Well blimey, it's been months since I have written anything and it feels like months since I attended a football game. After today's shocker I wish it had been longer. This was by far the worst performance by the Us since I started attending. I am struggling for some crumbs of comfort so here they are: captain Adam Murray was clearly irritated by the performance and he upped his game accordingly, sadly to no avail; there are still two games in hand; and, er...that's it.
Tamworth clearly outperformed Oxford: they had the fabled extra yard in every situation, with very few exceptions. After a slow start Franny Green picked up his pace with welcome results but sadly without anything to show for it. Constable and Potter also threatened tantalisingly in the early stages but they also failed to deliver despite their efforts. Alfie Potter has been my favourite player this year for his industry and ability to create opportunities but he lacked an edge today.
Half time came and went and I calmly waited for a chastened team to emerge having endured the hopefully hairdryer-like input of manager Chris Wilder during the break. Me and my son assured each other that this would indeed be a game of two halves and it was - the only problem being that nothing changed between them both. The manager's motivational technique appears to have escaped him today. He appeared to have failed to impress on the players that they were a team which might get a result if they played together so the second half was little better. The work rate improved but once again there was nothing to show for it.
As for Tamworth, you have to wonder if they spend equal amounts of time during the week on the training ground and at acting school. One or two of them must be up for Oscars this year given their performances wasting time across the pitch. The strangely confused referee did eventually start to card the worst exponents of the 'Staffordshire method' but he had lost a lot of authority by this stage through a series of - put politely - 'confusing' decisions. [I am always loathe to criticise the referee because he has a bloody awful job to do and he gets no thanks whatever he does but Oxford were clearly badly served today by the man in black.]
The crowd was not happy and this might be considered a bright spot [bear with me...]. The normally quiet Family Area was today loud with general complaining and cries of anguish. Lady O behind me was of course the loudest of them all as she bemoaned every decision and bayed for blood in her inimitable style. She is so out of place in the football ground that you wonder if she accidentally swapped her season ticket for the Royal Opera with a friend by mistake.
Strangely the miserable old git in front of us said very little. He must have worn out all his cliches in earlier games, so much that he had no further depths to plumb today. He peaked too soon...
The referee seems to have come to some sense by the end as he added 6 minutes to normal time. The Tamworth team rushed for their ruffs and their skulls as they built up to this extra period of thespian excess with all the enthusiasm of Kate Winslet being promised a Sunday Supplement feature. Sadly the relentless pressure of the Us at the end did not pay off with the only successful strike by Constable ruled offside. The team then disintegrated, with Murray invalided off and Batt sent off. Bad times.
Anyway, you have to be philosophical: you're surely not a proper football fan until you see your team lose and today was our initiation into the 'Real World' of despair and angst that is football. There remains all to play for and that must surely be enough cliches for one blog post. Onwards and upwards...I hope.
