It was a Dark and Stormy Night (vs Burton L2)

Hello everyone,

It doesn't seem that long ago that I was down in the dumps after our terrible performance at Burton. Since then we've had a decent run in the league, a bit of a wimp-out in a couple of cups and Saturday's very poor showing at Fleetwood.

Not that I ventured up to the land of the Cod Army. Playing the Captain Pugwash music after a goal? Really? Not that there's anything wrong with Captain Pugwash. In fact the first dog my family had (when I was five) was a Boxer called - you've guessed it - Captain Pugwash. Since he was nominally my birthday present I was the one who got to name him. Ah - happy times.

Still, back to the present. Burton at home on a Tuesday night. As I drove to the stadium, it felt as if the wheels were loose on the jalopy, but it was just the blustery and strong wind moving the car about. That didn't bode well - those of us who go regularly to Grenoble Road know just how much effect the wind has on matches played there. In fact, a slight breeze outside the stadium seems to multiply into a gale inside - so what it would be like tonight, God only knew. Add in a seasoning of cold drizzle and it wasn't going to be pleasant or easy for the players.

First thing was to go and get a ticket for next Saturday's Ultimate Away Support match at Sarfend. It's always a decent ground to go to, with a low roof over the away end. Although we usually seem to play well and lose as far as my admittedly unreliable memory is concerned...

Ticket bought, prawn sandwich eaten (ohh - posh! But bought from a garage on the way down. ohh - pleb!!), in I went.

I've mentioned the overhead conditions, what about those underfoot? My heart sank as I looked at the pitch. A patchwork of mud, grass and sand with the worst bit being (as always) the area around the halfway line on the South side of the pitch. I can't imagine a much worse combination than a bobbly soggy pitch and a strong swirling wind. It seemed as if we might not be seeing much of the 'beautiful game' tonight!

Team news was back to 4-4-2, with the big surprise (although perhaps not to those who had seen 'Flapper' Brown in the last couple of matches) being that Max Crocombe was making his debut in goal. Otherwise, O'Brien replaced Capaldi at left back, Chapman started in place of Heslop and Craddock and Constable started up top. Well, as anyone who reads this blog regularly will know, I'm not a big fan of our central midfield personnel/partnerships in general. I haven't seen Montrose play yet as he has joined the sick and injured (including Whing) after one match, and Cox has now gone back so we are now left with the choice of Heslop, Leven and Chapman for the two available slots. I simply don't think there is a good combination there. Chapman and Leven is probably the best of a bad bunch. I wish the midfield had been sorted out properly in the summer!

As kick off approached, the crowd was sparse. Very sparse. I've sneaked a look at the match report and apparently the Brewers brought 65 supporters. I don't know where they were - I counted 32 in the away area of the stand. Not that Oxford had anything to crow about. The whole crowd didn't top 5,000. Ouch. Maybe because the match was just before the first pay packet after the Christmas/New Year period.

It has to be said that the missing hundreds probably didn't miss much for long periods of the match. We started (as seemingly always) slowly. And deep. Perhaps because we had a rookie keeper (who got a great reception from those who had bothered to turn up), perhaps because both teams were having trouble making any meaningful headway. The pitch discouraged passing on the floor, the wind played merry hell with anything in the air.

Neither team looked like scoring really. Batt put one past the Burton post, Burton put one over the bar from a free kick. Duberry started feeling his right hamstring on about 20 minutes and went straight off to be replaced by Raynes. The best move of the half came after about half an hour. All match we had been trying to move the ball sideways and backwards before going forwards again, looking for an opening. In truth it was all too slow, with little threat and with the moved breaking down due to the inevitable error during the over-passing. However, this time it very nearly worked. Pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, Chapman through ball, Batt shot from 10 yards or so. We all tensed, ready to leap to our feet, but the Burton keeper got a great hand to the ball and palmed it wide. Good save! The move and the save got a round of applause from the east stand. From the resulting corner, Raynes headed a good chance over the bar. Craddock combined well with Rigg, but his shot was deflected wide.

So the attack at least was improving. The defence? Well, not really. They hadn't been asked to do much, but they had a bad case of ditheritis. Dithering on the ball, dithering when they should be clearing it. Batt decided that backheeling the ball into his own penalty area straight to a Burton player was an excellent move. It wasn't. Don't ever do that again. Not that Burton were exerting much pressure.

Half time. From both teams being very ineffective to start with, we had improved a bit. Burton hadn't really - but there wasn't much between the teams.

The second half started with an unwelcome surprise. Leven had been replaced by Capaldi. So our dynamic midfield duo was Capaldi and Chapman. Oops. It shows just how thin the squad is (and just how much faith CW has in Heslop - a specialist central midfield player). However, five minutes into the second half the Burton keeper let a ball go over his goal line thinking it was a goal kick. It wasn't, it had got a hefty deflection from a defender. Capaldi took the resulting corner on the Burton left, and the (slightly chunky looking) Beano headed it home somehow when surrounded by three Burton defenders. Excellent stuff. Burton hadn't looked like scoring, and we had been the better team. Let's go and get another!

But as often happens with Oxford, kicking a team when they are down doesn't seem to be our style. We gradually dropped back, not helped by the fact that the Chapman/Capaldi midfield had gone completely AWOL, and that Potter (usually a reliable 'out' when are under pressure) was having a shocker. Strangely enough, although they hadn't been very threatening it wasn't a huge surprise when Burton equalised after about 25 minutes of the half. A long ball from the right to the far post found three Burton players being marked by Batt. On his own. It was someone's job to be there as well - I'd hazard a guess at Raynes. Anyway the result was a shot that Crocombe had no chance with. The ground went deadly quiet. Normally when the opposition scores their supporters make a din, but there weren't really enough Burton fans to make any noise.

That did at least spur the men in yellow on to some sort of forward effort. Although in truth it was still going sideways and backwards an awful lot. Craddock put one over the bar and was replace by the hard-working Smalley, who didn't look like scoring. Not that anyone else did. Since we had let in the equaliser we hadn't managed to have a shot on target. In fact we had two shots on target all match, which you can add to the one we managed at Fleetwood. Simply not good enough.

The ref (who had an inconsistent game in difficult conditions - I am being kind) blew to end the match to general apathy.

I was amazed to get back in the car and find both RadOx presenters saying they thought we had played well. We did OK for about half the first half in my opinion. The rest was very poor. Amazingly enough the result lifted Burton into the automatic promotion spots. But I guess in their two latest matches Burton had won their home match and drawn their away match which is what you have to do.

Another thing I heard on the radio rather worried me. CW talking about having to 'find a way to win' at home on that pudding of a pitch. For long periods of the match we were hoofing the ball forward in the air. If that's how we are going to try to do it, then we are going nowhere fast. Actually, if I am honest I think we aren't going anywhere anyway. Too inconsistent, not fit enough, not threatening enough, too small a squad, too many injuries too often.

So the only thing to do is to enjoy the ride. Difficult to do sometimes in what has been a largely uninspiring season, but the Ultimate Away Support day at Southend should be good fun.

Be there or be square!