Spirite Kettle (vs Chesterfield L2)

Hello everyone,

I've been a away on holiday in Dorset, so missed the away games at Burton and Cheltenham - both of which I would have gone to had I been about. Shamefully, that leaves Portsmouth as my only away trip this season so far. It does however allow me perhaps to reflect the views of those who are 'home only' supporters - the ones that pay the ticket money that keeps our club going!

I have to admit that I was not optimistic about today's match as I drove down. Which is odd, given our points total so far, being unbeaten etc. Partly it was the home performances this season, partly the fact that Wright and Constable (as well as Marsh) had managed to add themselves to the injured list. Smalley (who is still very much in the 'jurys out' category as far as I am concerned) was a doubt with a hamstring problem, but Rigg was apparently fit enough to appear on the bench.

Getting down to the stadium I tried to park in the East Stand car park, only to find that it had been infested with stewards turning people away - which was a new development. So off to the 'only an hout wait to get out because the road infrastructure is crap' car park for me then. Pah.  Still, at least that might mean a decent crowd.

Here we go - a table topping clash between the two teams with the best reccords in the division. Chesterfield were four points ahead however, having a 6-1-0 record as opposed to our 4-3-0. We'd scored loads, they'd conceded very few.

The team was much as expected - packed full of the new vibrant young players we've been promised, all playing in their favoured positions. I'm joking of course. Raynes in for Wright, Hall on the left Smalley (apparently fit) up front, with Kitson playing behind presumably. Except that would have been a 4-4-2, and we started with some sort of 4-3-3 with Hall playing more centrally. Although to be honest, it was all a bit of a mess. The out of sorts Whing is slower than a slow thing in slow motion this season, and he lurks just in front of the back four. Which sort of made a 4-1-2-2-1 formation. Oddly enough this didn't work. Chesterfield play with proper wide players. In case you can't remember what they are, they stay wide, have pace, go past their man and put crosses in. Having such a  narrow formation just invited them to use all that lovely width. They obliged. To be brutally honest, far from being a well-contested top of the table clash it started off looking like a training game for Chesterfield.

They aren't Barcelona - don't get me wrong - but as far as league 2 goes, they are very good. They play good football - and I hope that when our players are sat down to watch the DVD, they take some notice of what was happening. What was happening was: accurate passing, movement off the ball, attacking quickly, going forward with the ball rather than sideways or backwards, keeping the ball on the deck, closing men down rather than letting them run with the ball at will, passing the ball for the man to run onto rather than straight at him or behind him, playing the game with your back to your own goal rather than the one you're suposed to be attacking... and I'll give you a clue - it wasn't the men in yellow doing any of this. It was a mixture of excellent play by Chesterfield and sheer ineptitude on the part of Oxford.

The first chance fell to the visitors after ten minutes or so, and not for the last time in the afternoon Ryan Clarke pulled off a good save. Another shot/cross flashed across the face of our goal. One thing about Clarkie this season is that he is palming the ball away rather than catching it. At Cheltenham, it ended up going straight to an opposition player and creating a goal - it caused a few nervy moments today as well! One factor in Chesterfields play, was as noted above, that they played the ball on the floor. When we did it properly for the first time we looked good and created a decent chance that Smalley put wide. We'd come back into the match a bit - mostly as a result of switching back to a more usual 4-4-2 (although it was really a 4-1-3-2). Let's give CW some credit for making that particular change. The blues had already had quite a lot of success down the flanks with neither Newey nor Hunt prepared to make much of a challenge. I do understand that you don't want your fullbacks diving in, but backing off and backing off and backing off until the opposition player has a chance to shoot or cross is just barmy. At some point, you have to try and make them go around you or pass the ball elesewhere. That's what their defenders were doing to us! A case in point was their goal on about half an hour. Too much space on the Oxford right, two defenders backing off, a simple cross and a side-footed finish.

