Hello all -
So, off up the M1 to Burton, making sure I kept two chevrons apart of course. Not my first time up that particular road this week as I'd popped up a stretch of it on Thursday on my way to Wolverhampton to see Half Man Half Biscuit live in Bilston. Very good they were too. The match had been moved to Sunday because Derby were at home in the cup on Saturday, and Burton share their stewards. Hmm. Football on a Sunday afternoon is unnatural and agin God.
Anyway, got to Burton in decent time, and managed to park in the £2 car park near the ground. Usually I'm a bit later and end up leaving the jalopy in the industrial estate near the MacDonalds and Screwfix. There aren't any signs there about not parking, but I always walk back to the car expecting it to have been towed away! £2 for a bit of peace of mind isn't bad I suppose.
Into the ground (a very reasonable £14) and into the terrace behind the goal. The Pirelli Stadium is a neat enough, if small, ground with terracing around three sides and seating, press, directors boxes etc on the other. As kickoff approached, the stadium filled up a little and the teams were read out. Batt was missing (suspended for this and the Barnet game) so Andy Whing moved into right back and Hall came into the midfield. Probably as expected really.
A horrible monstrosity of a mascot called (I think) Bettie the Brewer, carrying a yellow handbag paraded in front of the stand to our right. The Burton 'singing section' was in that stand, comprising twelve (I counted them) pre-pubescant lads and an embarassed looking girl. Still, they afforded us much amusement throughout the match... The Burton support behind the other goal (in the Don Amott 'King of Caravans' stand!) were remarkably quiet all match. Although they'd obviously spent a lot a time sat at the sewing machines making banners. It's good to see that Kirsty Allsop's Handmade Britain has had such an effect on the football lovers of Staffordshire.
Burton were wearing yellow and black stripes, and confirmed their waspiness by buzzing about industriously straight from the kickoff. In contrast, the only garden wildlife reference I can apply to the men in the blue and white change strip is 'sluggish'. Buton were kicking towards us, and all the action was down our end of the pitch. The Oxford midfield went missing almost completely and immediately, giving the ball away all the time and not challenging or closing down the Burton players. I don't understand really. Although we nominally play a 4-3-3, surely that should become a 4-5-1 when we haven't got the ball. So where are those five 'midfielders'? Well the three proper midfielders (Hall, Leven and Heslop in this case) were far too close to the defence most of the time. And the two wide attackers who were presumably supposed to be helping out were still stuck too wide and too far up the pitch. Leaving a bloody great hole in the middle of the formation, with the midfield not having the speed or mobility to move into it quickly enough to make a difference. The Burton midfield had as much time and space as they wanted, and it was only a matter of time before they turned the possession into a goal.
It came after about a quarter of an hour. Clarke made a decent save, but from the resulting corner (which was taken short) the ball was simply passed into our penalty area and thumped goalwards. It took a bit of a deflection, leaving Clarke helpless. One down and, to be honest, we were getting what we deserved. The game continued in similar vein. The Oxford defence were actually doing OK under constant pressure, Heslop started to get his act together a little and made some useful challenges in the midfield, but it was still one-way traffic. Burton didn't really use the space they were being given very well, the most notable attack being a through ball that was well dealt with by Liam Davis. You may have noticed that I haven't been saying much about the Oxford attack. There's a reason for that. We were hardly up the other end at all, and we certainly weren't shooting when we were. The Oxford faithful were getting restless. 'This is embarassing' was the chant from some. Not particularly supportive maybe, but entirely accurate. The tackling was non-existant, the movement off the ball lacking. There was no accuracy at all in the passing. The ball went into the air far too much - and usually straight to a wasp. It was a depressing display. A corner after about half an hour lead to our first shot, with Heslop blasting over the bar. JPP then had what looked like a decent shot blocked. And half time came.
Blimey. Probably the worst half of football I'd seen from us this season. We looked like a bottom of the table side, not one challenging for the playoffs. The only good thing was that we were only one down - due to the decent effort by the Oxford defence in general (Andy Whing in particular, who was having a solid game at right back) and the lack of cutting edge in the Burton attack (I'm glad we didn't sign Zola over the summer!).
As far as I was concerned at half time, there were two racing certainties for the second half. We would concede more goals, and Beano would get sent off. He'd talked himself into the book jsut before the break, and you got the feeling that the (inconsistent) ref would not need much of an excuse to wave a second yellow at him. Nor for the first time (or the last, I am sure) I got it wrong.
I suspect that the dressing-room crockery at Burton might need replacing. CW obviously gave the team a bollocking, and livened the team up by making them dodge china and flying hot beverages for ten minutes or so.
As the teams came out for the second half, the lightweight and rather ineffective Hall had been replaced by Oli Johnson, which showed attacking intent. Although that left Leven and Heslop as the 'proper' midfield. Mind you, the midfield couldn't be less effective than it had been in the first half even with only two in there!
The second half started, and there was an immediate change. The Oxford players were suddenly a yard of two quicker, the tackling was at least being attempted. Johnson looked useful, linking the (still too deep) midfield with the strikers. Alfie Potter was also coming into his own. He made one jinking run that ended up with him just failing to get past the Burton keeper at the far post, just in front of us. Proving that those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them, the Burton defence failed to stop him a second time. This time he made no mistake after his enterprising dribbling and equalised inside the same post! An excellent individual goal (which is generally the type we rely on) had brought us right back into the match. Constable put one just wide of the post, and the referee missed a blatant handball by a Burton defender inside the box. Potter blazed over when he should have at least hit the target, Peter Leven's flying header was unfortunately straight at the Burton keeper. Burton had a header hit wide of the goal and a shot into the side netting, so there were chances at both ends. The preschool choir to our right tried an 'Is that all you take away?". Yep, at least double and probably nearly treble what you took to us. Mind you, ever mindful of child safely, we enquired whether their mothers knew they were at the match. Very thoughtful. We then warned the single girl amongst them about the danger of unnatural sexual acts - she assured us (through the medium of mime) that in fact she did not do such things. Much to the chagrin of the lad standing next to her.
Peter Leven missed narrowly from a free kick, and there were a couple of scrambles in the Burton area (including another penalty shout) but it all came to nothing and the ref blew up to end the match all square.
A match of two halves if there ever was one. After the first half I was glad we were only one down and was just hoping we wouldn't be beaten too badly. After the second, I was disappointed we hadn't taken all three points. In fact, this one match had summed up our inconsistent season yet again.
Thoughts afterwards:
We need to sort the midfield out. Whether that's a new player, or simply reorganising what we've got I don't know/care. But it needs doing, and quickly if we are to be challenging at the end of the season.
