Shut up, Granville! (vs Rotherham, L2)

At last. The start of the new season, the phoney war of preseason is over and the proper stuff is underway.

First up - Rotherham. Last season's visit was a fairly miserable affair, losing 2-1 and not playing very well. Only relieved by the comedy value of watching the 8ft Ben Futcher being out-headed by a succession of Rotherham players half his height!

For me, it's just a couple of hours up the M1. If I had a better car it would only be an hour and a half and three points on the license, but beggars can't be choosers I suppose. So, a quick potter (more of him later) up the M1 (enlivened by some thumbs ups and honking from a couple of other cars full of yellows on their way to the match), a quick bit of parking on the hill outside the stadium, some yummy sandwiches wot I made myself and all was ready.

Actually, why does the Don Valley Stadium (Sheffield) which has a capacity of (I'd guess) 20,000, not have enough on-site car parking to accomodate 4,000 people for a League 2 football match? There are enough derelict buildings (sorry 'freehold business opportunities') around the stadium for someone with a bulldozer to create some decent car parks in about 10 minutes.

The stadium itself is of course an athletics stadium, with all the attendant problems that causes (track between the seats and the pitch, 16,000 empty seats staring at you all match, crappy PA system which is OK for music but inadequate for a shouty announcer etc) and the away fans are housed in one corner. Add that to the fact that the Rotherham fans have obviously been served with a Noise Abatement Order so they make as little noise as possible, and it all leads to a terrible football supporting experience. I'm sure the Rotherham fans hate it as well, mind you, and I wish them all the luck in the world with their new home which is actually in Rotherham. Which is nice.

There were three surprises to start with. Firstly we were playing in yellow and blue (the 'home') kit. Hoo-bloody-ray! It looks much nicer than last years stripey abomination, which I ended up hating, and I much prefer us to wear our proper colours whenever we can. The second surprise was the formation. 4-4-2. Clarke at the back, with Batt, Wright, Duberry and Tonkin behind Hall, Whing, Payne and Davis with Constable and Smalley up front together. Now I can't remember that team/formation playing any of the preseason matches for any length of time, if at all. Might it have been an idea to do so? The third, pleasant, surprise was spotting Scoob, who I had gone to the Southend match with. I said hello, and we found some seats.

After the usual formalities and some good singing from the Oxford support (the Rotherham fans just preferred to sit and listen - we must be very good!) the team kicked off, playing umm diagonally away from the support.

The first ten minutes were all a bit huff and puff from both sides, with few real chances. Beano had a half chance header and after about 15 minutes we had our nearest attempt at a goal. Hall climbed well from a corner (Edit - having watched the highlights - no he didn't, he stooped from a free kick!), and his downward header looked (well we were a long way away) like going in, but hit the bottom of the post. It rebounded out to Duberry who blasted over from five yards or so - not such a bad miss as that sounds, the ball came to him very quickly.

The next 20 minutes were fairly even, with us probably shading it - but in truth neither team seemed likely to score. As the half wore on, there were danger signs though. Our passing was getting sloppier and sloppier, the ball was no longer being passed out of defence but being hoofed in the air by the defenders somewhere, anywhere up the pitch towards Smalley and Beano who were getting very little change indeed out of the Millers' defence. Not that their attack was having an easy time of it either - our defence was looking OK at stopping them. Our midfield however was not. Payne and Hall, who had looked alright in preseason were anything but alright in actual league football. The ball was being lost easily and often, possession given away. The ball was constantly coming back at the defenders - hence their desire to get it as far away as quickly as possible.

Half time came with us looking second best. Rotherham hadn't had to do much really, just keep the ball more efficiently than we did. Any later in the season and I 'd have said that the whole affair looked like a midtable stalemate. Still it was 0-0 at halftime. CW would doubtless have words and I was hoping that he would take the opportunity to make midfield changes. Oddly enough (and remember we were a milion miles from the pitch) we could only make out 4 Oxford subs warming up on the pitch at half time. It looked like Leven was missing or was it maybe Heslop?

As the trams rattled past the stadium, the teams ran out for the second half. No changes for us. Pity. The Millers kept our boys waiting for a while, but eventually managed to get all the juice they could out of their orange quarters and deigned to join in.

