CUP RUN

It was a shame we had to play last Tuesday because, for me, the warm glow of the Pompey win was wiped out at a stroke.

When was the last time we had a run in a cup that mattered? Does the Capital One Cup matter when our single minded focus has to be promotion? (No pressure, boys). It didn’t do Bradford any harm last season though.

The Valley can now be added to Elland Road and Bramall Lane where we’ve been easily outclassed by higher league opposition, conceding plenty of goals without managing a solitary effort ourselves.  Meanwhile every other of our fellow League Twoers seemed to be turning over supposedly superior opposition.

Charlton (Reserves?) looked accomplished and truth be told were better than us at everything.

Whilst we shouldn’t have got carried away after the Fratton triumph, we shouldn’t get too down after this, but there were some worrying signs.

• Thinking the defence is sorted is perhaps a tad premature. David Hunt was picked out by a few for well argued criticism.
• Andy Whing, the ball winning battler of a midfielder that we all love in League Two is nowhere near as effective when the speed and movement of the opposition is a couple of levels above.
• Our squad lacks depth – worryingly so. I hate it when our players come in for torrid abuse and thankfully that never happened at Charlton but after the event I can only call it as I see it. Asa Hall was particularly poor and contributed almost nothing. Beano had no service but there was no evidence to suggest that he will dislodge what we understand to be our preferred starters in the league any time soon. The two youngsters Calum O’Dowda and Ryan Williams showed some trickery but I never felt they were part of an effectual team effort.

Whether we would have got anywhere with our first choice front two and wide men is debatable but I thought we looked rather better when three of these four were on the pitch.

JOBSWORTH OF THE WEEK

Mark drove me to Charlton. We’d arranged to meet two mates there, Johnny & Murph.  Johnny is a fellow yellow but Murph is a Charlton fan who years ago bought a season ticket for life. He also has four or five other season tickets for family / friends. You could say he’s put a lot of money into the club. Additionally, Murph has four membership cards for the Crossbars bar for family / friends. He promised to get us into Crossbars. When he arrived he needed to nip in quickly to use the facilities (must be an age thing) so he left Johnny outside with three credit card style membership cards.

Johnny gave Mark and I each a card which we flashed at the guy on the door.  It then went something like this. “Where’s your ticket”,  he said. “What ticket?” we said, “we’ve got these cards”.  “You can’t come in without a match ticket as well”.  “But it’s pay on the day, we haven’t got tickets”.   “You can’t come in without a ticket”.  “We’re from Oxford we’ll be going in the away end. Are you saying we’ve got to walk all the way round the other side of the ground, buy a ticket then come back round here before we can come in?”.  “Yes, you can’t come in without a ticket”.  At that point I used the word jobsworth and possibly a few others and headed for the away end.  I had no intention of returning to the Crossbars, I too needed facilities quite urgently. Yes, must be an age thing (and the couple of pints consumed in Greenwich).

I left Johnny and Mark still negotiating and fully expected them to be successful, particularly as they were ringing Murph as I was storming off.  But no, they entered the Valley about 10 minutes after me.

Have I missed something here? Is there a logical reason why a ticket was needed to accompany the membership card?  It can’t have been to restrict numbers, there was hardly anyone around.  Would anyone have been the wiser if the doorman had ignored this rule (if there is such a thing)?  I think not.

LEAGUE TWO

Pre-match

With the Priory shamefully boarded up (and smashed up) it was back to the Catherine Wheel, pre-match, as in days gone by. I wish Tim Rackley well in his efforts to make this the new Priory but if it is to be successful people will have to turn up in larger numbers than they did on Saturday.

Prices were £10.30 for two pints of Stowford Press cider and one of those small bottles of red wine if anyone wants to compare it with those charged in the new supporters bar.

As for the new “match day experience” within the confines of the Kassam Stadium itself I can’t really comment  as I only arrived about ten minutes before kick-off. I quite liked Perkele’s “Yellow and Blue” but as it wasn’t associated with a particularly successful period on our own patch I won’t mourn its passing.  I wasn’t paying much attention to what we ran out to against the Shakers. Judas Priest was it? Mrs B particularly enjoyed the Led Zeppelin just before the 2^nd half kick- off contrary to many who contacted Radio Oxford after the match. Must be an age thing!

Bury

Like many other football clubs, Bury have experienced dire financial difficulties very recently.  At the back end of last season they had to take a short term loan from the Football League and, as a consequence, had a transfer embargo slapped on them.  Relegation became inevitable and 16 players left. They were very close to folding completely but in stepped a young entrepreneur and saved them.

They went in to this season therefore with an almost entirely new squad. It wasn’t relevant that they had played at a higher level during the previous campaign and I had no idea what to expect from them.

So I asked Gareth, my Bury supporting mate. He told me, “It’s difficult to judge – of the 14 who played in the first game, only 3 have played for us before.  Quite a few of the new players have done OK at this level or higher for other clubs though, so I’d be disappointed if we were anywhere near the relegation places.   Upper mid-table is probably most likely”.

The first half

I wouldn’t say this was a bad game of football but after about twenty minutes the reasons that made last season on home soil such a drag came flooding back to me.  It was fare that wasn’t exciting in a stadium that’s not exciting.  There were a couple of nods in agreement.  Tim, Radio Oxford’s number one caller, summed things up, “soporific”.

We’ve seen it so many times before.  Niggly opponents whose number one priority from the off is not to get beaten.  Opponents that test the waters to see how far they can break the rules before meaningful punishment from the referee.

After six minutes we’d had three players pulled back. Dave Kitson was constantly manhandled and prevented from jumping by having arms firmly planted on both shoulders. I reckon they were committing five fouls for every one we were giving away.  This ratio may have shortened to 3/1 as the game wore on but the neutral would easily have spotted the dirtier of the two teams.

There was a certain poetic justice when we opened the scoring as it came after the visitors had conceded yet another free kick; this one for a foul on Deane Smalley.  We’ve come to expect the ball then ending up in the car park or pinging off a defender. But no, Danny Rose got it up and over the wall with left footed bend which took it away from the keeper and in by his left-hand post.

Second half

We sat back. The fans didn’t want this, nor clearly did the manager according to his post match interview, in which he didn’t say one word with which I disagreed.

That familiar feeling that an equaliser was inevitable began to grow. “But we’re defending well”, said Tim.  I expected more than “defending well” from a home team.

Sure enough we conceded. Just prior to this there was a 50:50 coming together of shoulders for which Smalley was unfairly penalised but we had plenty of opportunities to prevent the goal. For once our defending wasn’t good. Hunt was out-jumped, a few players including Jake Wright were beaten, and Tom Soares wasn’t well marked.

One good thing did come out of this – we’d been spurred back into life as an attacking threat.

Twelve minutes later we were back in the lead, deservedly so as the footballing gods took another dim view of deliberate foul play.  It was Smalley v Cameron and Roberts by the corner flag. Deano was executing a few drag backs before trying to progress towards the penalty area. A free-kick was awarded.  At the time I thought Cameron had been unluckily penalised but TV replays show a clear shirt pull by Roberts.  Cameron got booked and we scored. Cameron wasn’t happy some more and got booked again and off he went.

The low pull back from Hunt for Johnny Mullins to finish was inventive and fooled the opposition totally.

To have scored from two set pieces shows that we are progressing.

To have beaten Bury, given their approach and the feeling of those around me that they’ll claim a play-off place, shows that we are progressing.

But to make any progression worthy of the name we will need to do more of the same on a regular and consistent basis.