Back to winning ways for the Yellows with the last two games won convincingly. Now that may seem an odd thing to say given that last night's game was won through a penalty and that Constable missed a penalty in the first half but the team I watched play last night and on Saturday was clearly better than the opposition on both occasions and can be most usefully criticised by noting that the players managed to miss a wealth of chances they created.
Saturday's game was notable for the quality of the Oxford game, as well as for the worrying sight of Alfie Potter pulling up and going off injured. He'll be missed as the season builds to a climax and hopefully he will be back soon. The other, happier sight was the Histon physio, a huge fat man whose run to his injured player surely gets plaudits for effort, even if he only managed to get there as the player was getting up and walking away. I think he got the loudest cheer of the afternoon.
Coming back to Rushden, once again I question the sense of Constable as captain since he is upfront and his job is to get goals, one he has proved to be excellent at. While he's worrying about the rest of the team it might be said that his focus is a little weakened. The other problem for me is the over-reliance on the superb Sam Deering to take the ball forward. In most situations when Oxford attacked the ball was passed to him on the right. He is more than able to deal with this but a little more variety in attack might help to provide more success.
Substitute Matt Green is a live wire and he always causes problems when he comes on. He might offer balance to Deering's searing runs.
I went last night without my son, who is getting over a cold and who was not very happy at being so cold on Saturday. This gave me the opportunity to listen to Jack FM's commentary. It was just a shame that Jack had gone to another game and that they were not able to tell me about Oxford United. Apparently the game last night was 'a war of attrition' and it was rather even. Er, not the game I saw. Oxford clearly had the upper hand and spent long periods in the Rushden half. Rushden had a handful of scoring chances all of which the ever solid Ryan Clarke managed to deal with ably and confidently.
According to Jack FM, all Blue Square refs are terrible and they all make the wrong decisions. This was echoed by the lamentable Lady Orgasm behind me who moaned her way through another game together with her equally miserable family. Everything Oxford did was met with cries of derision. Quite why these people come to football games to 'support' Oxford United is beyond me, since they complain about everything.
As to the referees, last night's example was officious but he seemed to me to be in control of the game and his two penalty decisions were spot on. The radio criticised him for his somewhat Teutonic hand gestures - there was more than a touch of the 'Austrian Corporal' about some of them - but generally I thought he did fine. Statistically, it is impossible for every refereeing decision to be wrong so why can't people just lighten up and accept that the ref is one man with 22 individuals challenging everything he does and every now and then he will err. Big deal. Get over it. Support your team.
All in all I thought it was an excellent performance and it demonstrates that the new signings have settled in very well. Call me a heretic but I am confident about the race to the finish. I realise that a true football fan laments every setback as the end of the world but that way lies the bleating of Lady O and her ilk and I'd rather not turn up if that is where football fandom leads.
One final point of controversy: the sale of the programmes prepared for December 26th was a scandal and p***ed me off. I like the programme and I actually bother to read it when I can. After all, normally I have an eight year old to attend to so I can only dip in. I shall therefore make my point in the only way possible, by not buying the programme at the next home game. I hope others follow suit. If I am going to spend my hard earned to support the team I expect to be treated better than this. Generally my experiences at the Kassam have been great but this annoyed me.
Anyway, onwards and upwards - and at the moment that's just what is happening so compliments to all concerned.
Wednesday 17 February 2010
Saturday 6 February 2010
OXFORD UNITED 0 KIDDERMINSTER HARRIERS 0
Well that was one of those games which could be said to be interesting for the neutral but for anyone in a yellow shirt it was deeply frustrating. My concerns were raised when Captain Marvel failed to emerge but there were enough regulars to give me confidence. However, James Constable as captain? Strikers rarely flourish in that role given that they are meant to be facing forwards for most of the game.
For all the difficulties it would be churlish to criticise the effort the team put in and the early period of play was great, with attacks going in from all sides. How we failed to score is difficult to understand.
Kidderminster Harriers seemed to have a better understanding between their players and they were the better passing side today but they were also decidedly free with their challenges and they clearly had a great fondness for Oxford United's players, given the amount of time they spent climbing all over them.
Which brings us on to the ref. Now I always fight shy of criticising the ref as he has an impossible job but even I found myself screaming some choice comments at the man in black over a number of his omissions. By my count we had two obvious penalties in the first half and the number of fouls by Kidderminster Leapfroggers was in double figures after the first 45 minutes.
He rather lost control of things during the second half but I can't say that was surprising given the level of abuse he was being subjected to. Seriously, this is no way to treat a fellow human being.
Miserable Old Git in front of me insisted on shouting out the ref's name and telling him what he thought of him throughout the second half. I do wonder why he bothers coming along.
My son made a telling point when he said it seemed that Oxford's season had started to slide with the introduction of the new signings. That's a bit of an 'out of the mouths of babes' moment. It does seem to be the case that the team, which established itself as a hard-working and effective unit and which earned and thoroughly deserved its place at the top of the Blue Square through verve and style, has struggled to accommodate the new members. Still, you've got to have confidence in the manager's decisions as he's got us this far in some style.
