The Song Remains The Same (vs D&R L2)

Hello all -

It's nice to be back writing about the Yellows after a couple of weeks in the grip of a Siberian blast. Well, it was a bit snowy anyway. In the summer you can (sort of) forget about football for a while but in the middle of a season, it's a bit weird with no matches for a while. Which brings me to the subject of a 'mid-season break'.

When exactly would it be? I think it's generally proposed to be January. Well, we've just had a couple of weeks off in February - and freezing weather can strike anytime from November until March. If we'd had January off this year, there would have been no football from New Year until now. Doesn't bear thinking about really! And when exactly would the season end? Some time in June probably, unless there were weeks and weeks of Tuesday - Saturday - Tuesday - Saturday matches towards the end of the season.

Anyway, back to the point. Dagenham and Redbridge. Shot up the leagues and are just as quickly shooting down them again. Down in the nether regions of League 2. If there was any game that should be a gentle introduction back into actually playing football then a home game against the fast fading Daggers would surely be it.

Talking of introductions, there were some new faces at the club and in the squad named for the match. Oli Johnson (nearly new) was named up front with Beano and Scott Rendell (newer). Midfield was Hall, Mark Wilson (new) and Leven. At the back, Batt was still serving the longest two match ban in history so it was Davis, Wright, Doobs and Whing, with Clarke in goal as ever. On the bench were Worley, McLaren, Tonks, Mehdi Kerrouche (our refugee from DiCanio's circus down the road - very new indeed) and Lee Holmes (so new I doubt any of his team mates knew who he was).

So over all, three new or newish players starting and another two on the bench. It was almost back to pre-season discussions of 'gelling'!

We started out by kicking towards the fence end. The atmosphere was fairly muted, and wasn't helped by the poor turnout from D&R of about one hundred. Only just over 5,600 turned up in total - the rest didn't dare risk the wrath of their better halves on Valentine's Day! Still, the weather was OK, the surface looked good and there were some new players (and presumably revised formation and/or tactics) to run the rule over.

The first twenty five minutes. Hmm. I'd like to say they were forgettable. In fact I'd just like to forget them. Both sides were terrible. The ref was terrible. The atmosphere was terrible. We had absolutely nothing to shout about. No meaningingful shots from either side. No corners. Hardly any forward passes that reached their targets. No movement off the ball. Little shape. Throw-ins that gave the ball away, clearances straight to the opposition. And that was both sides. Were we as poor as we were in the first half at Burton? Yep. We didn't look quite as bad because the opposition was a damned sight worse though! A neutral observer would have had great difficulty telling apart the club staring at the Conference trapdoor from the one in a playoff position.

After twenty five minutes, a burst of excitement. Asa Hall (forgetting that our midfielders aren't supposed to go over the half way line unless they've got a note from their mums) found himself in front of goal with the ball passed through to him by Beano (who for much of the first half was some sort of extra left back - what was that all about?). But he hit it wide, past the left hand post. We all sat down again. Time passed. Clarke made a decent save with about five minutes of the half left. Nothing much happened and the ref put us all out of our misery by blowing for half time. The players left the pitch to a 'mixed' reception.

Well, where to start on that load of old rubbish? Barely a shot on target from either team, in fact not one at all on target from Oxford as far as I can remember. No width at all in the Oxford play, no crosses at all. Two poor teams, a poor match so far. Well, Burton had been similar, maybe the second half would see some much needed improvement in the entertainment. I was starting to regret not opting for the romantic candlelit dinner instead.

CW obviously thought that things needed shaking up as well. Asa Hall was taken off, and was replaced by Lee Holmes. Described by the official website as a 'left sided forward', we played him on the right. Ho hum. We also (I think) switched to a more 4-4-2 formation, with Rendell and Beano playing up front and Holmes, Leven, Wilson and Johnson in midfield.

