A VIEW FROM THE BOTTOM

Bristol City

As I’ve not posted since our trip to Ashton Gate and as I’m occasionally accused by some of being too negative thought I’d throw this in – “Thoroughly deserved. We played some quality football. Really good movement and ball control. After conceding in the second minute no hint of heads dropping”.

That was the summary I sent to a mate away on his hols somewhere far removed from all things OUFC.

This isn’t with hindsight. At the time I commented to my family that playing against a team fancied to do well in League One, playing football on the floor is very different to doing battle with grizzled old pros in League Two.  Yes, I’d liked what I’d seen. I could not really fault any player.  But not for one moment did I think we had cracked it.

 Mansfield   

This was the first league game I’d missed since I don’t know when. I was at a wedding in the Cedars in Barnstaple when I got the news that we were one nil down. That didn’t put me in the best of moods especially after some jobsworth behind the bar had refused to serve my 22 year old son because he didn’t have ID on him. Searching for the score, some stranger on our table piped up “Oxford, they lost 4-0”. Bloody hilarious. I replied: “No they didn’t, our defence would never let in four”.

Our defence is not the area that gives me most concern, but I no longer have much faith in its ability to keep clean sheets. From what I’ve seen so far it is no better than the other units we have come up against.  And worryingly, I think that at present we’ve probably got a mistake a game in us that will ultimately prove costly if we are not scoring and referees are doing the opposite of dishing favours out our way.

The second Mansfield goal resulted from a terrible header from Jake Wright. But Tom Newey got in his way so in my eyes they are both culpable. It’s not good enough. Other teams are not gifting us such chances.

By all accounts it was a pretty poor performance and even our, ultimately meaningless, penalty was a bit dubious. Having watched it on TV I can’t make my mind up.

Morecambe

At the time I thought we’d played some decent football but had not created many chances and had been undone by a cannier and more experienced outfit with a little help from the referee.

On reflection having seen the pictures and having thought about it a bit more I can only conclude that we suffered a total injustice. Is there any sport other than football where decisions are regularly given that are so obviously incorrect and thus determine the winner to be the wrong party?

Kevin Ellison was well offside when the shot came in before he got his slaphead to the ball after George Long had turned it away.  It should not have been a difficult call for the linesman.

Ellison is a horrible player. He may be thirty five, and classed as a winger but he has just the sort of cynical know how that we could do with up front now to help the youngsters along.

Tony Harrington, the man in charge at the Globe Arena, even refereed a couple of games in the Championship last season. Heaven help us all. This guy must live on a different planet to everyone else. Danny Hylton, who has quite impressed me, went round Barry Roche. We all saw that. Roche pulled Hylton down. We all saw that. Roche started to walk. The linesman positioned himself on the edge of the penalty area for the resulting spot kick.  When I say all, I really mean all except Harrington. He either has really poor eye sight, does not understand the laws of the game, or is a cheat. It has to be one of those three. And not to have any awareness of the reaction of Roche and his lino just compounded matters.

That all said, we never looked like we would score goals and I thought Carlton Morris looked like a boy being asked to do a man’s job. But perhaps I was unfairly comparing him with Ellison.

Now a moan about Morecambe FC.

They have terracing behind the goal for away supporters. That terracing was not opened. It was the seating area or nothing. This means that it costs a few quid more to get in. It is a deliberate ploy.

I get the impression that MFC don’t really care that much about their customers. We have a friend who lives in Morecambe and for quite a few years he has had a season ticket. But not this time. He and some others have not renewed. They got fed up paying up front only for on the day offers to provide better value.  To placate them the club offered two free tickets to a pre season friendly. Pathetic.  I was also told that someone who was disabled had paid about ninety quid for a parking space near the entrance only to regularly find someone else had got there first. When contacted, the club’s reaction was that they should park somewhere else. Great customer care. I think they’ve lost a fan.

No wonder Morecambe only get gates of approx one and a half thousand.  How do they keep going? How the hell can they be amassing points for fun when the (not so) mighty yellows who get gates over three times that can’t even score from open play? It’s wrong, all wrong I tell you.

Dave Durie

Our Morecambe trip afforded us the opportunity to spend a couple of days in Kendal. We’ve got friends who live in Sedburgh and popped over for a meal one evening. One of those friends is the daughter of Dave Durie, who played 301 games for Blackpool from 1952-64, scoring 84 goals in what would now be the Premiership. He played in the same team as Stanley Matthews. Stan mentions Dave in his autobiography. On the kitchen wall is a team picture containing both Dave and Stan and also hanging up are the last pair of boots Dave wore as a player. I absolutely love stuff like this. Football runs so deep even if at times you absolutely hate it.