As happens so often and so annoyingly, the Oxford players suddenly woke from whatever half-speed dreamland they'd been in and actually got their arses in to gear, however briefly. Smalley had two more half decent chances that he failed to trouble their keeper with.

Half time came, and the faithful didn't boo. I think most of us were realistic enough to know that the scoreline could have been worse except for the Chesterfield final ball (which was pretty ropey all match). A hit the crossbar competition raised a bit more money for Dave Langan's fund - and Rosie has obviously been practicing!

The second half started with us playing towards the East Stand, and it whatever momentum we had a the end of the first half had completely gone - not that there was much to start with. Chesterfield moved the ball about well without actually looking very threatening. I can't really remember exactly where in the sequence of events this next incident happened, but a through ball was played into the Chesterfield penalty area, Smalley made a run towards it and the defender simply stood in front of him and then barged him over. The ball was three or four yards away. It was a penalty, or rather it wasn't but should have been. Anywhere else on the pitch it would have been a free kick and probably a booking. But no. I've restrained myself so far, but can do so no longer. The ref. Oh boy, the ref. Take a giant step forward Mr Trevor Kettle and accept your award for 'most useless official of the season so far'. You are winning it by a country mile. Someone said that Chesterfield have never lost when this particular 'official' has taken charge. I'm not surprised. I AM surprised they haven't won them all by four or five. If there was a foul to give for them, he gave it. If there was a foul to give against them he didn't.

Hall went off after a quarter of an hour of the second half to be replaced by Sean Rigg, who had recovered more quickly than expected from his injury. Suddenly we had a bit of width, and suddenly we looked a whole lot better. That's not the say Hall had a bad match, far from it actually. But he simply is not a left sided wide midfielder.

Kitson was then clattered from behind by a Chesterfield player. Even Mr Kettle couldn't ignore it. Except that the yellow card we were all expecting didn't come. What a surprise! The Chesterfield player was laughing all over his face as he ran away from the site of his assault. And then Andy Whing mistimed a sliding challenge. In my opinion it was a certain yellow and a possible red. Mr Kettle couldn't wait to get the red card out - blow me down with a feather! Two similar challenges, one not punished at all, one given a straight red. That's consistency for you - he was consistently crap.

Once more, any momentum was washed away. Raynes (who had been fine) was sacrificed for Davis and we were now 3-3-3 I think. The Chesterfield wingers took advantage and Clarke had to make another couple of saves to keep us in it at all. Smalley had a headed chance, but it was difficult to get any power onto it and it went straight into the goalies arms. Rufflles came on for a bit in place of Rose, who got a knock. A decent bit of play from Kitson gave Smalley another headed chance which he knocked onto the post.

In truth though, an equaliser would have been a travesty. The final whistle blew and the best team won the match - and that 1-0 scoreline could have been a lot more had their final passes been up to the standard of the rest of their play.

So let's take some positives.

Clarke played well (it's always revealing when your man of the match is the keeper)
Rigg spiced things up and will bolster us in matches to come.
Raynes and Mullins were alright.

Hmm and the negatives?

Compared to the league leaders we were second in every department.
Whing will miss the next three matches (I was considering putting this in the positives list. He's been very poor and at least CW will be forced to do something different).
Kitson obviously didn't fancy a trip up to the monkey hangers and managed to pick up his fifth booking so he's out of that match.
The squad is looking so threadbare it should be in an Oxfam shop.
The ref was appalling - but we would have lost anyway in all likelihood.

So - as someone who has mainly seen only home games this season - taking into account the squad, injuries, disciplinary record, playing style etc...

We will come eighth or ninth this season. Sorry.

As for me, I'm going to sit on the soccer sofa with Whing, Kitson, Wright, Constable, Meades and Marsh next Saturday afternoon listening to Radio Oxford because I don't fancy a trip up to Hartlepool either. And if anyone thinks that's because I look like a monkey and am a bit scared ... pass me a banana!