Poorly at Crawley (L2)

The third away match in a row for me, since I avoided the JPT fiasco. The other two had been a mixed bag - playing well at Southend but losing, playing badly at Sheffield and losing. To be honest the Sheffield trip had been a bit of a waste of time and money as far as the performance on the field was concerned with only the constant support of the large travelling support giving me something to smile about.

Before setting off, I knew that both Duberry and Potter would still be on the injured list and that Davis was recovered. Of course Robbie Hall is now back, so that was a definite plus.

Having given various rail companies more of my hard-earned than I felt comfortable with recently, I decided to drive. Down the M1, round the M25 (anti-clockwise this time - they say a change is as good as a rest!), down the M23 to Crawley and parked up in good time.

Crawley are doing well this season, with significant backing from somewhere or other, and have assembled a decent team. Results have generally gone their way and they are up at the business end of the table. A funny old club really. They have a couple of odious idiots as manager and assistant, and the whole atmosphere is resolutely non-league. But the Crawley supporters are a nice, friendly bunch and I have nothing against the club as a whole. It was good to see the Oxford and Crawley fans drinking together before the match. Doubtless we'd be taunting each other during the match, then drinking together again afterwards. As it should be really.

Anyway into the stadium (easy to find due to the giant red and white football on the nearby roundabout), this time with a ticket! Some previous trips to Crawley have been marked by 'pay-at-the-turnstiles' and suspiciously low 'official' away crowd numbers shenanigans. But now you buy a numbered ticket from a booth before going in. Much better.

The Broadfield Stadium (which ought to be named the Broadmoor Stadium if you look at the antics of Evans and his sidekick, Paul Raynor)is fairly basic. We were behind one goal in a roofed terrace. Fairly shallow front to back. To our left, there is an open unroofed terrace down one side, with netting above it probably to stop the ball going into people's gardens. Perhaps the locals got tired of Steve Evans knocking on the door asking for his ball back! The most vocal of the home support are behind the opposite goal in another smallish roofed stand (renamed the Bruce Winfield Stand this very day - applause from all, including the over 1000 yellows supporters). The main stand takes up the final side. It's neat, small and in need of substantial development if Crawley are to go much further. There was a crowd of only just over 4,000 and it looked fairly full. 'Where were you when you were shit?' we asked the Crawley supporters. 'In Sainsburys with the wife doing the shopping' they didn't answer. Which is a shame, because it would have been quite funny. There were certainly more of them than at any time I'd seen them.

In contrast to Southend and Sheffield, where the PA was inaudible, the Crawley sound system had been taken over by some bloke who had obviously spent too much time in his youth standing next to the speaker stacks at heavy metal gigs. To counteract the deafness and TinTin-itis (yes, I know) he turned it up to eleven. If was far too loud and completely killed any building atmosphere. They then played some horrible hackneyed Queen nonsense (not the National Anthem) as the teams ran out.

Ah, the teams. Right. First of all, we were wearing the blue and white second strip for some reason. Crawley (apparently the original 'Red Devils') were all in red, so why we weren't in Yellow and Blue I can't guess. And who was wearing this kit?

Clarke, Batt, Whing, Worley, Wright, Davis, Leven, McLaren, Philliskirk, Constable, Hall (R).

So that's 5-2-3, or 3-4-3, or 3-4-2-1? Or something. It was narrow, either at the back or in midfield. Why not 4-3-3 like we are used to? Heslop added into the middle, Whing or Wright taken out of defence. Oh well, something like it worked well at Southend (apart from in the striking department). Maybe it would be OK. It wasn't.

We started off with Clarkey in front of us. It was fairly obvious from the first moments that Crawley were much more up for the match than our lot. They looked more organised, sharper on and off the ball, more willing to put in a challenge. It took them all of three minutes to open their account. A shot was blocked by Wright, fell to a red-shirted attacker who put the ball past the floundering Clarke. Why (with three centre halves) there was nobody marking the Crawley player is only something that CW and his team can answer. A terrible start. Again.

The referee. Let's get this over with. I'm not sure what to say about him. One-eyed? A complete homer? I'm sure that blogs come under the laws of libel, so I'd better not say what I really think. Suffice to say, if he could give Crawley a free kick, he did. If he should have given us a free kick, he didn't. Offences that were to all intents and purposes the same (high feet for example) merited a talking to, a free kick and probably a booking if done by an Oxford player, but nothing if done by Crawley. At one point later in the match Whing saw a ball out for a goal kick. After the ball had gone out, he was tackled from behind and trodden on. He was then given a yellow card for getting riled about it. Shit ref. Worst this season by a mile, and we've had some stinkers. I won't go on about him much more, it makes me angry just thinking about him. Just take it as read that he didn't improve as the game went on. Actually as we are having a pop at the officials, let's have a go at the blonde female lineswoman who ran the line to our left.

I'm not sexist, and welcome women into football. Players, supporters, officials. It's all good. Except when its not. This woman was incompetent. She got decisions wrong that were about two feet away from her, made no decision at all numerous times. Poor.

