FAN’S VIEW 22/23 – No.29 – (MOSTLY) FLEETWOOD TOWN AWAY

STRATFIELD BRAKE

After our FA Cup 3^rd round defeat there was a big article in the Daily Telegraph sports section two days later headed “How Oxford plotted for Arsenal”.

It contains the following: “We want to be a top-30 club in five years”. It is 5:20pm and Robinson is sitting in his office at the Kassam Stadium, the unloved three-sided ground Oxford must leave by 2026. As significant as this cup tie is, there is a far more important date on Jan 24, when Oxfordshire County Council vote on whether to allow the club to move to the north of the city, close to Kidlington, to build an 18,000-seat stadium. If the vote goes against Oxford there is no Plan B and their future is up in the air. Before kick off a large banner is unfurled behind one goal which reads “Support Our Stadium. Secure Our Future”.

It is absolutely a massive day in the history of our football club. I would urge everyone to write to their Council representatives and let their feelings be known, politely of course but also forcibly. Sometimes those elected need to be reminded that they represent the people and the people will be voting again in years to come. Also sign the OxVox petition if not already done.

A bit more on the Arsenal game.

I did get round to watching the game again. So answering my own question – had I been “harsh all round?” Probably but only just a little. I can see how neutrals conclude we are a good footballing side as we do like to (try to) pass the ball. It’s easy for them to conclude that we’ve got nothing up front and just leave it at that. They don’t have to watch us week in week out in L1.

As for the Gunners, even going through it again they still pissed me off as if it was all new to me but I will admit that they weren’t as dirty as I’d thought on the night. However their treatment of Eddie McGinty at corners isn’t something to be proud of. On one occasion he made a really good save at his near post which was overlooked by the Arsenal focussed co-commentators (Ian Wright and Rachael Yankee – where’s the balance? It was ripe for Jamie Mackie) and in doing so was shoved forcefully into the upright. Not a word of complaint. He just got up and got on with it. If it had been an Arsenal player they would have rolled around for a couple of minutes and then demanded the last rites.

Glad they’ve been charged by the FA for “failing to ensure their players conducted themselves in an orderly fashion”, but in the VAR world and that of the crazy handball law and its interpretation they may have had a point. Didn’t make it very politely though did they?

I’m finding the Ciaron Brown booking issue even stranger the more I’ve seen and thought about it. At the time I thought the offence looked quite innocuous when compared with other stuff that went on. Matty Taylor, arm right across the face of his marker and after the free kick was given he booted the ball some distance away. No card, not even a speaking to. And if there were breaches what a f***wit to post screen shots on social media. It’s obviously a watch this space.

I’d not mentioned the paltry two minutes added at the end of the match but did comment on the slowness with which the Gunners lined up to restart the game after scoring. I don’t know what the norm is and didn’t bother to check how long they took over goals one and two but for the third it was over a minute and twenty seconds before the game got underway again. To change football from a game of (allegedly) 90 minutes of two 45 minute halves should never be on the agenda, but I think there should be a mechanism introduced whereby for every stoppage when goals are scored, balls go out of play and players go down injured, after a specified time of x seconds a clock should start ticking and a running total of time to be added at the end of each half should be prominently displayed on a scoreboard (we’re now well placed for such a thing) so that both players and fans are aware. The same should be applied when that added time is being played too.

What do the bookies know that we don’t?

After our dispiritingly awful draw with the Cod people at the Kassam at the beginning of November we were 17^th in the table on 19 points and they were two places above with two more points having played a game more. Since then in the League they’ve won two, drawn two and lost three. We’ve won two, drawn four and lost two giving us a marginally better PPG return of 1.25 to 1.14. The slimmest of improvements over the period as we now sit 14^th and 15^th with 29 points but they are superior based on a GD of one.

So neither team has pushed on. If that’s going to happen it has to happen NOW. Doesn’t seem much to separate us but they’ve only won two league games at home all season and may be dazzled by the bright lights of the FA Cup. 9/4 on them beating us does seem rather generous though.

FLEETWOOD TOWN 1 OXFORD UNITED 2

Oxford fans trying to keep warm

The back of the SSU at the Kassam can get rather fresh but the coastal breeze whipping in off the Irish Sea in these parts is something else. It gets right into your bones. That had become noticeable on the very short walks from car to pubs before we found ourselves sitting in the open at Highbury. I’m not a hardy enough character to live in those parts.

Everything seemed cold. The first pub visited was the Shipwreck Brewhouse, a micro pub/cafe bar on Cleveleys main shopping street about 3 miles outside Fleetwood. I like my beer rather more chilled than most real ale purists but this was on the extreme side even for me. Noticeably our party was the only group drinking beers and ciders. All the locals in there were on teas and coffees with steam rising from their cups.