The second half started much as the first had ended, but even so, it was a shock when Rotherham went ahead. A Miller simply shot at the goal (note for our strikers: it's that white rectangle with the netting, in case you'd forgotten) caught the ball beautifully and gave Clarke no chance. Arse.

The Rotherham fans briefly livened up, but it didn't last for long. An Oxford chant of 'You only sing when you're winning' shortly afterwards petered out when we realised that they in fact weren't. In fact they were so quiet you could hear individual shouts from their supporters (hence the 'Shut up, Granville' which made us laugh!). Almost immediately Beano found himself with the ball in the Rotherham penalty area, but the ball got stuck under his feet and the chance was lost.

Rather later than I'd hoped, Payne made way for Potter. Personally I'd have subbed Hall, but you can't really argue with the idea, just the timing. Now Rotherham had obviously worked out a plan to deal with Potter. They had put very stong electromagnets in his boots. Every time he got the ball, they used a remote control to turn them on. The result was that instead of heading towards the goal (where I am sure he meant to go) he was drawn towards the largest lump of nearby metal - the main stand. As this was behind the sideline, he just ran off course and dribbled the ball into touch. They then turned the magnets off so that nobody suspected. Fiendish.

We than had a series of free kicks and corners (down the Rotherham end obviously) which threatened to bring us back into the match. Davis looked as if he was fouled in the box, but instead of going down, he stayed on his feet and crossed the ball. It went all the way through to Constable on the right who put the ball back in across the face of the goal. It only needed a touch to put it in, but Smalley got confused, mistaking his head for his feet, and tried to head the daisy cutter on its way past. Unsurprisingly he missed and the ball went harmlessly past the far post. The set pieces during this period were notable for their quantity rather than their quality, and once they had passed Rotherham took control again.

Pittman came on for the solid Tonkin, and I never noticed him again during the rest of the match. Davis dropped back into Tonk's place at left back. It isn't a coincidence that most of Rotherham's best play for the rest of the game was down our left. Looks like Davis is a better wide midfielder than he is fullback.

Leven came on for the last ten minutes in place of Hall (how did he last 80 minutes?) but it made little difference. A blatant push on Duberry in the last few minutes in the Millers penalty area was ignored by the out-of-his-depth referee (who had made some odd decisions all afternoon, very few of them our way) and the lino - who had a shocking game generally. The lino got several throw in decisions wrong, waited for the ref to give them many other times and obviously doesn't know the rules for obstruction, as Beano was not only obstructed by two players at one point but also physically pushed off the ball to allow the defenders to get into the position where they could obstruct him!

But as the final whistle blew, it wasn't the officials fault that we had lost the match and played so poorly. Reading back what I have written it doesn't really give the full picture of our ineptitude for parts of the match. Basic passing skills were lacking all over the pitch. In same cases basic looking skills might also have helped as passes were made to people who either were't there at all, were running the other way or were simply wearing the wrong coloured shirt. The midfield was generally weak, losing the ball easily when we had it and not getting it back when we didn't.

I know it's a marathon not a sprint, but it's a shame we didn't hear the starting gun.

My MOTM - Duberry

Next Up - Cardiff in midweek. We'll have to play 100% better than we did today, or it will be embarassing.

PreSeason Review

Well, the new season is nearly upon us so I thought that I would sum up the close season. Think of it as my own pre-season workout!

Firstly the new signings.

Michael Duberry. Hugely experienced, he has looked excellent in preseason. He seems to be able to anticipate the play, making up for any lack of speed. Although I haven't noticed that he is particularly slow anyway! If he can keep fit over the season, he will be hugely influential.

On the other side of the experience coin is Doobs' potential centre half partner, Ryan James, a product of the Nike academy. He featured in the last two pre-season matches and looked decent in both. Probably not a first teamer, at least at the start of the season.

Tony Capaldi. Haven't seem him. A back injury has kept him out of preseason and will keep him out of the start of the season. Left back.

Liam Davis. After good games against Birmingham and Everton, has been given a one year deal. Looked OK - and can play left midfield as well as left back.

Andy Whing, also a defender by trade, has had a couple of games in central midfield. He's done fine, but I think he's really a defender (and judging by his interview on the radio, so does he!).

Oh, and you can add Wayne Brown as the second keeper. From his own admission (RadOX) he hasn't played much since Christmas and isn't match fit. Once that is sorted, he will be a good backup to Clarke and may even push him for a place if Clarke gets sloppy.

