FAN’S VIEW: 24/25 – No.7: PRESTON AT HOME

Leigh the scorer and Dembele after we’ve got our third. Photo, Steve Daniels

OXFORD UNITED 3 PRESTON NORTH END 1

I don’t think I’ve ever left the Kassam feeling more satisfied than I did after this one. Happier yes, but that was after a promotion had been clinched or Premier League team had been beaten in a cup competition. Those were more short term rushes of euphoria. This felt like a really deep rooted medium/long term statement that we genuinely belong in the Championship.

I look on Preston as Championship. Nothing more, nothing less. Don’t think they’ll go up, don’t think they’ll go down. Stuck in tier two as if it was the Hotel California. This is their 10^th consecutive season at this level. In that time they’ve never finished higher than 7th or lower than 14^th.

We beat them and deservedly so. We belong. This says the Norwich game wasn’t a one off. Plenty of Preston fans are slagging their team off because they couldn’t beat Oxford. Could it be that they’re underestimating us a touch? Perhaps the two we’ve played at home so far aren’t amongst the top teams in the Championship but Norwich won at Coventry and I don’t know any Oxford fan who didn’t rate the Sky Blues against us in either game. The sensible approach is without doubt to take each game as it comes. Home record thus far: played two and won both. Obviously assessing the season to date we can’t ignore the fact that we’ve lost both away league games so best not to get ahead of ourselves but after 25 years away this feels so so good.  

For the first 20 minutes Preston were much the superior side. They were doing everything quicker than us. Their players looked better on and off the ball than ours and the gap between the two sides looked a whole division apart.

Having easily gone a goal up in just the third minute when it looked like we couldn’t cope with the pace and power that Championship football brings, the visitors must have thought they were in for a relatively easy afternoon.

It looked like they were going to get more as we just had not got to grips with the game. We didn’t seem to have any understanding and were giving the ball away far too easily. That’s how we conceded. Having received the ball from his keeper, Joe Bennett played it straight to Stefan Thordarson with Cameron Brannagan not coming short to get it, instead turning to make a run forward. Thordarson played it wide to Sam Greenwood and his first time ball in had us at sixes and sevens. After a little bit of pinging about Emil Riis hammered home from close range.

Our equaliser came from the first bit of decent football we put together, aided and abetted a bit by Preston’s defending. We’d kept the ball and, having knocked it about, it ended up with Josh McEachran. With no opponent anywhere near him he put a tempting cross into the box and Mark Harris got his head on it to send it over Freddie Woodman, son of Andy, who had come into no-man’s land. Liam Lindsay needs to take some responsibility too. Poor marking.

We keep saying that Harris is not a natural centre-forward, not a striker in the true sense of the term and not a goal-scorer. What on earth can the guy do to make us change our minds? He’s now scored in each of our first four league games. He’s currently joint top scorer with two others. He’s equalled the record of scoring in consecutive games for a newly promoted team. According to footballleagueworld.co.uk Bundesliga club Holstein Kiel are thinking about making a move to sign him in the January window. Sparky is absolutely key to what we are achieving at the moment. There’s no one else like him at the club and if he weren’t around we’d have to play differently. How much is he worth? I’ve no idea really. £3m, £4m, £5m or more? What I do know is that his value has gone up since this season began.

Most were surprised to see the provider of the assist in the starting line-up, McEachran usually being the go to man to bring on when it is imperative to keep the ball. When he has started it’s been said that he has not got a full 90 minutes in him. With the arrival of a number of other midfielders it looked like he had dropped a bit further down the pecking order. His inclusion is further proof, not that we need it now, that Des Buckingham is a top manager/coach and knows how to get the best out of his available resources. McEachran lasted 77 minutes here and had a very good game. I think he’s probably got more creativity in him than we, or any of his other teams, have actually seen. Loved how he went down with a (pretend) injury to delay the game when the incapacitated Bennett was off the pitch. Referee Keith Stroud was having none of it. J Mc got up, limped a few steps to show he was injured (yes, right) then just got on with it. Fooled nobody.

At 1-1 it became a very different game. There were still 70 of the regulation minutes remaining and for most of those we were the better side.

I didn’t however think things were going to go our way when we lost Matt Phillips after 35 minutes and Joe Bennett at the break. Both extremely experienced and potentially very influential.

Phillips was kicked. Footballers get kicked it’s the most obvious of occupational hazards. Sometimes that kicking is accidental, sometimes a bit reckless, sometimes deliberate and sometimes downright brutal. It’s for the referee to decide which category and act accordingly.

I don’t think Phillips was deliberately fouled and the contact on Bennett looked quite innocuous but clearly something was amiss as he couldn’t continue.

The Preston fans thought Stroud didn’t know what he was doing and some of them on social media had him down as our 12^th man. Biased lot we football fans. Oxford fans thought Preston were dirty northerners and should have seen yellow cards earlier and more often than was the case. At times I thought they were over physical, leaving a little bit on the man. I thought Will Keane was particularly guilty.  He thought it was okay if he fouled an Oxford player as long as he then put his hand around their head pretending to say sorry. The foul count was PNE 21 Oxford 8.