We are now in the last playoff place but we are six points behind the team above us. So we are one of at least half a dozen teams competing for that last place.
Doobs - that horrible diagonal cross field ball to nobody in particular. Don't bother. Really.
My men of the match? Whing in the first half, Alfie in the second.
We need to start actually winning matches and quickly. An away draw at Burton is an OK result, but not when it follows two home matches in which we have managed one point. A home match at Barnet next Saturday might give us the chance to put three points on the board. Maybe there will be a new player or two to bolster the ranks?
It's never dull, is it?!!! See you next time, I'm off to listen to some HMHB.
Oxford United, Stereo Photography, Old Amusement Machines, Odd Musical Instruments and more.
Monday, 30 January 2012
Sunday, 22 January 2012
A Cow Pat on the Back (vs Hereford L2)
Ah, the 'Battle of the Cattle'. As it's known by nobody at all. But a chance to put that morale sapping last minute defeat to Crewe to the back of our minds, following on so soon from the previous home match (against Crawley) in which we also conceded in the dying seconds.
We still haven't had much of a winter, and the weather was chilly rather than freezing. Unfortunately it was windy, never good at Grenoble Road (I'm getting the hang of that now!). The team news was 'unchanged'. Of course that meant that for another week, Beano had avoided being snaffled by the loopy Italian. I suppose I'd better have my tuppenceworth on the subject! I think in general that the club handled it OK, from their point of view. They can't say 'Player X is never for sale at any price' - it's not true (especially down in L2!). They can't say 'We will never ever sell a player to club Y' - that's not true either. So, they get a bid that (£200K or so, eventually) is financially acceptable, ask the player if he's interested (£75,000 signing on fee, nearly double wages reportedly), he has a think, says he's not interested. Sounds professional enough. Of course, from a fan's point of view it would have been a total disaster, but then perhaps our yellow tinted glasses blind us to the big picture? I am not sure Beano will still be with us on the 1st February, but at least he won't have gone down the road! A nicely worded official statement after the non-transfer seems to have put to bed the interent rumours of player/manager rifts, financial woes etc. Although of course some people won't believe it - but then some people think they've been abducted by aliens and that Elvis is still alive!
On the bench was ex-Norwich Oli Johnson, our only signing so far of the transfer window, along with Craddock, Worley, Asa Hall (I don't think we'll be seeing Robbie again, so I'll just go with 'Hall' from now on!) and Tonks.
We won the toss for the first time in a few matches and started by attacking the fence end. I thought that Hereford started surprisingly brightly - they have a very decent away record and you could see why. If fact they could have taken an early lead from a corner, but the ball was cleared off the line. The Hereford corners were quite interesting. As well as having a couple of men in the box, they put two men on each corner of the penalty area who made diagonal runs into and across the box as it was taken. Quite a contrast to the rather static tactics applied by the yellows in the same situation. I'd like to see us thinking along similar lines.
Heslop had a shot blocked, but then JPP put us into the lead after ten minutes or so. The Hereford defence backed off, Pittman looked up and (showing the confidence and cojones sometimes missing in certain of his team mates) banged the ball past the keeper. Nice. An early goal, surely we could go on and win it. We certainly wouldn't lose - we haven't done so this season after scoring the first goal.
Suddenly though, the urgency went a bit. The passing got more elaborate and less effective. The midfield were simply not closing their Hereford counterparts down, giving them a huge amount of time on the ball. The opposition didn't look hugely threatening, but their confidence grew a little as they kept the ball. Apart from the early goal, the match wasn't a million miles awat from the pattern of the Crewe match, worryingly. Beano had a chance to make his mark after about 25 minutes, but the Hereford keeper made a decent save to keep his team in it.
And then they were truly back in it. The Hereford right winger was given far too much space and time (not for the first or last time) and put in an excellent low cross. It wouldn't have come to much, but two yellows defenders slid in to try and clear it and Doobs slid it straight past Clarke and into the back of the net. Rats.
That, at least, seemed to spur the home team on a little. Crosses started to go into the Hereford box at regular intervals. Unfortunately, the accutate crosses were either headed and saved (Constable) or skidded across the face of goal with a striker nowhere about. A fair few were mishit in the swirling wind as well.
Don't get the impression that it was all flowing football from the Us. There was quite a lot of hoofing up to the front as well. Normally, it had been passed back and forth between various of the back four first beforehand though - so perhaps it is classed as 'patient'! ;)
Half time came. Another frustrating half of football. The strikers (especially Pittman) had looked lively, although Potter kept running well with the ball before giving it up tamely. Sometimes his own fault, sometimes because he was given absolutely no options by his static colleagues. The defence had done OK, but conceded an own goal, the midfield had gone missing for long periods.
Half time saw the warming up subs doing a perfunctory crossbar challenge, and a couple of kids teams doing a lap of the pitch.
Second half, and we were kicking towards the East Stand as we seem to prefer. Davis should have won a penalty early on, but apparently a tackle from behind in the penalty area that doesn't win the ball but does take the man isn't a foul? Actually, let's have a word on the ref while we've got him in our sights! Pernicketty. Fussy. One non-threatening free kick was taken three times. But then also lenient. Grabbing a man from behind in a bear hug? Fine. Late tackle? No problem. But take a free kick six inches from where the foul took place and he was down on the players like a ton of bricks. Contrast him with last weeks 'non-contact sport' ref and you can see why players and management of all clubs complain about the lack of consistency in the officiating!
JPP had a decent shot saved, and Potters follow up was cleared. Leven ran into the penalty area on the right of the goal and had a great chance to shoot, but inexplicably poked the ball across the area. Shoot man, shoot! Another good penalty shout, for handball this time, was waved away. Hereford were dropping deeper and deeper, with a point obviously being a good result for them. We had a series of corners that never looked like coming to anything, and most of the stadium thought Beano had scored after about 20 minutes into the half, but the ball squirmed wide of the post. Apart from that, there was lots of huff and puff from Oxford, but very little in the way of clear cut chances. Leven and Heslop had log distance efforts saved and Johnson (who had come on for the misfiring Potter) headed one over the bar.
As we've seen though, with our slow midfield (and the swapping of Whing for Hall didn't really seem to help much there), and wide fullbacks who are often a mile up the pitch when we attack, we are often vulnerable to counter-attacks. And so it proved again. A Hereford player ran away with the ball, and found himself in a one-on-one with Clarke and all the time in the world as Oxford players tried in vain to get back. He never looked convincing though, and poked the ball wide. What a let off. We went back on the attack, without finding any way through. In what seemed a bizarre substitution with five minutes to go, CW took Heslop off and put Craddock on. 4-2-4. That wasn't going to help the midfield! And then another breakaway, another cross from the right and once more Duberry met it to put it into his own goal. Disaster! Nice header though! Some numpty behind me decided it was all Craddocks fault, pathetic.