That's five defensive players and a goalie signed, which I guess shows where CW thinks one of our main weaknesses was last time out.

Of course, we were also a bit short of goals up front. So we have some new additions there as well.

Dean Smalley has looked good up front as has JP Pittman, both new summer additions. Pittman has added some pace (and seems to have a good eye for goal), Smalley is more of an out-and-out striker.

The final (maybe) addition is Peter Leven, a midfield player of some repute. Came on for the last part of the Everton match and looked good, but on the road back from a couple of operations (hand and foot) - certainly not match fit.

So the signings are one goalkeeper, five defenders, two strikers and one midfielder. Personally I'd say that was at least one quality midfielder light.

Especially when you take into account the injuries. Leven won't start the season, nor will Heslop. Both may be recovered, but aren't match fit. We might possibly see one or both on the bench I guess. McLaren (thigh I think) isn't going to recover in time so he is a non-starter as well. I'd say that was pretty much our first choice midfield three (if we play a three of course), although Hall and Payne have made decent claims for inclusion over the preseason. A measure of how light we are in the middle is the preseason midfield inclusion of the out-of-favour Clist and the not-really-a-midfielder Whing. Another midfield worry is that fact that McLaren couldn't complete quite a few matches last season, coming off after 70 minutes or so.

The defence also has injury worries, with Wright (infected elbow) and Worley (knee) missing as well as Capaldi. Wright may recover in time for Rotherham, the others won't.

Let's just hope we have got the worst of our injuries over before the season has started! Of course, it doesn't work like that, I'm afraid.

Let's have a quick look back at the preseason schedule. Now I am going to be a bit tetchy here, and suggest that the record (played 8, won 7, drawn 1, lost 0, just two goals conceded) looks much more impressive on paper than it actually was.

You'd expect to beat Didcot and Brackley, and they are local matches against teams of a known standard. The US tour I am not so sure of. As a team bonding excercise, absolutely fine. Otherwise, I have my doubts. Playing teams of an unknown standard, in high heat and humidity on an astroturf (or similar) pitch. I'm not convinced really. I'm also not sure what benefit there is to the club overall of the Seacoast link. I'm sure there must be some, but I don't know what they are. Not financial, not as far as spotting new players is concerned. And once the team arrived back from the trip, they were playing the first of the three home friendlies within a couple of days. Too soon?

The performances against the three senior English teams were all fairly similar. A poor first half, followed by a better second half. In the first halves of all of them we couldn't get the ball for long periods and but for some awful finishing (MK and especially you Birmingham) we could have been well behind at half time. The second halves were better each time, but we can't afford to start so slowly once the phoney war stops and we kick off for real.

So, in my opinion of course, our preseason hasn't been quite as good as the results might indicate. In fact (as everyone keeps saying) preseason results don't matter that much apart from helping team confidence. If performances are what count (remember I've only seen the three home matches), I'd give the defence an 8, the midfield a 5 and the strikers a
6.5 The midfield has been weakened by injury and I have high hopes that it will improve once Leven and McLaren are back and playing. Hopefully that will give the forwards more ammunition and allow them to up their game as well.

Having used the magic and amazingly accurate hindsight at the end of last season, let's have a bit of a go at the much more risky prediction area of things!

Looking into the crystal ball - we will start the season slowly, picking up towards the end of October. A better run towards the end of the season will see us reach the play offs, but miss out on automatic promotion.

So, I can't wait for it to start. I could have done without a trip to the awful Don Valley Stadium to start the season, but the first and last matches of the season are a must! A couple of matches against the old enemy (which we mustn't let overshadow the whole season), the chance to show fatso Evans what's what and a better squad than last time out all point to an exciting nine months.

See you at Rotherham.

MY HEART BEATS FOR YOU, THE YELLOW AND THE BLUE

OUFC Fixtures 2011-2012 Desktop Wallpaper

To download this image at full size, click on it.

It will open full size. Probably. Right click and save the image somewhere.

Then right click on your desktop. From the popup menu:

Properties > Desktop > Browse (to the image you just saved). Also set Position to Stretch.

Then 'OK'.

That's for a PC. I don't own a Mac, so you're on your own!

EDIT : 24th June. Updated with revised times/dates for Cardiff City and the two Swindon games.