We had two players booked. Lindsay managed that himself so off he went in the 70^th minute. We were already ahead by then. Both of his cards were correct. Grabbing and blocking. Why he stopped Harris in the way he did when already on one yellow only he will know.

Three other visitors were also given a yellow.

It turned out that the enforced changes didn’t work to our detriment. From when he’s played against us I’d recalled that Siriki Dembele was an extremely skilful tricky player, but whether he does the hard yards and is a team player is not something I have any idea about. What I witnessed here, no worries on that score. For the first part of the game we’d looked slower than Preston but the way Dembele sped down the middle of the park with the ball at his feet not long after his arrival, this was the paciest we’d seen yet. Up a level?

Leigh, the scorer of our third, did not weaken us defensively and when he gets forward is an attacking threat.

We took the lead ten minutes into the second half when we won, possibly fortuitously, a free-kick.  Sam long took it quickly, short to Brannagan. He moved it right to Tyler Goodrham out wide who hadn’t immediately switched on to the fact the ball was back in play. He was having a face to face discussion of sorts with the linesman. He was of course alert enough to control the ball, cut inside with his right, take one touch with his left before bending it in with the same foot from a few yards outside the box. An exceptional individual effort. A two footed lad who can do the same coming in from the other side too. Can’t help wondering how much he’s worth at present. As with Harris I want him to stay, not the money.

We doubled our lead from the free-kick following Preston being reduced to 10. Brannagan put it in and Dembele collected after a defender won the first header but didn’t get the ball away. Our new signing kept possession well and with nothing on and unable to centre the ball laid it back to Long who had taken up a good position. His cross was met at the far post by Ciaron Brown and his nod back was tapped home by Leigh.

We were never in any danger of losing after this but fair play to North End, they never gave up.

Four games in, two home and two away that’s a 100% record on our patch and 0% on our travels. A sign of what’s ahead and how important it is to get the points at the Kassam.

Even if Preston are not the strongest Championship outfit I don’t think they’re that bad a side and we achieved these three points without our captain.

Going in to the international break with a win under our belts is a real positive and we’ve now got a fortnight to get injured players back and some of the new boys closer to match fitness. Des could end up with some really big selection headaches. The best kind of headaches to have.

Photo by Steve Daniels

AMY CRANSTON

Been part of the club for twelve years. Highly thought of and professional to the last. Just look at the way she treated our lads who went down injured in this game.

All the very best at Manchester United Women, Amy.

TICKETS AND ATTENDANCES

Wouldn’t be a Fan’s View now without some mention of tickets would it?

In the previous FV I mentioned the ticket office now being closed on a Wednesday. In the latest OxVox communication covering their meetings with Adam Benson and Grant Ferguson there was reference to the club learning as they go as they navigate from L1 to Championship level with a small backroom team. Lessons to be learned and all that. I would have thought it would have been obvious the workload was going to rise and if staff numbers were not increased something would have to give and fans would get frustrated.

The Wednesday closure, although I believe phones will still be answered, doesn’t help season ticket holders who want to rock up to the stadium to get away tickets once their eligible 24 hours after the away members (including me) have first dibs. They will just have to ring or go through the, at times, torturous online process and pay £2 for the privilege unless they’re willing to wait in the hope that there won’t be a sell-out. I don’t think there will be many sell-outs to be honest. We didn’t sell out at Coventry or Blackburn and Bristol City tickets are now on general sale.

By contrast both home league games have been reported as completely sold out although we know there are empty seats. It’s a known that some season ticket holders cannot get to all the games and some actually quite a low percentage but they want to support the club by giving them their money up front, want a guaranteed seat when they do attend and can’t be arsed with the hassle of buying individually. Empty seats though don’t help with the atmosphere and are not a good look. Good that the club are actively looking at a resale system. That though will take admin effort and as noted above we have a small backroom team. Increasing it comes at a cost but can we afford not to

Given there wasn’t a ticket to be had for this or the Norwich game how come there were 11,333 present against the Canaries and 11,403 (70 more) against Preston. Both away attendance were reported as 1,476. Anyone know? Had the no-man’s land between home and away fans been reduced?

PRE-MATCH – BLENHEIM AND THE BLACKBIRD

Not often I comment on pre-match pints at a home game but with the OxVox AGM being cancelled I took advantage and entered the Royal Blenheim just after mid-day. Quite packed already with football fans. Very much the place to go for Yellows who like their real ale. So many known faces as expected. Really good beer from Titanic and for the city centre very competitive prices, particularly for CAMRA members. There were a group of like-minded Preston fans in there. Recommended pub for our visit to their place, the Black Horse.

As the number one bus stops near the Blackbird, a pint of Guinness in there was too tempting to overlook. Good value at £4.50 (cash only). As football pubs go that really is a strong hold. Oxford through and through. Plenty of faces going back years and years. Wonder what the total number of Oxford United supporting years there is in there on any given day when we’re at home.