How on earth had we managed to go 2-1 down, having been clearly the better team for most/all of the match? Still, four minutes to go - about four minutes more than we had against Crewe. As the clock ran down, Craddock (who had apparently taken the expert advice from behind me to "fkin do somefink abart it you prat Craddock") put a lovely pass into the path of the wanting-to-make-amends Duberry, who met it beautifully and equalised. Brilliant. And that will teach all those who had left once we went behind. 90 minutes of support, not 85!
There was still some injury time to play, and Beano even had a headed chance to grab a very very late winner, but missed the chance to end his week on a massive high. The ref blew (I'm sure he was correct to the nanosecond) and it was a draw.
I'd managed to park in the East Stand car park (evidence of a rather disappointing crowd) so was out and away quickly. I was fairly amazed to hear CWs post-match interview in which he claimed that we had never lumped it forward. I can assure him (and you, dear reader) that lumping was certainly the order of the day for some of the match!
Some post match thoughts -
Our problem is with our immobile and uncreative midfield. Any chances we create are either made by our overlapping fullbacks or the strikers themselves.
Our closing down (again in the middle of the pitch to a large degree) is awful. We put no pressure on the opponent with the ball. Once they realise that, we lose the midfield battle very easily.
I thought Oli Johnson (in only 20 minutes, of course) looked a bit rusty, but showed some very nice touches. I think he'll be a very good addition.
Last three home matches - two points. Not good enough. Our home form needs a huge and immediate improvement if we are going to threaten the playoffs.
I realise that I have missed the chance to indulge my pun-Tourettes and make lots of cow/ox/bull related quips. You don't know how lucky you all are!
Let's hope we can get some points away at Burton next Sunday to keep us in the top seven. See you there!
We still haven't had much of a winter, and the weather was chilly rather than freezing. Unfortunately it was windy, never good at Grenoble Road (I'm getting the hang of that now!). The team news was 'unchanged'. Of course that meant that for another week, Beano had avoided being snaffled by the loopy Italian. I suppose I'd better have my tuppenceworth on the subject! I think in general that the club handled it OK, from their point of view. They can't say 'Player X is never for sale at any price' - it's not true (especially down in L2!). They can't say 'We will never ever sell a player to club Y' - that's not true either. So, they get a bid that (£200K or so, eventually) is financially acceptable, ask the player if he's interested (£75,000 signing on fee, nearly double wages reportedly), he has a think, says he's not interested. Sounds professional enough. Of course, from a fan's point of view it would have been a total disaster, but then perhaps our yellow tinted glasses blind us to the big picture? I am not sure Beano will still be with us on the 1st February, but at least he won't have gone down the road! A nicely worded official statement after the non-transfer seems to have put to bed the interent rumours of player/manager rifts, financial woes etc. Although of course some people won't believe it - but then some people think they've been abducted by aliens and that Elvis is still alive!
On the bench was ex-Norwich Oli Johnson, our only signing so far of the transfer window, along with Craddock, Worley, Asa Hall (I don't think we'll be seeing Robbie again, so I'll just go with 'Hall' from now on!) and Tonks.
We won the toss for the first time in a few matches and started by attacking the fence end. I thought that Hereford started surprisingly brightly - they have a very decent away record and you could see why. If fact they could have taken an early lead from a corner, but the ball was cleared off the line. The Hereford corners were quite interesting. As well as having a couple of men in the box, they put two men on each corner of the penalty area who made diagonal runs into and across the box as it was taken. Quite a contrast to the rather static tactics applied by the yellows in the same situation. I'd like to see us thinking along similar lines.
Heslop had a shot blocked, but then JPP put us into the lead after ten minutes or so. The Hereford defence backed off, Pittman looked up and (showing the confidence and cojones sometimes missing in certain of his team mates) banged the ball past the keeper. Nice. An early goal, surely we could go on and win it. We certainly wouldn't lose - we haven't done so this season after scoring the first goal.
Suddenly though, the urgency went a bit. The passing got more elaborate and less effective. The midfield were simply not closing their Hereford counterparts down, giving them a huge amount of time on the ball. The opposition didn't look hugely threatening, but their confidence grew a little as they kept the ball. Apart from the early goal, the match wasn't a million miles awat from the pattern of the Crewe match, worryingly. Beano had a chance to make his mark after about 25 minutes, but the Hereford keeper made a decent save to keep his team in it.
And then they were truly back in it. The Hereford right winger was given far too much space and time (not for the first or last time) and put in an excellent low cross. It wouldn't have come to much, but two yellows defenders slid in to try and clear it and Doobs slid it straight past Clarke and into the back of the net. Rats.
That, at least, seemed to spur the home team on a little. Crosses started to go into the Hereford box at regular intervals. Unfortunately, the accutate crosses were either headed and saved (Constable) or skidded across the face of goal with a striker nowhere about. A fair few were mishit in the swirling wind as well.
Don't get the impression that it was all flowing football from the Us. There was quite a lot of hoofing up to the front as well. Normally, it had been passed back and forth between various of the back four first beforehand though - so perhaps it is classed as 'patient'! ;)
Half time came. Another frustrating half of football. The strikers (especially Pittman) had looked lively, although Potter kept running well with the ball before giving it up tamely. Sometimes his own fault, sometimes because he was given absolutely no options by his static colleagues. The defence had done OK, but conceded an own goal, the midfield had gone missing for long periods.
Half time saw the warming up subs doing a perfunctory crossbar challenge, and a couple of kids teams doing a lap of the pitch.
Second half, and we were kicking towards the East Stand as we seem to prefer. Davis should have won a penalty early on, but apparently a tackle from behind in the penalty area that doesn't win the ball but does take the man isn't a foul? Actually, let's have a word on the ref while we've got him in our sights! Pernicketty. Fussy. One non-threatening free kick was taken three times. But then also lenient. Grabbing a man from behind in a bear hug? Fine. Late tackle? No problem. But take a free kick six inches from where the foul took place and he was down on the players like a ton of bricks. Contrast him with last weeks 'non-contact sport' ref and you can see why players and management of all clubs complain about the lack of consistency in the officiating!