Dave now lives in a Care Home in Blackpool.

Pompey

Pretty football, but no goals and no points. Perhaps it is nicer to watch but it really won’t do.

Are we just one proper goal scorer away from shooting up the table?

The first half was ours but although we had the majority of the possession Portsmouth looked dangerous on the break.

We came close to scoring on a number of occasions but close does not register a goal in the “for” column. Joe Riley came very close from a free kick at the start. We had a couple of corners that resulted in very close goal mouth scrambles. Hylton came very close when he hit the post and he must have been close to winning another penalty at the end of the half. Why would he go down when he had beaten his man and could have got a shot away? Again the referee- this one was called Darren Bond – ensured the green rubbed the way of the opposition.

He did a lot of that. He could have sent Ricky Holmes off. He produced a challenge that was worthy of a second yellow but perhaps allowance was made for the extreme conditions. It was rather wet at the time.

Right from the off Bond wound me up. He could not be faulted for awarding that early free kick but for me his performance rapidly dipped immediately after. Craig Westcarr stood there moaning, meaning that there was no chance of a quick kick. The referee had a word. It had no effect. Westcarr kept moaning.  A yellow card would have shown that the referee had some authority. There was no card. There was no authority. There was no respect.  Why is it if there is a wall involved referees will mark out what they believe to be 10 yards but never ever seem to do anything about an opponent hanging around a few yards to the right or left of the kicker or standing just in front if the kick is being taken from distance?  Westcarr continued to behave in similar fashion every time we had a free kick. It was obviously planned. The referee was obviously either clueless as to what was going on or just couldn’t be arsed to do anything about it.

In the second half we were not so dominant and before the Pompey goal that little feeling we would conceded had grown considerably. They were getting a lot of space down our right and had seemed to have sussed out the way we were playing. We had no noticeable plan B.

Nicky Shorey knows how to whip in a good ball. Wright had set himself all wrong to deal with such a ball on the 80^th minute. He should have been positioned so he could whack it away but instead looked a bit tangled and could only allow a rebound off his hip. That wasn’t bad luck. It was poor defending. The ball coming off Westcarr’s knee wasn’t lucky. It was a striker being in the right place at the right time to take advantage of a cock up. Kid ourselves not.

So, that’s four played. No points. One goal. None from open play.

And, as worryingly, just 4726 home fans for a game against the biggest side in this league.  The Oxford public do not believe.  Pretty football does not make people believe. I’m not sure what will. Winning under Wilder didn’t make people believe. Does it have to be a combination of pretty football and winning? Or is it all too late?

That said I thought we had some very good performers yesterday. Tom Newey defended well, got forward well and passed accurately. He was a contender for man of the match but Michael Collins probably pipped him. Josh Ruffels and Danny Rose were good too and I could not understand why the latter was replaced with Calum O’Dowda.

I’m not sure about some of the others. Morris undoubtedly has a better touch than Beano but I’m yet to be convinced that he is the answer. And I’m also still unsure if Junior Brown is the real deal.  Tricky but to what end? And he should really have scored with that header right at the death.

As for Alex Jakubiak I’ve not seen enough to pass comment other than to say that he looks tiny.

The Kassam Stadium

Is a disgrace. We’re paying a fortune to use it. It is falling in to a state of disrepair. One of the sinks in the mens toilets in the SSU had a broken u bend and was gushing water all over the floor. And don’t get me started on the state of the urinals.

And why are all the seats immediately behind the Director’s box empty now? It does not look good.

I’ve heard a couple of things – That they’re something to do with sponsors and that they cost more than the other seats in that area. Whatever. But they need filling. As do a few thousand other seats.

Scott Kennedy

In my many years following the U’s I’ve had the pleasure to have met and become friendly with some wonderful people. I first got to know Scott back in the very early ‘80’s. Great guy, heart of gold.  There’s a few moments I’ll never forget, like the sponsored bike ride from the Manor to Bath (and back), when one of the riders was applying muscle rub to their aching limbs which prompted Scott to ask why they were rubbing toothpaste on their legs.  Sadly Scott passed away last Thursday. Once again football is put into perspective. He will be missed. RIP Scott.