto the bench to replace the departed Jack Midson.

The prematch was enlivened by some more of the acrobatics cum cheerleading that had been on show at the Cheltenham game. Not really my type of thing, if I'm honest. When the teams ran out, I was delighted to see that Burton were wearing white, and hadn't done a Torquay and stuck to their yellow strip. We lost the toss and started by kicking towards the East Stand.

We have started quite well in many matches recently, but often find it impossible to make the superiority count. This time we were ahead after four minutes. Steve MacLean picked up a ball from Harry Worley and hit it goalwards. It took a deflection off a Burton defender and beat the Burton keeper (whose surname I'm not even going to attempt - let's just call him Adam!) by his right hand post. A great start!

The ref now started to have an effect on things. He was letting Burton players (especially Darren Moore, the very large central defender) use quite a lot of physical muscle to win the ball. Now that isn't something I'm against in general, I don't like the way that football is becoming a non contact sport. But enough is enough. He should really have at least tried to stop it happening, as it set the tone for the rest of the game. Craddock (I think) was booked for standing in front of a Burton free kick to stop it being taken quickly. He wasn't subtle about it, not even pretending to be organising a wall or something, and a Burton player (one of their center-halves) was booked for a tackle no worse than many that had gone before. It was followed by worse tackles that didn't get punished at all, like one that sent Paul McLaren crashing to the floor.

Craddock put a header wide, but Burton were coming back into it. They put one wide when they should have done better, and there was a scramble in the Oxford box where the ball was under nobody's control for what seemed like minutes! Now, if I were a lazy blogger, I could have written that the ball was pinging around the penalty area like a pinball. Now let me tell you, I have a (small) collection of (quite large) pinball machines. Yes, really. I'll show you in a future post sometime. When playing pinball the aim is to have the ball under control. By nudging the machine, by aiming your shots, by knowing what you are doing. It is very rarely some sort of random, multidirectional lottery as to where the ball ends up. Which is what it looked like in our penalty area. So it wasn't like pinball at all. The equivalent might be to say when you lose control of the pinball, to say that 'It was just like a football match'. That's not true either. So there! Anyway, if anyone was controlling any type of ball at all, it was Burton. They didn't look hugely dangerous (except when tackling!) but we had started to play the ball 'long' (Translation: hoof it anywhere), which didn't help - the ball kept coming back at us. Craddock looked as if he had sprung the Brewers offside trap when Beano put him through as half time loomed, but the lino had other ideas. Drat.

Half time came with us one to the good, but the match pretty even. There was more gymnastics, which was generously applauded. No random blokes kicking the ball at the crossbar. Good.

Paul McLaren didn't come out for the second half, being replaced by Josh Payne. I guess he was suffering the effects of that challenge in the first half. Payne is fast becoming an excellent footballer, one I am sure we will see a lot of next season, so that looked ike a sensible move. I was mildly surprised that Tom Craddock hadn't been subbed as well. He had been having a good game, but had been getting increasingly wound up. I was worried we wouldn't finish with eleven men, the ref being so inconsistent.

The first significant event of the half was a stray Oxford hand (Jake Wright I think) waving about in the air and getting a touch of the ball perilously close to the Yellows penalty area. The free kick seemed to take an age to take, and when it did the Burton player just lobbed it weakly into Ryan Clarke's arms. Feeble.

We than went two up. The ball was hit up to Beano on the left hand side of the the Burton penalty area. He was being marked by Darren Moore, who foolishly let the ball bounce. As he often does, Beano managed to get hold of the bouncing ball and got goal side of the huge Moore, who brought him down. Probably the easiest decision of the afternoon for the ref. Penalty - definitely. Red card (dneying a goal scoring opportunity) - certainly. Moore knew what was coming, and took it well. Craddock took the penalty (despite MacLean wresting him for the ball! Sort it out lads!), and he to took it well. He beat Adam L easily, putting us two up.

Burton looked like a beaten team with half an hour still to go. Heslop almost headed a third and Payne blasted one over the bar. Clarke went down to gather the ball to foil one of the very rare Burton attacks and from his throw out, the Us put together a lovely move ending in a great cross from Tonkin that picked out Craddock, who scuffed his shot. A pity - it would have been the best-worked goal of the game by some way. MacLean also spurned an excellent chance when he found himself one-on-one against the Burton keeper afer some nice crisp passing, and Clarke came out to gather at a Burton players feet in what was their last meaningful attack of the match.

Burton were soon down to nine men, with their other centre back tackling Beano and earning himself a second yellow. The red mist descended and Beano got a yellow as well. Very wisely, he was soon taken off and replaced with Hackney - who came on and looked lively immediately. With only ten minutes or so left against nine men, Oxford played the ball across the field probing for an opening. Some of the more vocal members of the crowd wanted the ball forward quicker (but them they'd been saying that since the fourth minute!), but the patient play produced two great chances for Craddock that he couldn't take. But eventually the Burton defence cracked.

Hackney to Craddock on the right hand side of the penalty area, round the keeper and unselfishly across the face of the goal to Steve MacLean, who gratefully accepted the chance. 3-0. A couple of minutes of injury time when we looked more likely to score than Burton and it was all over.

The crowd of over 7,100 (about 250 from Burton I'd guess) had seen a decent win albeit against a fairly poor Burton team who had only showed any quality in small patches. Their supporters must be worried. We were encouraged by the clean sheet (the first one at home since early September!!!), and another good performance.

A good run home in the extra hour's sunlight.

Thoughts:

The glowing embers of the season are still alive.
Heslop had a good match, as did most of the team. I am getting to be a bit of a Payne fan and Worley's distribution was much improved.
I probably lost count, but the ref managed to dish out 7 yellow cards and two reds in a game that wasn't at all dirty! He did get the major decsions right though as far as I could see - just a bit card happy...
The bright lights of Bury are beckoning...