JPP had a decent shot saved, and Potters follow up was cleared. Leven ran into the penalty area on the right of the goal and had a great chance to shoot, but inexplicably poked the ball across the area. Shoot man, shoot! Another good penalty shout, for handball this time, was waved away. Hereford were dropping deeper and deeper, with a point obviously being a good result for them. We had a series of corners that never looked like coming to anything, and most of the stadium thought Beano had scored after about 20 minutes into the half, but the ball squirmed wide of the post. Apart from that, there was lots of huff and puff from Oxford, but very little in the way of clear cut chances. Leven and Heslop had log distance efforts saved and Johnson (who had come on for the misfiring Potter) headed one over the bar.
As we've seen though, with our slow midfield (and the swapping of Whing for Hall didn't really seem to help much there), and wide fullbacks who are often a mile up the pitch when we attack, we are often vulnerable to counter-attacks. And so it proved again. A Hereford player ran away with the ball, and found himself in a one-on-one with Clarke and all the time in the world as Oxford players tried in vain to get back. He never looked convincing though, and poked the ball wide. What a let off. We went back on the attack, without finding any way through. In what seemed a bizarre substitution with five minutes to go, CW took Heslop off and put Craddock on. 4-2-4. That wasn't going to help the midfield! And then another breakaway, another cross from the right and once more Duberry met it to put it into his own goal. Disaster! Nice header though! Some numpty behind me decided it was all Craddocks fault, pathetic.
How on earth had we managed to go 2-1 down, having been clearly the better team for most/all of the match? Still, four minutes to go - about four minutes more than we had against Crewe. As the clock ran down, Craddock (who had apparently taken the expert advice from behind me to "fkin do somefink abart it you prat Craddock") put a lovely pass into the path of the wanting-to-make-amends Duberry, who met it beautifully and equalised. Brilliant. And that will teach all those who had left once we went behind. 90 minutes of support, not 85!
There was still some injury time to play, and Beano even had a headed chance to grab a very very late winner, but missed the chance to end his week on a massive high. The ref blew (I'm sure he was correct to the nanosecond) and it was a draw.
I'd managed to park in the East Stand car park (evidence of a rather disappointing crowd) so was out and away quickly. I was fairly amazed to hear CWs post-match interview in which he claimed that we had never lumped it forward. I can assure him (and you, dear reader) that lumping was certainly the order of the day for some of the match!
Some post match thoughts -
Our problem is with our immobile and uncreative midfield. Any chances we create are either made by our overlapping fullbacks or the strikers themselves.
Our closing down (again in the middle of the pitch to a large degree) is awful. We put no pressure on the opponent with the ball. Once they realise that, we lose the midfield battle very easily.
I thought Oli Johnson (in only 20 minutes, of course) looked a bit rusty, but showed some very nice touches. I think he'll be a very good addition.
Last three home matches - two points. Not good enough. Our home form needs a huge and immediate improvement if we are going to threaten the playoffs.
I realise that I have missed the chance to indulge my pun-Tourettes and make lots of cow/ox/bull related quips. You don't know how lucky you all are!
Let's hope we can get some points away at Burton next Sunday to keep us in the top seven. See you there!
Sunday, 15 January 2012
Consistent Inconsistency (vs Crewe L2)
Hi all -
After last week's heroics at Aldershot, I set off for Grenoble Road (see, I remembered!) in good spirits. Although in the back of my mind, I couldn't help remembering the match at Gresty Road, where we had failed to convert early chances and had lost the game, ending a four match unbeaten run.
Never mind, it was a lovely winter's day (in a not very wintery winter), not cold enough for frozen pitch or travel worries and not windy. Wind always makes Grenoble Road an uncomfortable place to be, and in the winter makes it seem a lot colder. Wind chill, I guess.
So, down to Oxford in good time, yet again failing to get into the east stand car park. Pah. I'll have to try alternative parking elsewhere - I hate the wait to get out of the car park after the match. Listening to RadOx in the car, our team was unchanged from Aldershot - which of course meant that Beano was still with us. A good thing in my view. Really we need to add a striker, not get rid of one, or get a new one in to replace one. I suppose Deane Smalley was supposed to be that new striker, but that's one signing that hasn't worked out at all. If there's a lesson there I suppose it's to look at a strikers record over his career, not just one 'purple patch' part of the previous season.
Three o'clock approached and the teams came out. Crewe looked small and nippy, with a couple of tallish centre backs. We lost the toss and started out by kicking towards the East Stand. A note to the PA announcer - it hasn't been the Oxford Mail stand for some years now. If they want the publicity, maybe they could pay for it? And we were off...
... and started like a train. Potter had the first shot, but it wasn't hit with any real venom and the Crewe keeper made an easy save. Constable was unfairly penalised for daring to challenge for the ball shoulder to shoulder when in a good position. The ref blew early, Constable put the ball in the net. No goal, and to be fair the Crewe players had stopped once they'd heard the whistle. It's a stretch to call it a disallowed goal. But it did show what the referee's intentions were. And that was to have a game of non-contact football. The slightest touch resulted in a free kick, a player fell over: a free kick. Looking at the stats, he managed to find 17 free kicks in a game where there were very few that anyone else would have givem. The only meaty challeng was by Andy Whing in the second half (for which he was rightly booked).
Anyway, we kept attacking, Crewe loking minimally dangerous on the break - although Clarke had to push one over from a long range shot, and a Crewe player missing with a free header at the back post from the resulting corner. The back post has been a weak area for us all season to be honest, I am sure we can all remember gaols and near-goals we have conceded in that area. In general we were still on the front foot, Leven's shot after a quarter of an hour looked goal bound until Alfie got in the way,and a lovely move a few minutes later produced a shot over the bar from Potter. It looked like only a matter of time until we scored. Reading that back, I relaise that I haven't mentioned JPP. He was the dominant force in the attack. Winning flick ons that his team mates were just too slow to latch on to, providing passes, holding the ball up. Definitely the pick of the men in yellow.
There were a couple of amusing moments on the North Stand side of the pitch in this early section of the day. Firstly, Davis went down in a very convincing imitation of slow motion, landing on top of a Crewe player, and secondly when a Crewe player was taking the ball out of defence, tried to clear it up field and got a wicked bobble which meant it looked as if he'd just passed the ball straight out of play. Not side splitting maybe, but you have to take your amusement where you can!
But let's give some credit to Crewe. Having weathered a quite considerable storm, they started to play their way out of trouble. Crewe have a tradition of trying to play football the right way, moving the ball quickly, and on the floor with lots of off the ball movement. As the half progressed, they got this game going much better. The chances stopped coming for Oxford as we found it icreasingly difficult to get hold of the ball in midfield. And when we did, the Crewe players were all over us like a rash. Closing down quickly, our (not very fast) midfield had no time on the ball and provided absolutley no quality ball to the forwards. Heslop did have one shot from distance just before half time, but once more it was straight at the keeper.
