FAN’S VIEW  2026/27  – LEICESTER AWAY

Before I get on to the Leicester game, I have to say what a sad day it was when we learned that Hughie Curran had died. I liked so many things about Hughie. Firstly that he played his first games proper at now defunct Third Lanark. He was a hell of a player when we first bought him. I couldn’t believe he’d come to us. We paid £50k which back then was a substantial fee. He’d scored 40 goals in 82 appearances for Wolves and wasn’t yet 30 years old. He found the back of the net 28 times in 70 games for us during this spell which was in Division 2 (The Championship) which is pretty good going.

He got five caps for his country and scored once. That though was very much something to tell the grandkids about because it was against England at Wembley. I can forgive him because we beat the Scots 3-1 that day.

In 1974 he left for Bolton but returned to us in 1977. My memory has it that he didn’t look the same player and I can visualise him running with a limp. He still got 11 goals in 35 appearances and some forwards would consider a hit rate of one in three acceptable. He was still with us when he called it a day due to injury in 1979.

After that for years he always seemed to be running some pub or other in the area.

His wife had a hair dressing business in Sheep Street in Bicester called the Curran Bun. If I remember rightly Simon Jaggs was always popping in for an autograph when Hughie was on the premises. How many did you get in total Simon?

RIP Hughie and thanks for the memories.

With the great man at the Nigel Cassidy memorial match at Bicester Town FC in 2008

LEICESTER CITY 0 OXFORD UNITED 4

Right, focus back on Leicester.

Whilst we have not been allowed to do much other than allow players to leave, the Foxes have made 14 signings, many of them permanent.

The club is up for sale at a price of over £200m. The ground and the training facilities are worth a fair bit but between 2023 and 2025 they lost over £180m. Their debt includes £103.6m in bank loans.

They started the day a point above us but had played a game more.

They’d not conceded in their previous two matches but lost their second league game of the season at home to Burton. This gave me some hope but I may well be underestimating the Brewers because they’re tiny.

Being the driver on this occasion I took it steady with just two fairly low strength beers but as both disappointed I didn’t consider I was missing out. Both were GBG listed pubs in the Clarendon Park area of the city. First time in the Clarendon. Choice of real ales was limited and not inspiring. This 1930s building was refurbished in 2019 and gets the locals in to watch live football. Not far away is the Queens Road Tap. We went in there last season and really liked the place. This time the beer wasn’t as good, although better than the first pint and the atmosphere was dead compared to that on our previous visit. Just like football I guess, sometimes your team is on it and sometimes not. Perhaps in certain circumstances craft ale is the answer.

We did however decide that the sign on our table which reminded us of our beloved Manor was an omen that we’d have a good day at the football.

Bloody ‘eck. Same jacket.

It’s often a case of losing fellow travellers when entering the ground and going through the pie and pee routine so four of us agreed to meet outside a very prominent burger bar after the final whistle if need be.

Our turnout was again highly commendable and such is the design of the stadium the noise generated drowned out just about everything the home support may have been coming up with, supportive or derogatory.

We started on the front foot. After a few minutes I wondered would we continue to be the better team? We got to half time a goal up and I thought it had been the best we’d played for many a long day. But with another 45 minutes to come again I questioned whether we could keep it up and keep that clean sheet. When the final whistle was blown, I was blown away. That had to be as well as we’d played in any game last season, hadn’t it? Okay it was at a lower level but this was quite exceptional and was against a team who had been made clear favourites before the off.

Players who we’d thought should be able to do better than they had so far, did so big time. Almost everything that had been wrong at Huddersfield had been put right here. Any criticism would be of such a minor nature I’m going to leave it out.

We pressed, collectively, from the off and never let the hosts settle. We had solidarity and proper looking shape. We’re better with Michal Helik in the ranks. His long limbs are a real asset and at this level he’s calm on the ball.

Simon Eastwood deserves a mention. He made the saves as required and contributed to our first clean sheet since 11 April when we beat Watford 1-0 at the Kassam.

One of the main reasons for Leicester drawing a blank was what we had in front of our back line. We might have been playing 4-2-3-1 but such was the work rate we never looked out-manned in the middle of the park and at times it appeared to be 4-3-2-1. Kai Andrews was in those 3s. So far, what a player. That first half an hour four days earlier was not a one off. Two assists here.

We moved the ball so much quicker and we were nearly always on the look out to get forward, particularly down the wings where Mo Missanga was exceptional. He’s bigger than I thought when I got my first sighting of him against MK Dons. I’d not heard of him until a couple of weeks ago and now, I’m daring to think we might have a super star on our hands.

I’ve long wondered what the guys running our Academy have actually been up to given that until this season no-one had broken through since Tyler Goodrham, whose first Football league game was four years ago. If the new look Gatlin O’Donkor does prove to be a long-term success, which he is now demonstrating that he could be, I may have to revise this comment but for the time being I’ll leave it as it is.

This season it’s different. In addition to Missanga we’ve got Leo Snowden, who missed out on a place on the bench and also Harrison Bradney being talked about.

Is it that we’ve had talent there before but that previous managers were too risk averse to give them a chance? Perhaps damned if they do and damned if they don’t?

Now it’s needs must and very refreshing it is too.  

Scoring early brings pleasure, of course it does, but a minute or so later the reality hits, shit, there’s a long way to go.

It was in the eighth minute we took the lead, which by the curtain call had been extended a few times, although the second didn’t arrive until just over 10 mins into the second half.