Meanwhile back at the game. As at Sheffield, the early goal failed to spark us into life. Crawley hit the bar with Clarke beaten and then put another nail in the coffin on about a quarter of an hour. A(nother) free kick, swung over to the back post, markers doing god knows what, a suspicion of climbing, but a free header, past Clarke and two nil. Feeble defending. The idiot Crawley players then decided to try and incite some crowd trouble by celebrating in front of and gesticulating at the Oxford fans. This resulted in the plod filming the crowd and completely ignoring what had started it i.e. the Crawley players. Just looking for an excuse. Of course our friend the ref went and had a word with the Crawley players , telling them not to do it again. Didn't he? No, he didn't. Apparently that's OK then is it?

It had been a frantic opening period, with Crawley the better team by a mile. Every ball put into our box was leading to utter panic. The ball was being hit with pace, attackers running on to it. They were faster to the ball, quicker on the ball, more mobile off the ball. They were playing to a system and doing it well. It wasn't particularly pretty - balls down the channels, or hoofed through the middle - but it was effective. We were doing nothing. For a 'passing team' we had made precious few passes. Crawley were just closing the players down too quickly. So we went to plan B. Which was balls down the channels and hoofed through the middle. But we didn't do it anywhere near as well as Crawley.

Philliskirk went off and was replaced with the misfiring Smalley. A couple of minutes later (on the half hour mark) and it looked as if Constable might have thrown us a lifeline. He chased down a ball that he had no right to get to, the keeper and defender saw him coming and made a pig's ear of what should have been an easy clearance, Beano nicked the ball and walked it into the net. Back in it, somehow. Surely, surely, we could now settle down. Smalley had a chance but put it wide. If there was a turning point (although I'm not convinced we would have come out with anything anyway) that was it. He should have got it on target, it missed by a yard or two. It wasn't a simple chance, but the type the strikers should make a better fist of than that, really.

After that short spell of Oxford pressure, Crawley got into the ascendancy again. A goal in the last minute of injury time before half time, effectively ended the match. The generally ineffective but good at diving Mat Tubbs (my terrace neighbour amusingly referred to him as Tubbs (pen) !) hit the ball across the box, and it was picked up on the right by a Crawley player. What Clarke though he was doing, who knows. Maybe he was expecting a cross? Maybe it was supposed to be a cross? Whatever, he dived in a particularly eccentric direction, the ball bounced embarassingly off his waving legs and it was 3-1 and after a bit more crowd baiting from the Crawley players (again unpunished) it was halftime.

What a terrible half of football that had been from Oxford. Cringeworthy.

The ref made the half time 'Golden Ticket' draw. I wonder if he pulled out his own ticket. ;) It's a joke, yer honour!

No half time dancing girls. I'm starting to miss them. Bring back the Manorettes!

The second half started much as the first ended, with Crawley on top. It wasn't really a surprise when they scored a fourth. From a free kick wide on the Crawley right, the ball somehow went straight in. More dismal defending. The wall? The goalie? Rubbish. And the end of the match as far as the result was concerned.

CW made a couple of substitutions, Clarke made some decent saves and Crawley missed a couple. Good job, it could have been even worse. The time crawled past. The Oxford crowd did the pretend goal scoring thing, which at Sheffield had seemed quite amusing. Doing it away at Crawley seemed errm, tinpot in the extreme. The team surrendered without much fight, Beano blasting one over being just about the only shot of note.

It was a relief when the final whistle went, and we could go home. Some had left early, being jeered as 'loyal supporters' by our own crowd. Unfair. Travelling away to Crawley (and probably Sheffield) makes you a loyal supporter. Leaving five minutes from the end (not something I do myself) when three goals down and playing like a bunch of schoolgirls who've never met before actually seemed like a sensible thing to do as the fog started to come down. The players trudged off to a mixed reception.

Back in the car and a mostly fog free journey home. Good job I had some of that beer left that I bought after the Sheffield match!

Thoughts afterwards.

Bloody awful. That's two Saturdays (and a lot of money) wasted in a row. The worst performance since that drubbing away at Histon?

We seem to rely of the individual skills of players too much, rather than playing as a team. Which is fine when we are given the time and space in which to do so, but if a team closes us down quickly we are stuffed.

If we lose every match that Duberry doesn't play then we are too reliant on one player - the sign of a poor squad?

We made Crawley look like Brazil - no mean feat! They are energetic and efficient. We could take a leaf out of their book in fitness and closing down.

Bright spots? I'm struggling, but Constable's work rate and goal, having Robbie back, some of Davis' adventure maybe? No sendings off, no injuries? I'm clutching at straws really.

It's not the defeat (Crawley are doing well), it's the manner of the defeat that is worrying.

Next week's Cheltenham match suddenly becomes huge. If we are as poor at home as we have been in the last two away matches then I fear for what the rest of the season holds.

Never mind, it's only football. See you all next time...