The ref blew to end a frustrating half. Started well, faded badly. Horribly reminiscent of the away match earlier in the season. But at least this time we weren't out of it at half-time! The halftime entertainment was the usual crossbar challenge, an odd mixture of a big bloke with 'a size too small' replica shirt on, a young girl with very skinny legs and unsuitably soft footwear, a Bristol Rovers supporter, a one-legged Chinese pirate and PRB in a tutu. I may not have got all those right. Some people hit the bar, others didn't. Brilliant... The other source of half time entertainment is the other scores coming up on the scoreboard. This time they were so late coming up that we barely got to see them before the teams were back out for the second half.
If we were hoping for a repeat of the first 20 minutes of the first half, we were in for a disappointment. Crewe settled into a 4-5-1/5-4-1 formation, defying us to get past them and using their speed to threaten on the break. The yellows looked completely bereft of ideas. The crosses from Batt and Davis were terrible, mostly hitting the first man or sailing over the penalty area by some diistance. Driving runs through the midfield? There weren't any. Pittman had a shot, but it was blocked. As time went on, the Oxford passing got more and more ragged, going to a red shirt as often as a yellow one. Hoofing up the middle lead to absolutley nothing other than the heads of the two Crewe centre backs.
After about an hour, Whing went off to be replaced by Mclaren. I am presuming he went off because he had been booked, because there was no injury to him and he'd been doing a decent defensive job in front of the defence. Mclaren added less than nothing, I am afraid. His passing was terrible, and he was much less effective defensively than Whing had been. That left a hole in front of our defence that Crewe started to exploit. There were quite a few times when they played the ball out of defence quickly, two or three of them passing the ball nicely. On occasion, it took a last-ditch challenge to deny them a shooting chance.
It looked as if JPP had strained something trying to make an interception, and although he played on, he was replaced as part of a double substitution with about fifteeen minutes left. He went off and Smalley came on. Heslop made way for Tonkin. Presumably the idea was for Davis to move forward, with Tonkin at left back, Constable and Smalley up front. Not a bad idea. Except that over on the other side of the pitch, neither Batt nor Potter were having very good days. Potter kept getting the ball, running straight into a Crewe player and losing it. Batt kept leaving the right back area vacant, staying forward too much for a 4-4-2. Davis, freed to go further forward, had a shot deflected just wide, but at the other end the Oxford defence was getting sloppier and sloppier. A run from the empty right back into the penalty area lead to a whole load of non-tackles; eventually it was cleared, but it was all looking very creaky.
It seemed for all the world that it was going to end in a disappointing 0-0, but then in the last minute more awful defending let the Crewe sub (who had also been the Aldershot sub last week) score a simple goal as his team mates walked unchallenged in to penalty area and laid it on a plate for him. Bugger. He then proceeded to taunt the East Stand. His team mates came over and joined in. The feeble ref did nothing to stop them - that kind of thing has to be looked at surely?
There were a couple of minutes of injury time to go, but Oxford couldn't find a decent reply, and that was it. A professional away performace by Crewe who, although you might say they had been lucky not to be behind early, looked more likely to take the points as the match went on.
The ususl long wait to get out of the car park, and there wasn't even any football to listen to on the way home as there was no late match. Instead it was the supremely egotistical Robbie Savage. Shudder. On went the iPod.
Thoughts for the day...
Very good for 20 minutes, ineffective for 40 minutes, very poor for 30 minutes. Inconsistent from game to game and inconsistent within a game.
It's worrying how quickly we run out of self-confidence.
The substitutions (especially McLaren) didn't really work at all.
Although we went up a place in the table, we are now four points adrift of the club in fifth, with a massive ten points to the automatic promotion places (which are now out of realistic reach I feel, given the way we are playing). If we are to stay in the playoff places we need a couple of wins. 3 points against Hereford on Saturday would be a good start, especially when we have played a game more than those around us. See you all there...
After last week's heroics at Aldershot, I set off for Grenoble Road (see, I remembered!) in good spirits. Although in the back of my mind, I couldn't help remembering the match at Gresty Road, where we had failed to convert early chances and had lost the game, ending a four match unbeaten run.
Never mind, it was a lovely winter's day (in a not very wintery winter), not cold enough for frozen pitch or travel worries and not windy. Wind always makes Grenoble Road an uncomfortable place to be, and in the winter makes it seem a lot colder. Wind chill, I guess.
So, down to Oxford in good time, yet again failing to get into the east stand car park. Pah. I'll have to try alternative parking elsewhere - I hate the wait to get out of the car park after the match. Listening to RadOx in the car, our team was unchanged from Aldershot - which of course meant that Beano was still with us. A good thing in my view. Really we need to add a striker, not get rid of one, or get a new one in to replace one. I suppose Deane Smalley was supposed to be that new striker, but that's one signing that hasn't worked out at all. If there's a lesson there I suppose it's to look at a strikers record over his career, not just one 'purple patch' part of the previous season.
Three o'clock approached and the teams came out. Crewe looked small and nippy, with a couple of tallish centre backs. We lost the toss and started out by kicking towards the East Stand. A note to the PA announcer - it hasn't been the Oxford Mail stand for some years now. If they want the publicity, maybe they could pay for it? And we were off...
... and started like a train. Potter had the first shot, but it wasn't hit with any real venom and the Crewe keeper made an easy save. Constable was unfairly penalised for daring to challenge for the ball shoulder to shoulder when in a good position. The ref blew early, Constable put the ball in the net. No goal, and to be fair the Crewe players had stopped once they'd heard the whistle. It's a stretch to call it a disallowed goal. But it did show what the referee's intentions were. And that was to have a game of non-contact football. The slightest touch resulted in a free kick, a player fell over: a free kick. Looking at the stats, he managed to find 17 free kicks in a game where there were very few that anyone else would have givem. The only meaty challeng was by Andy Whing in the second half (for which he was rightly booked).
Anyway, we kept attacking, Crewe loking minimally dangerous on the break - although Clarke had to push one over from a long range shot, and a Crewe player missing with a free header at the back post from the resulting corner. The back post has been a weak area for us all season to be honest, I am sure we can all remember gaols and near-goals we have conceded in that area. In general we were still on the front foot, Leven's shot after a quarter of an hour looked goal bound until Alfie got in the way,and a lovely move a few minutes later produced a shot over the bar from Potter. It looked like only a matter of time until we scored. Reading that back, I relaise that I haven't mentioned JPP. He was the dominant force in the attack. Winning flick ons that his team mates were just too slow to latch on to, providing passes, holding the ball up. Definitely the pick of the men in yellow.