Over the years on our many visits we’ve got to know a bit about the hostelries in the local area and opted for the Mount Hotel which has a big screen TV to catch the end of the Manchester derby. The pub serves “five changing beers” says the “What Pub” website. There were indeed a number of hand pumps but none contain a clip showing which beer was available. “Do you have any real ale on?” “No”. “Goodbye.”

We looked at each other and said, “Well, it’s got to be just down the road to the Steamer then”. That’s where 80 year old Syd is still running his Little Café in the back room.  The Steamer is back in the latest Good Beer Guide but previous experiences of beer quality and being told off by Syd for parking in the landlord’s spot had dropped it down the list of places to drink. The ale was at least as good as in the Shipwreck so no complaints on that front and with mild (old man’s drink and I am an old man) at £3.35 a pint that was a positive.

We just about made it to half time with the game goal-less. With a couple of the first 45 minutes remaining I’d taken up position on the end of the row in front of the one where I’d been seated ready to move quickly towards the urinals once the referee gave a double blast on his whistle. A combination of the beer, the weather and age made that a necessity but I hate missing even a few seconds of the action.

Then in the 44^th minute we conceded. It was a shot Simon Eastwood should have saved. It was one of those that he often doesn’t. It was from outside the box and he could see it all the way. At that point I stormed out cursing my way to the toilets. As I was offloading some of the beer I heard the tannoy man say “the fourth official has announced there will be two additional minutes”. Another supporter using the facilities followed this with “the fourth official has announced that Oxford United are shit”.

True on the evidence we’d seen thus far. There was a lot of criticism of Eastwood with at least one fan having the opinion that Eddie McGinty should have retained his place. I think this overlooks the fact that Easty had done much to keep us level until we eventually conceded, stopping the ball from entering his net with various parts of his body.

In the first period against Arsenal we’d closed them down really well but had not done the same here. Our full-backs didn’t seem to be getting help from colleagues and that is without Djavan Anderson not being a proper full-back anyway.

We’d not looked the least bit like scoring and I thought both Josh Murphy and Yanic Wildschut were poor.

So second half. The wind that had been in our faces was now at our backs and that did us no harm as we attacked the end which was empty except for half a dozen of the Fleetwood youth team.

The biggest factor though in the way the game was to swing our way was the substitutions made by Karl Robinson so great credit to him for that. Marcus McGuane had not played badly so it was brave to replace him with Billy Bodin for half the match.

It was however the second substitute that made the largest impact and it took him less than a minute to do so.

I am a massive fan of Kyle Joseph and had probably bored those around me by banging on about him and how much we’ve missed him. I have said many times that if he’d not got injured we would have quite a few more points by now and be very close to those play off places.

We immediately had a goal threat. I’m very critical of players who just run and run beating one man after another before almost inevitably losing the ball. However, if a player is closer to goal and goes for it with little else seemingly on by way of colleagues in decent positions, then go for it I say. Risk and reward stuff. Plus I wonder if deep down KJ was thinking sod that lets at least have an effort on goal because we hadn’t up to that point.

Elliott Moore had the ball at the back. None of this trying to carry it too far nor any hitting it long and hoping nonsense. He played a sensible simple and accurate low pass to Anderson on the touch line a little inside our own half. Our Surinamese did what he does best, around his marker and away. On this occasion there was an end product in the form of a pass to Joseph as two red shirts came towards him. Joseph took the ball under control, beat Danny Andrew with confident efficiency and was at the corner of the penalty area in a flash before skipping round Josh Earl and finishing.

The home defenders must have thought what’s going on here, they’ve not done anything like this before in this game.

We now started to play some proper football and once more Lewis Bate caught the eye. I’d love it if we could get to keep him and Joseph on a permanent basis but what are the chances? Sadly I’d say not very high. These days loanees are a key part of any side in L1 but with them departing after a season or just half a season, building even for the medium term is a challenge.

Were we lucky to win?  Lucky when Promise Omochere missed from the closest of close ranges? No, except in the sense that we were lucky not to be playing a better team with better players. They weren’t saying they were unlucky when the chance wasn’t converted. Good luck and bad luck is intrinsically linked.

One team’s gain is another team’s loss. We were lucky to get the corner from which we scrambled the winner in the 90^th minute. Fleetwood were unlucky not to get a free-kick for a handball by Bodin. But you take what comes your way and say thank you very much.

With Moore’s height and the wind travelling in the direction that it was, the delivery from Bate was wise indeed and how fitting that it was Ciaron Brown poking it home on his birthday. I think it’s time to see how things play out and keep quite quiet but you won’t stop some and the “Ciaron Brown, he’ll bet when he wants” song was slightly humorous.

The way the players reacted though spoke volumes of how much it meant to all of them even though we’re very much mid-table at the moment. It meant the same to us travellers too. I suddenly felt all warm inside. Problem with the cold? No. No longer noticed a thing as we saw out the added six minutes without having to suffer the Captain Pugwash theme tune a second time.

Up yours Pugwash, we’re ‘avin them three points