Jamie McDonnell, who I thought had a tremendous game, picked up a loose ball, got it to Peter Kioso whose sharp first-time pass returned it to our no. 18. McDonnell’s pass to find Missanga was sublime. It seemed a gentle stroke of the ball with the instep of his right foot but it had the requisite amount of pace on it to send our teenager away. Mark Harris sped to be in the right place for the right delivery which turned out to be perfect. Sparky’s connection wasn’t clean but who cares it was a goal. After he’d played the ball did it brush against his side, his elbow or nothing at all? I couldn’t tell even having watched the replay a few times. No VAR here. No worries here.

One of the local Leicestershire commentators on the extended highlights saw what we were about: “Oxford are here to make a game of it. We’ve seen the intent. They’ve got some experienced campaigners throughout the team. Well organised with a sprinkle or two of flair out wide”.  The co-commentator added: “lethal on the break aren’t they?”.

Our second came when a Leicester attack broke down. Ciaron Brown nodded the ball away and Andrews knocked it to Peter Kioso. Our full-back then demonstrated the expertise of both a tricky winger and a creative midfielder. He got between two blue shirts before laying the perfect pass in to Andrews’ path. Our Coventry loanee had made an intelligent run with Siriki Dembele having moved slightly more centrally. Andrews played it first time to Missanga who had sprinted free down the middle. Luke Thomas had more or less got back to make it harder for MM but our man demonstrated composure way beyond his years by beating the Leicester man before finishing in style.

This action prompted some home supporters to head for the exits with only 57 minutes gone. Three minutes later the exodus grew. A high clearance from Eastwood wasn’t really dealt with by the Leicester defence. This time it was Dembele who slipped between two blue shirts, with the ball then being taken on by Andrews mid-way in the Leicester half. He played it to Harris who with his right foot put it onto his left which bent a shot past veteran keeper Alex McCarthy.

When he does things like this Sparky looks like a proper striker. League One is much more to his liking. He’s got as many goals already as he did in the whole of 25/26  and 50% of the total he got in our first season in the Championship. In our promotion season he struck 15 times.

If proof that Leicester were in disarray was needed, they showed it when they got the game back underway. Kicking the ball backwards to nobody and giving us a throw in.

It was so so easy when we got our fourth. We’d been knocking the ball about when Tyler Goodrham turned past a man with no difficulty at all. The angled ball to Luka Lynch wasn’t quite cut out by the stretching Jayden Joseph, who appeared not to want to risk twanging his groin. First time is a key to a lot in football if it is done correctly. LL first time to McDonnell who had got the right side of his marker as far as we were concerned. He finished emphatically to make the scoreline even more convincing.

The stadium emptied further. Of blue that is. Yellow remained lauding it. There have been plenty of times when we’ve had to take it. Now it was our turn. I’m always a bit reluctant because what goes around comes around but then was our moment. “You’ve seen the Oxford now **** off home”. “E-i-e-i-e-i-o up the Football League we go”. I refused to join in as I’m still being realistic and have a sensible target of survival. Anything else is a bonus. This was one game but there would be something wrong with me if my level of optimism had not risen greatly after this.

At the end that commentator concluded: “Helik is a good solid defender. I like him. Brown alongside him as well. Highly experienced. Oxford United are far stronger than I think a lot of people expected. Strength all over the pitch. A really impressive performance from the visitors who were hard to stop all over the pitch”.

The score line says we dominated this game. Having been there that’s the impression I got. The stats surprised me though; we only had 36.7% possession. But it’s what a team does with the ball when they’ve got it. We mustn’t overlook that a better team than the Foxes, with better finishing, would have provided a sterner challenge but you play the opposition before you on the day. They had 14 shots with five on target we had 12 with six on target and two thirds of those went in. That’s clinical for you.

Both teams had a passing accuracy of over 80%. Theirs 87.9, ours 81.4. They made 104 successful passes in the final third. We only made 50. Success being defined as found the man. That equates to keeping the ball but real success is creating chances. At even 1-0 down what’s the point of going nowhere? They didn’t hurt us.

I commented last time on the lack of strength in depth. Football is now a 16-man game. Each sub played their part. Lynch will be an asset and much needed because Missanga runs out of gas around the hour mark. It’s demanding this L1 football. I think for the first few minutes after his introduction the Villa loanee got a bit of a shock. He’s a quick learner.

The only outfield sub not to appear was, according to the stickers in the toilet, “Bicester’s Cafu”.

There are others out injured who would be considered should they be fit. Greg Leigh,  Aidomo Emakhu, Jeon Jin-Woo and Ruben Roosken.

So perhaps not quite as lacking as I first thought and the players that are playing want to play for the club. Should be a given but not always the case at all clubs.

Clearly, I left the King Power with a spring in my step. I’d not stood with those I’d travelled with but found them before I exited. Just as well really because the burger van was nowhere to be seen. Lesson for the future. We had a chuckle. We were sat back in the pub when we learned of Stan’s first goal in a Preston shirt. Terrible people, aren’t we?

Next up, only our second home game of the season where Burton will provide stiffer opposition than we encountered here. Fixtures are all over the place. Reading moved for a second time and Donny away and Stockport at home postponed meaning we have two consecutive Saturdays with no game. Great – up north again in midweek. It’s bloody obvious most L1 games can’t go ahead due to international call ups. The EFL should pull their fingers out and factor that in before the fixtures are published.