There were a couple of amusing moments on the North Stand side of the pitch in this early section of the day. Firstly, Davis went down in a very convincing imitation of slow motion, landing on top of a Crewe player, and secondly when a Crewe player was taking the ball out of defence, tried to clear it up field and got a wicked bobble which meant it looked as if he'd just passed the ball straight out of play. Not side splitting maybe, but you have to take your amusement where you can!
But let's give some credit to Crewe. Having weathered a quite considerable storm, they started to play their way out of trouble. Crewe have a tradition of trying to play football the right way, moving the ball quickly, and on the floor with lots of off the ball movement. As the half progressed, they got this game going much better. The chances stopped coming for Oxford as we found it icreasingly difficult to get hold of the ball in midfield. And when we did, the Crewe players were all over us like a rash. Closing down quickly, our (not very fast) midfield had no time on the ball and provided absolutley no quality ball to the forwards. Heslop did have one shot from distance just before half time, but once more it was straight at the keeper.
The ref blew to end a frustrating half. Started well, faded badly. Horribly reminiscent of the away match earlier in the season. But at least this time we weren't out of it at half-time! The halftime entertainment was the usual crossbar challenge, an odd mixture of a big bloke with 'a size too small' replica shirt on, a young girl with very skinny legs and unsuitably soft footwear, a Bristol Rovers supporter, a one-legged Chinese pirate and PRB in a tutu. I may not have got all those right. Some people hit the bar, others didn't. Brilliant... The other source of half time entertainment is the other scores coming up on the scoreboard. This time they were so late coming up that we barely got to see them before the teams were back out for the second half.
If we were hoping for a repeat of the first 20 minutes of the first half, we were in for a disappointment. Crewe settled into a 4-5-1/5-4-1 formation, defying us to get past them and using their speed to threaten on the break. The yellows looked completely bereft of ideas. The crosses from Batt and Davis were terrible, mostly hitting the first man or sailing over the penalty area by some diistance. Driving runs through the midfield? There weren't any. Pittman had a shot, but it was blocked. As time went on, the Oxford passing got more and more ragged, going to a red shirt as often as a yellow one. Hoofing up the middle lead to absolutley nothing other than the heads of the two Crewe centre backs.
After about an hour, Whing went off to be replaced by Mclaren. I am presuming he went off because he had been booked, because there was no injury to him and he'd been doing a decent defensive job in front of the defence. Mclaren added less than nothing, I am afraid. His passing was terrible, and he was much less effective defensively than Whing had been. That left a hole in front of our defence that Crewe started to exploit. There were quite a few times when they played the ball out of defence quickly, two or three of them passing the ball nicely. On occasion, it took a last-ditch challenge to deny them a shooting chance.
It looked as if JPP had strained something trying to make an interception, and although he played on, he was replaced as part of a double substitution with about fifteeen minutes left. He went off and Smalley came on. Heslop made way for Tonkin. Presumably the idea was for Davis to move forward, with Tonkin at left back, Constable and Smalley up front. Not a bad idea. Except that over on the other side of the pitch, neither Batt nor Potter were having very good days. Potter kept getting the ball, running straight into a Crewe player and losing it. Batt kept leaving the right back area vacant, staying forward too much for a 4-4-2. Davis, freed to go further forward, had a shot deflected just wide, but at the other end the Oxford defence was getting sloppier and sloppier. A run from the empty right back into the penalty area lead to a whole load of non-tackles; eventually it was cleared, but it was all looking very creaky.
It seemed for all the world that it was going to end in a disappointing 0-0, but then in the last minute more awful defending let the Crewe sub (who had also been the Aldershot sub last week) score a simple goal as his team mates walked unchallenged in to penalty area and laid it on a plate for him. Bugger. He then proceeded to taunt the East Stand. His team mates came over and joined in. The feeble ref did nothing to stop them - that kind of thing has to be looked at surely?
There were a couple of minutes of injury time to go, but Oxford couldn't find a decent reply, and that was it. A professional away performace by Crewe who, although you might say they had been lucky not to be behind early, looked more likely to take the points as the match went on.
The ususl long wait to get out of the car park, and there wasn't even any football to listen to on the way home as there was no late match. Instead it was the supremely egotistical Robbie Savage. Shudder. On went the iPod.
Thoughts for the day...
Very good for 20 minutes, ineffective for 40 minutes, very poor for 30 minutes. Inconsistent from game to game and inconsistent within a game.
It's worrying how quickly we run out of self-confidence.
The substitutions (especially McLaren) didn't really work at all.
Although we went up a place in the table, we are now four points adrift of the club in fifth, with a massive ten points to the automatic promotion places (which are now out of realistic reach I feel, given the way we are playing). If we are to stay in the playoff places we need a couple of wins. 3 points against Hereford on Saturday would be a good start, especially when we have played a game more than those around us. See you all there...
Saturday, 7 January 2012
A Stroll At The Recreation Ground (vs Aldershot L2)
Hello all -
Before I get on with the match report, two quick things.
Firstly, apologies for the non-appearance of the blog for a few weeks (since Crawley away in fact). I didn't go to Morecambe (too far for me) and Christmas meant I missed the other two away matches anyway, since I was in darkest Cornwall. So my first-hand Yellows viewing has been the home matches against Cheltenham (a bloody awful display), Northampton (there's a reason why they are bottom) and Crawley (which on reflection afterwards I felt was a point earned, not two points dropped - as I felt straight after the whistle!). So sorry for the break in service, things sould get more back to normal now the festive season has gone.
Speaking of which, a belated Happy New Year to you all.
And on to the match! One I was really looking forward to, since my last away trip had been so long ago. Also we had put that horrible November well and truly behind us, with this being the start of a series of (on paper) 'easier' matches. Of course, that kind of thinking leads to disaster - but looking on the positive side, January should allow us to gain some ground on the teams above us.
So after dropping my daughter at Milton Keynes station on her way back to university, I headed down the M1, round the M25 and down the M3. Not too bad a journey, and I got to the glittering metropolis of Aldershot in very good time. Not quite in good enough time to get a space in the car park next to the ground though, so I ended up in a town centre multistory. Never mind, the walk would get rid of a couple of mince pies worth of Christmas excess.
Those who have visited Aldershot before will remember the trek it is to get to the away supporters area. You walk past the ground, turn left, walk up the North face of the Eiger, turn left again, go though a wooded area, then down again until you get to the turnstiles. Pay, enter and eventually you end up about 50 yards from where you started. Anyway, that's a whole box of Cadbury's Celebrations accounted for.
