On the Gallop (Cheltenham L2)

First of all, Happy Hew Year everyone!

I hadn't travelled to Exeter or Wimbledon.  Exeter is a bloody long way (I am an extra hour and a half the wrong side of Oxford) and I left it too late to get a Wimbledon ticket. I'm not the most organised of blokes.

Mrs Zero however is very organised indeed. In fact she cheerfully announced to me that she had organised a surprise outing on New Year's Day. Bugger. I put on a cheerful face and asked what, where and when? The answers were: horse pantomime, outside Milton Keynes, 6.30. Never mind the what, the where and when made it possible for me to get to the New Year's match against Cheltenham and get back to what sounded a very bizzare entertainment indeed.

Which was a good job. As I may have mentioned before, I am a very poor listener as far as Yellows matches on the radio (or YellowPlayer) are concerned. I hate not being able to see what is going on, and with YP often lagging significantly, I keep refreshing the forum as news of goals often comes through there first. Add to that the spooky fact that as soon as I wander off to go to the loo or get a drink, something exciting happens and the result is that listening to matches does me no good at all. I end up stressed, wanting to wee and dehydrated. So it was a relief (in many ways) to be able to attend a game.

I got down to the stadium good and early. Firstly I wanted to get near the exit of the East Stand car park to make a quick getaway after the match (timings were going to be tight) and I also needed to buy a ticket for the Cup match on Saturday. As always, I tuned the car radio to RadOx at 2 to get the team news. Raynes out ill, so the nominally fit (but surely not match fit) Duberry was in the starting line up. Beano was in the side despite his sending off at Wimbledon, pending the appeal. I wasn't there myself of course, but those whose judgement I trust who saw the incident thought it was very harsh indeed. Personally I doubt that the FA will overturn it without a better view than I have seen so far - time will tell I guess. But despite that, it was good to see a reasonably settled side - Cox was playing, so we would be more resilient defensively.

Once I got inside, there were two things I immediately noticed. Firstly, there weren't as many in the stands as might have been hoped for. Secondly, someone had stolen our pitch and replaced it with a muddy field. It looked awful. And that was from half way up in the stands. What on earth it looked (and played) like at closer quarters was something I could only imagine. Whilst you can't blame our favourite ex-owner from maximising his investment in the stadium, maybe he could spend a tiny proportion of the large amount of his new revenue on getting the pitch in shape - given that we've got thirty blokes with cauliflower ears and an inflated view of their own sportsmanship ('sure I tried to gouge his eyes out, but we had a pint together afterwards so that's OK') running up and falling down on it. In front of the South stand was the worst affected area, with the ball sticking in it during the game, and huge divots redirecting the ball at random.

So the match kicked off, with us both kicking off and kicking towards the fence end to start with. Excellent. To be fair, both teams were trying to pass the ball about. And to be equally fair, both were losing possession all the time. Some of it was down to the pitch, some of it not. Alfie had a shot after ten minutes or so, Cheltenham didn't look very threatening. What turned out to be the game's deciding incident came after about a quarter of an hour.

The always threatening Rigg managed to struggle through the bog at the side of the pitch and played a through ball to Tom Craddock, who went directly at the goal, only to go flying after a challenge from a Robin's defender. From the other end of the pitch it's always difficult to tell of course, but it looked straightforward enough and the ref duly awarded a penalty. Foul + goal scoring opportunity = red card. Or not. A yellow maybe? Nope. Very odd. Anyway, Peter Leven (now looking like he's much more in shape than a couple of weeks ago) put the penalty close to the keeper, just to his right. Not a brilliant penalty, but good enough to beat the goalie and we were one up. Good stuff.

The rest of the first half was fairly forgettable in truth. Rigg put a header across the face of the goal, Duberry hit one into the car park, the lively Cheltenham winger McGlashan poked in a shot that Clarke saved easily enough (and it looked like it may have been going wide anyway). Cheltenham increasingly held the ball, and still couldn't do anything with it. The Oxford back four had an excellent game, and with Cox controlling the space in front of them, Cheltenham showed little imagination in trying to get through. Wright deserves a special mention here - it was an excellent display from the captain, and even his occasional weak point (his distribution) was very much improved.  Half time came, and in the stands we reflected on the match so far. Neither side had impressed very much really. The Oxford defence looked secure, the Cheltenham midfield solid but uninspired. Both attacks looked a little toothless, which was a bit odd on the Oxford side, having scored eight goals in the previous three games. Being in the lead, puts a gloss on a performance of course, so the feeling was generally positive. In the second half, we would be playing our preferred way and Cheltenham would have to come out and attack.

After the half time entertainment (a young lad won a Buildbase voucher for chipping the ball into the box - bet he can't wait to get down there to spend it!!), the teams re-emerged and Cheltenham tried to exert some pressure. Which was made easier as they could now see what they were doing, the floodlights having been turned on only at half time, Unfortunately for the visitors, their effort was all sound and fury signifying nothing. Clarke had very few saves to make, none of which really troubled him, most of them straight at him.

The newly signed Josh Parker replaced the just-booked Tom Craddock with half an hour to go. I thought he held the ball up reasonably well when it was knocked up to him, but there were at least a couple of occasions when he should have passed the ball but held on to it too long. Still, he's new to the team, and his pace could be useful. If Beano is suspended, maybe we could play Potter and Craddock up front and put Parker on the right? Parker did fashion one chance for himself with some good movement, but blazed the ball over the bar shortly after Alfie put on past the Cheltenham right hand post. Pity.

Not much was happening down the other end meanwhile. There were few if any on-target attempts on goal. Normally we all sit biting our nails if we are one ahead as the final whistle looms, but the back four (or 5) looked totally secure.

The ref (who wasn't the worst we've ever had, but had made some odd decisions both ways during the match) blew the whistle to end the match. In the interests of journalistic truth and to make sure I don't get called by the Levenson Enquiry, I have to disclose that I didn't actually see that. I'd left as the 90 minutes was up, in order to get out of the car park in a timely fashion. Couldn't miss the horse pantomime could I?

So, a fairly uninspiring game of football really from both sides. The pitch may have had something to do with it I suppose. Sometimes a cliche becomes a cliche because it is true, and 'winning ugly' fitted this match if anything ever did. In truth a draw might have been a fair result - we certainly didn't deserve to be beaten by a disappointing Cheltenham, who surely must have been significantly better for large stretches of the season than they showed in this match.

As for the men in yellow, have they turned the corner? Well they've put any realistic chance of relegation out of people's minds now, which is a good start - another 21 games to get 15 points to reach the magical 50 point safety point. Are the playoffs in reach? Not yet they aren't. We have to be at least five points better than six of the teams above us over the rest of the season. Certainly not impossible, certainly not easy. And the manager? Well although I am still not convinced by the performances I have seen recently, it is hard to argue with four wins on the bounce with a ten match unbeaten run. It's obvious that CW now has until (at least?) the end of the season in charge and he has gone some way to redeem the dismal form of earlier in the season. For everyone's sake - his, the players, the owner's and ours - long may it continue.

Next we have the two cup matches. A little break from the tension of the league, two difficult matches - which will be more difficult if we lose Constable for them as I suspect we will.

And, just to puncture the tension that's been building up, I did get to the horse pantomime in time. A Christmas show put on by the stunt horse riders who appear in a shedload of TV and film productions. I could take or leave the panto bits (preferably leave), but the horses were beautiful and well-trained and the riders athletic, skilled and brave. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

Hi Ho Silver - see you all next time.