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!