The ground itself has three sides, like ours, with one of the areas behind the goal the 'fence end', like ours. Unlike Grenoble Road (as my new year's resolution says I will be naming it from now on), it is umm. Either 'homely, historic and heritage' or 'a dilapidated, depressing dump', depending on your viewpoint. The major saving grace is of course the fact that the stand behind the goal is shared between the away support and the more lively home fans. That leads to a good atmosphere. I've rattled on about the Aldershot drum before, probably more than once. I didn't like it then and I don't like it now. Sometimes it seems to go on instead of singing rather than to accompany it.
As well as the left hand side of the stand, the away supporters get a bit of open terrace down one side (and some seats for those who eant to sit of course). This area does have the advantage of not having any of the supporting posts in the stand that tend to obscure the view, but of course you lose the atmosphere and get wet when it rains as it is uncovered.
I had arranged to meet YellowHoods at the game (he managed to manfully stave off the dreaded man-flu that he'd been incubating). After a bit of mobile phoning and arm waving (Cooee, I'm over here!), we hit a snag. He was in the open terrace I was in the covered one. I walked over to meet him, to find out that he'd got a grey ticket (he could only go in the open terrace), I had a purple one (only valid for the stand). After talking to the stewards (who had obviously been asked this about ten milion times before) off went Hoodsy to swap his grey ticket for a purple one and we took our place behind the goal. With atmosphere and posts. Except that broadcasting a managers last post match interview over the PA was really naff. That's what pop music is for - the cheesier the better!
The team was announced, with Pittman taking Craddock's place (no surprise there) and Heslop coming back in for Asa Hall. So - Clarke, the normal back four, Whing playing the 'McLaren' role of stopper in front of the defence, Constable with Alfie and JPP up front. The toss was made and Oxford were attacking the goal in front of us.
Aldershot started quite well and had an early shot (no real worries though). But we got into the game and started to push them back. A beautiful volleyed cross from the left by Peter "He does what he wants" Leven was met by the head of JPP and blimey we were one up in the first few minutes. Half the stand went loopy, the other half went quiet. From that moment the result was very rarely in doubt. We almost went two up when Constable smacked a shot that was saved (or bounced off!) the keeper very nearly straight to JPP with the goal gaping. Another foot taller and he might have made it, but it looped away to safety. Alfie was looking tricky, but his end product is I swear getting worse. I'm not talking about shooting (although I don't think he had a shot), but there never seemed to be a pass at the end of the run. But nonetheless, his sheer tenacity and ability with the ball was dragging the Shots defence all over the place. JPP was looking very speedy, and almost got through a couple of times.
The Aldershot goalie's kicking was terrible. He shanked (or was it hooked? I'm not a golfer) two goal kicks straight out of play, causing amusement the second time by stamping about like a two-year having a tantrum. His teammates were trying their best, but were no real match for the men in yellow. They did have a header that they could have made count, but it sailed over the bar.
After about half an hour, Heslop let one fly and the Shots keeper got a hand on it to keep the score to one. But that man Leven took the resulting corner, JPP was in the right place and sent it goalwards only to see a defender get in the way The ball bounced back to Duberry, who showed amazing ball control, trapping it, knocking it up in the air and them completing a bicycle kick that ACTUALLY BURST THE NET! I'm lying. It hit him and bobbled off various body parts before trundling over the line. But judging by his reaction and that of the Oxford faithful, it could just as well have been the first version! Two up, half an hour gone, totally in control.
The old cliche is that a two goal lead is a dangerous one. Really? More dangerous than 1-0? Not sure I get it. But anyway, we decided to make sure it wasn't going to be a worry. The Shots keeper made a decent save from Constable but Leven had provided two and he turned scorer just before half time. Pittman turned provider this time and Leven slotted the shot into the corner. There wasn't even time to restart.
So half time and three-nil up. It's not many times you see that way from home. It had been a great display from the Oxford team. I spent most of half time nattering to YellowHoods. On the pitch there was a hit the crossbar competition that seemed to feature an Oxford fan, the Shots mascot (who was having trouble seeing out of his 'head') and a bloke dressed as a green condom, or a runner bean or an alien or something. Probably for a good cause, so we all clapped anyway.
The second half was never going to match up to the first. And it didn't. Aldershot came out all guns misfiring, we looked dangerous occasionally but were content with the afternoons work. Clarke made a couple of decent saves, but they were the sort you'd expect him to. Hall (Asa, not Robbie) came on for Heslop, Smalley and Craddock replaced JPP and Beano. Smalley hit the bar. Aldershot had a couple of free kicks that either cannoned into the wall or sailed over the bar by yards.
The ref (who had made a good, unfussy job of refereeing a very clean game) blew and we gave the Oxford team an ovation.
Back to the multistory (I remembered which floor I'd parked on, which is a miracle in itself!) and back round the motorways of southern England and home.
My thoughts for the day:
Every Oxford player had a good game, but I'd pick out Leven for being involved in all three goals, Pittman for looking like the best new signing we haven't made, Doobs for being so bloody enthusiastic and downright likeable (as well as excellent!) and the much improved Andy Whing for being a rock in front of the defence.
I love being an Oxford fan at away matches. We are loud, good-humoured and supportive. You only had to look at how JPP was reacting to his new song at the end of the match. You 924 others - I salute you all!
The Aldershot fans are also a decent, noisy lot. BUT. That "let's pretend we scored a goal" thing - never ever do it at home. Ouch.
Thanks to YellowHoods, enjoyed the chat throughout the game very much. Hope to do it again soon.
We are back in the playoff places. Two home matches next (Crewe and Hereford) offer a good chance to push even further up!
Christmas was fun, winning away is probably better.
See you next time and COME ON YOU YELLOWS!
Before I get on with the match report, two quick things.
Firstly, apologies for the non-appearance of the blog for a few weeks (since Crawley away in fact). I didn't go to Morecambe (too far for me) and Christmas meant I missed the other two away matches anyway, since I was in darkest Cornwall. So my first-hand Yellows viewing has been the home matches against Cheltenham (a bloody awful display), Northampton (there's a reason why they are bottom) and Crawley (which on reflection afterwards I felt was a point earned, not two points dropped - as I felt straight after the whistle!). So sorry for the break in service, things sould get more back to normal now the festive season has gone.
Speaking of which, a belated Happy New Year to you all.