After a minute or so of the half, we had a corner! Since the moments of excitement so far could be counted on the fingers of one hand by a bloke who had lost a couple of fingers, we all stood up expectantly. It was overhit and we all sat down again. Then another corner. Some people stood up, but the effort had been too much for some of us last time - so some didn't. It was woefully underhit.

And then the first moment of any quality in the game. Davis went past his man (not something any of the yellows had really attempted all match) and got to the goal line. He put in a great cross and there was Oli Johnson, in the right place at the right time to nod it in. Excellent. Surely that was the way forward. Run with the ball, get past and behind the defence and cross the ball. But that was the first and last time Davis managed it. A shame. A mark of how poor we had been was the fairly muted celebrations in the stands. True, Dagenham hadn't looked liked scoring any more than we had (up until we actually did!) but our tendency to give away stupid late goals at home against poor teams meant that confidence in the stands wasn't running high.

That pessimism was almost confirmed immediately. Dagenham went straight down to our end, and but for a clearance off the line by Johnson it would have been level. Up the other end, Holmes was now starting to show glimpses of his ability and gradually, gradually we were improving. We were putting more pressure on the Daggers goal than at any time in the match. Leven put a free kick wide of the post, a couple of decent crosses from Holmes came to nothing. But as far as shots on target were concerned, the only one had been the goal. Rendell and Beano both tried to improve that stat, but couldn't. Rendell was denied by the goalie, who did well to get out and smother the ball. Beano sliced one so wide it went for a throw in. That elusive second goal looked as unlikely to come as the first had. And when you are only one up...

... the inevitable often happens. A Dagenham corner was headed out of defence, the Oxford players stood stock still as a Dagenham player collected it. He had as much time as he wanted to cross the ball, since nobody was making any sort of move to close him down. He picked his spot and a largely unchallenged Dagger headed the ball past Clarke to equal the scores. Sigh. Not unexpected really. We keep doing it - giving away soft goals, often from crosses. Still, let's be positive - we haven't lost after going ahead. There was still 20 minutes or so to go though, and it almost got worse after another five minutes or so when a Daggers shot hit the outside of the post.

CW brought on Kerrouche to replace Rendell. Some numpties in the stand booed him. He soon shut them up. Judging by what little we saw of him (about 15 minutes) he has a good first touch. His very first touch was a first time ball to Johnson, who sent it straight on to Beano, who shot low past the goalkeeper to put Oxford back into the lead and himself into double figures for the season. Good stuff. Nice to see some quick movement up front, sometimes we are so ponderous. Is it a coincidence that our two goals had both been from bits of quick movement, with strikers moving into space? I think not.

There was still ten minutes to go plus injury time until the end. CW signalled his intentions by taking Johnson off and putting Tonkin on at left back. There were a few squeaky bum moments, mostly because our players gave some ridiculous free kicks away, but we survived. And that was it. The crowd didn't give the team much of an ovation - it was more relief than triumph. The team looked like they were let down by their own performance.

I haven't been so down after a home win for a long time. Admittedly we were generally better in the second half, but over all it was a very disappointing game indeed.

Thoughts in the car on the way home:

If we play at that level for the rest of the season, we can say goodbye to any thoughts of the playoffs.

The distribution out of defence was absolutely shocking. Duberry and Wright especially had very decent games in defence, but neither Doobs' horrible diagonal hoof or Wright's 15-yards-straight-to-an-opponent clearances are doing us any good whatsoever.

It is frustrating that with some players of undoubted quality, sometimes the team actually looks like less than the sum of its parts.

Dagenham were (from their perspective) perhaps unlucky not to nick a point, but they do look a desperately poor team - and with Northampton, Plymouth and Barnet picking up points it's not getting any easier down at the foot of the table.

On the positive side (let's cheer ourselves up) most of the new players look to have something about them. Holmes especially - maybe we could play him on the left. Just an idea. Like not playing Beano out wide - you can have that one for free, CW!

If we could start a game decently for a change, we might not find it so difficult to get on the front foot.

I probably won't make it to Brizzle, so good luck to the team on Saturday - give them a cheer from me.

Come On You Yellows!