Barnet

I found the experience of this game all very strange. It’s been said many a time by many a person that our season is now over, but at kick off time it wasn’t quite over yet. Anything other than a win and it would then have been, wouldn’t it? Making this rather important. For a game of importance I’d hope for a decent turn out, by our standards of recent seasons, and hopefully some passionate support from the stands.

I wasn’t at all surprised at what we got though. A crowd of 5,000, minus the stay away season ticket holders. A very cold night and the marvellous Messi on the telly can’t have helped either. Our poor home form is another obvious factor with just five points from the previous 18 on offer.

If we are going anywhere, we have to beat teams like Barnet at the Kasstad – no offence intended to them. That we were not doing so for well over 90 minutes, in a performance that wasn’t that inspiring, had been accepted with an almost resigned inevitability by most of those present. There was no booing but nor was there fervour. For a minute or two a mate did his best to get a bit of noise going in the (please don’t laugh) SSU. It obviously didn’t happen so we just crawled back under our tartan blankets to flasks of warm coffee.

When the ball did at last hit the back of the net in the 107th minute, or whatever it was, my faith was restored and I hope not just temporarily. There’s a grainy clip on the internet of the goal and the way the few that were in the Oxford Mail stand at the time celebrated shows what it all really means. The support is just rather latent at times. I was, however, rather confused by the bloke sat near my mate who was playing angry birds on his phone throughout most of the second half. I think he carried on with this activity even when Michael Raynes did the business. Still, he hadn’t left like some of little faith.

It didn’t take long to realise that for us to win the game we would have to stop missing chance after chance. Yes, that old failing. Yes, yet again, evidence that a specialist coach for the strikers might not be a bad idea. Beano missed loads and Alfie one as he usually does. Any other player who attempted a shot might as well not have bothered. Leaning back = ball over bar. In the air Raynesy was the biggest threat. He won a lot from corners but was never really on target.

Barnet’s chances were fewer than ours but they too should have scored. They missed a sitter in the first half and Luke McCormick had to pull off one very good second half save. Then there were the efforts that brought the goal netting down. Some of them weren’t that far away.

It might be embarrassing having collapsible netting but this turned into our Alan Biley Father Christmas moment.

Is it the Stadium Company or Football club who are to blame for this latest fiasco? Wrong height and now the netting; we’re becoming a laughing stock.

Whether it is the Stadium Company or not I do think they have a tremendous amount to answer for. We’re never going to get any finishing touches to our ground are we? I changed out of my suit into my football supporting clobber in the toilets in the Quadrangle before the game. They stunk of p**s the likes of which I would expect only in the urinals of the Vetch Field or Bootham Crescent. If I were a corporate client I would have words to say.

Anyway, back to the time when we should all have been at home tucked up in bed. It was a good free kick from Scott Davies and Tommy Craddock, who would surely be starting if he was fit, did exactly what was needed by heading the ball back across goal. The result of which was a chance that even an Oxford United player could not miss. Well done Michael for being there.

So that was it, we had indeed beaten a team we should have beaten, just. Barnet are no great shakes but not the worst we’ve seen recently and in Edgar Davids have someone who can read a game and pass the ball well, even if he is now 40 years old. Pity for him he’s not got colleagues from Barca, Juve or the Milan clubs around him anymore.

Chesterfield

“Typical Oxford we’ve just got ourselves back into it. We’re bound to screw it up today” was one of the pre-match comments I heard. How right you are, sir.

“I hate this season. I can’t wait for it to be over” was another remark I have to agree with.

I’m going to get into repetitive mode here but there’s no getting away from the blatantly obvious. Our first half finishing was again shockingly poor. We should have been a few goals to the good by 15:50. Chris Wilder said so himself when interviewed on Radio Oxford. But that’s stating the obvious. What we want to know is what’s being done about it. It’s not as though this is a new problem. Could it be that we need a near complete clear out of our so called strike force? We’re not going to get clinical Premiership quality strikers but surely we should be able to attract forwards with better conversion rates than those currently on the books.

Marc Richards showed how it should be done with just five minutes gone. This caused me great concern because coupled with the fact we’ve not been very proficient at scoring goals at the Kassam, the Spireites aren’t currently letting many in. If we’d not registered by the break, the game (and season, yet again) would be all but over. The crowd are hardly going to suck the ball in at the fence end are they?

Our second half performance was pretty pathetic. We hardly created any chances; we ploddingly got penalised for being off-side; passes, even from Jake Wright, went astray; and there was little noticeable understanding amongst the men in yellow. It hurts.

Craddock had half an hour to try and spark something and showed a classy quality sadly lacking in many others but it was all to no avail. Others I’d exclude from much criticism are Damian Batt and Scott Davies.

Chesterfield annoyed me. All this rolling around to break the game up helps to ruin football, as if the state of the pitch does not contribute enough on that front. (Is it true that London Welsh actually train on it from time to time? – please tell me it’s not) Referees who fall for these theatrics have a lot to answer for too.

That said, I think our opponents deserved the win. We get what we deserve by not scoring goals. It was a classic away performance from them and at times they kept the ball much better than we did. That they did not create many chances was neither here nor there. They’d got their goal. We were never going to repeat Tuesday’s feat. They were in control.

And just to round off a miserable afternoon of little, if any, genuine entertainment, like most other U’s fans that had stayed to the bitter end we got sodden as we trouped, head down, back to the car. So instead of going out as intended we headed home to dry out.

Central heating and the airing cupboard sorts that problem out but Oxford United 0 Chesterfield 1 still stands, unfortunately.