And on to the match! One I was really looking forward to, since my last away trip had been so long ago. Also we had put that horrible November well and truly behind us, with this being the start of a series of (on paper) 'easier' matches. Of course, that kind of thinking leads to disaster - but looking on the positive side, January should allow us to gain some ground on the teams above us.
So after dropping my daughter at Milton Keynes station on her way back to university, I headed down the M1, round the M25 and down the M3. Not too bad a journey, and I got to the glittering metropolis of Aldershot in very good time. Not quite in good enough time to get a space in the car park next to the ground though, so I ended up in a town centre multistory. Never mind, the walk would get rid of a couple of mince pies worth of Christmas excess.
Those who have visited Aldershot before will remember the trek it is to get to the away supporters area. You walk past the ground, turn left, walk up the North face of the Eiger, turn left again, go though a wooded area, then down again until you get to the turnstiles. Pay, enter and eventually you end up about 50 yards from where you started. Anyway, that's a whole box of Cadbury's Celebrations accounted for.
The ground itself has three sides, like ours, with one of the areas behind the goal the 'fence end', like ours. Unlike Grenoble Road (as my new year's resolution says I will be naming it from now on), it is umm. Either 'homely, historic and heritage' or 'a dilapidated, depressing dump', depending on your viewpoint. The major saving grace is of course the fact that the stand behind the goal is shared between the away support and the more lively home fans. That leads to a good atmosphere. I've rattled on about the Aldershot drum before, probably more than once. I didn't like it then and I don't like it now. Sometimes it seems to go on instead of singing rather than to accompany it.
As well as the left hand side of the stand, the away supporters get a bit of open terrace down one side (and some seats for those who eant to sit of course). This area does have the advantage of not having any of the supporting posts in the stand that tend to obscure the view, but of course you lose the atmosphere and get wet when it rains as it is uncovered.
I had arranged to meet YellowHoods at the game (he managed to manfully stave off the dreaded man-flu that he'd been incubating). After a bit of mobile phoning and arm waving (Cooee, I'm over here!), we hit a snag. He was in the open terrace I was in the covered one. I walked over to meet him, to find out that he'd got a grey ticket (he could only go in the open terrace), I had a purple one (only valid for the stand). After talking to the stewards (who had obviously been asked this about ten milion times before) off went Hoodsy to swap his grey ticket for a purple one and we took our place behind the goal. With atmosphere and posts. Except that broadcasting a managers last post match interview over the PA was really naff. That's what pop music is for - the cheesier the better!
The team was announced, with Pittman taking Craddock's place (no surprise there) and Heslop coming back in for Asa Hall. So - Clarke, the normal back four, Whing playing the 'McLaren' role of stopper in front of the defence, Constable with Alfie and JPP up front. The toss was made and Oxford were attacking the goal in front of us.
Aldershot started quite well and had an early shot (no real worries though). But we got into the game and started to push them back. A beautiful volleyed cross from the left by Peter "He does what he wants" Leven was met by the head of JPP and blimey we were one up in the first few minutes. Half the stand went loopy, the other half went quiet. From that moment the result was very rarely in doubt. We almost went two up when Constable smacked a shot that was saved (or bounced off!) the keeper very nearly straight to JPP with the goal gaping. Another foot taller and he might have made it, but it looped away to safety. Alfie was looking tricky, but his end product is I swear getting worse. I'm not talking about shooting (although I don't think he had a shot), but there never seemed to be a pass at the end of the run. But nonetheless, his sheer tenacity and ability with the ball was dragging the Shots defence all over the place. JPP was looking very speedy, and almost got through a couple of times.
The Aldershot goalie's kicking was terrible. He shanked (or was it hooked? I'm not a golfer) two goal kicks straight out of play, causing amusement the second time by stamping about like a two-year having a tantrum. His teammates were trying their best, but were no real match for the men in yellow. They did have a header that they could have made count, but it sailed over the bar.
After about half an hour, Heslop let one fly and the Shots keeper got a hand on it to keep the score to one. But that man Leven took the resulting corner, JPP was in the right place and sent it goalwards only to see a defender get in the way The ball bounced back to Duberry, who showed amazing ball control, trapping it, knocking it up in the air and them completing a bicycle kick that ACTUALLY BURST THE NET! I'm lying. It hit him and bobbled off various body parts before trundling over the line. But judging by his reaction and that of the Oxford faithful, it could just as well have been the first version! Two up, half an hour gone, totally in control.
The old cliche is that a two goal lead is a dangerous one. Really? More dangerous than 1-0? Not sure I get it. But anyway, we decided to make sure it wasn't going to be a worry. The Shots keeper made a decent save from Constable but Leven had provided two and he turned scorer just before half time. Pittman turned provider this time and Leven slotted the shot into the corner. There wasn't even time to restart.
So half time and three-nil up. It's not many times you see that way from home. It had been a great display from the Oxford team. I spent most of half time nattering to YellowHoods. On the pitch there was a hit the crossbar competition that seemed to feature an Oxford fan, the Shots mascot (who was having trouble seeing out of his 'head') and a bloke dressed as a green condom, or a runner bean or an alien or something. Probably for a good cause, so we all clapped anyway.
The second half was never going to match up to the first. And it didn't. Aldershot came out all guns misfiring, we looked dangerous occasionally but were content with the afternoons work. Clarke made a couple of decent saves, but they were the sort you'd expect him to. Hall (Asa, not Robbie) came on for Heslop, Smalley and Craddock replaced JPP and Beano. Smalley hit the bar. Aldershot had a couple of free kicks that either cannoned into the wall or sailed over the bar by yards.
The ref (who had made a good, unfussy job of refereeing a very clean game) blew and we gave the Oxford team an ovation.
Back to the multistory (I remembered which floor I'd parked on, which is a miracle in itself!) and back round the motorways of southern England and home.
My thoughts for the day:
Every Oxford player had a good game, but I'd pick out Leven for being involved in all three goals, Pittman for looking like the best new signing we haven't made, Doobs for being so bloody enthusiastic and downright likeable (as well as excellent!) and the much improved Andy Whing for being a rock in front of the defence.
I love being an Oxford fan at away matches. We are loud, good-humoured and supportive. You only had to look at how JPP was reacting to his new song at the end of the match. You 924 others - I salute you all!
The Aldershot fans are also a decent, noisy lot. BUT. That "let's pretend we scored a goal" thing - never ever do it at home. Ouch.
Thanks to YellowHoods, enjoyed the chat throughout the game very much. Hope to do it again soon.
We are back in the playoff places. Two home matches next (Crewe and Hereford) offer a good chance to push even further up!
Christmas was fun, winning away is probably better.
See you next time and COME ON YOU YELLOWS!
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