Lady Orgasm provided a rare insight into evolution as she had brought along what must have been a close family relative - a granddaughter I'd guess - who joined her gran in screaming inanely throughout the game. Their running commentary consisted of shouting "Go on [PLAYER'S NAME HERE]" repetitively and very, very loudly. They also took very vocal umbrage at ever challenge by Kidderminster, whether legal or not. At one stage towards the end of the game Kidderminster were attacking the Oxford goal and the granddaughter screamed at the top of her voice "DON'T SCORE!". Kidderminster duly didn't and I am sure I heard her boyfriend administering CPR as the ball was played away. He's a lucky boy...Like a couple in the adjoining house making noisy love, I don't mind what they are doing I just wish they'd be a bit quieter about it. A few less inane comments would also be most welcome.
But I digress. Back to the action and Oxford had a series of attacks on the Kidderminster goal as the game worked its way to a conclusion, all of which would have seen them wheeling away in triumph on another day but this time there was just no finish and sadly no joy.
Good effort as ever from Alfie Potter who always seems to have double the work rate of the others. Sam Deering was unstoppable and created many of the chances, especially in the second half, through his midfield work, where he was central to breaking up the Kidderminster play. Ryan Clarke remains reassuringly solid in goal and Beano ran himself to a standstill in his new role, sadly to little effect. That's the point of a captain: during the pretty dismal performance against Tamworth, Murray worked and worked to try to deliver a result, without success but not due to a lack of effort. Constable didn't seem to play such a pivotal role today.
But then again, we were treated to Stevenage losing, we returned to the top of the league and we still have two games in hand so there's not too much wrong with the world when you think about it. We remain on track.
And that's pretty much where I part company with a lot of people, the ones who left early and the ones who were dismissive of the players. The best comment came from one of Lady O's brood who simply said "Same old Oxford United" like he could make that effort for 90 minutes. They worked hard, they tried, they didn't succeed. Well, no sh*t. That is football after all.
Keep up the good work.
For all the difficulties it would be churlish to criticise the effort the team put in and the early period of play was great, with attacks going in from all sides. How we failed to score is difficult to understand.
Kidderminster Harriers seemed to have a better understanding between their players and they were the better passing side today but they were also decidedly free with their challenges and they clearly had a great fondness for Oxford United's players, given the amount of time they spent climbing all over them.
Which brings us on to the ref. Now I always fight shy of criticising the ref as he has an impossible job but even I found myself screaming some choice comments at the man in black over a number of his omissions. By my count we had two obvious penalties in the first half and the number of fouls by Kidderminster Leapfroggers was in double figures after the first 45 minutes.
He rather lost control of things during the second half but I can't say that was surprising given the level of abuse he was being subjected to. Seriously, this is no way to treat a fellow human being.
Miserable Old Git in front of me insisted on shouting out the ref's name and telling him what he thought of him throughout the second half. I do wonder why he bothers coming along.
My son made a telling point when he said it seemed that Oxford's season had started to slide with the introduction of the new signings. That's a bit of an 'out of the mouths of babes' moment. It does seem to be the case that the team, which established itself as a hard-working and effective unit and which earned and thoroughly deserved its place at the top of the Blue Square through verve and style, has struggled to accommodate the new members. Still, you've got to have confidence in the manager's decisions as he's got us this far in some style.
Lady Orgasm provided a rare insight into evolution as she had brought along what must have been a close family relative - a granddaughter I'd guess - who joined her gran in screaming inanely throughout the game. Their running commentary consisted of shouting "Go on [PLAYER'S NAME HERE]" repetitively and very, very loudly. They also took very vocal umbrage at ever challenge by Kidderminster, whether legal or not. At one stage towards the end of the game Kidderminster were attacking the Oxford goal and the granddaughter screamed at the top of her voice "DON'T SCORE!". Kidderminster duly didn't and I am sure I heard her boyfriend administering CPR as the ball was played away. He's a lucky boy...Like a couple in the adjoining house making noisy love, I don't mind what they are doing I just wish they'd be a bit quieter about it. A few less inane comments would also be most welcome.
But I digress. Back to the action and Oxford had a series of attacks on the Kidderminster goal as the game worked its way to a conclusion, all of which would have seen them wheeling away in triumph on another day but this time there was just no finish and sadly no joy.
Good effort as ever from Alfie Potter who always seems to have double the work rate of the others. Sam Deering was unstoppable and created many of the chances, especially in the second half, through his midfield work, where he was central to breaking up the Kidderminster play. Ryan Clarke remains reassuringly solid in goal and Beano ran himself to a standstill in his new role, sadly to little effect. That's the point of a captain: during the pretty dismal performance against Tamworth, Murray worked and worked to try to deliver a result, without success but not due to a lack of effort. Constable didn't seem to play such a pivotal role today.
But then again, we were treated to Stevenage losing, we returned to the top of the league and we still have two games in hand so there's not too much wrong with the world when you think about it. We remain on track.
And that's pretty much where I part company with a lot of people, the ones who left early and the ones who were dismissive of the players. The best comment came from one of Lady O's brood who simply said "Same old Oxford United" like he could make that effort for 90 minutes. They worked hard, they tried, they didn't succeed. Well, no sh*t. That is football after all.
Keep up the good work.
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