Barnet 2 : 2 Oxford - 25 April 2011

or even watch the highlights?

The ground seems to have gained some more seated stands since I was last there, although the entrance turnstiles looked as if they may have been received in a swap for a player transfer back in the 50's.

The family stand in one corner had what appeared to be a marquee fabric roof on it, which was where the seated Us fans were placed. The standing fans shared a low roofed terrace with the away fans, separated by stewards and some netting hanging down from the roof. The tv stand was up a metal ladder, along a small catwalk, and through the roof of the stand onto a scaffolidng platform. For those of us on the terrace, the roof provided welcome shelter from the blazing sun.

To the left behind the goal was a fairly new I think all seated home stand, and a slightly shallower all seater along the side, with small dugouts for the teams. Behind the uphill goal was another small terrace, with a high fence to stop balls disappearing over to the backgardens and houses overlooking the ground.

For a team fighting relegation, Barnet started off strongly playing down the slope at Underhill. They had a couple of very quick young wingers, who may be worth a look at if they go down to the Conference. Loan players Sam Deering and Jack Midson were not allowed to take part, and Jude Stirling also did not make an appearance. For United, Damien Batt was the ex-Bees player.

The Bees fans had their drum to get chants going, and had the usual reportoire of 'ultras' songs (Dale Cavese, Sloop John B) and the traditional football songs too. Their rivalry seems to be reserved for Enfield and Spurs. The Yellows fans were of course more interested in Paul Hart's team's fate, and as Wednesday went 1 up, 2 up, 2-1 and finally 3-1 the full reportoire of rivalry songs was used.

Barnet went one up, before Constable equalised before half-time. Ryan Clarke may have been lucky to be adjudged to have been fouled with the ball in the back of the net, as to me it looked like he stopped the ball with arms outstreched just inside the line, then with an attacking boot coming towards him, pulled the ball into his body, but over the line. Damien Batt sprinted uphill in a dangerous looking attack, only to pull up with a tight hamstring.

In the second half, McLean got bullied into giving the ball away under the attack of a couple of players. As Barnet charged up hill, he stopped still, and Barnet scored their second with a perfectly weighted lob over Clarke who had advanced off his line. McLean was subbed within minutes.

Oxford equalised again through James Constable, and by this time the scores from the foot of league 1 were certain, and the chants moved on to Barnet, and "Barrow - on a Tuesday night". The Bees face a difficult two games to finish the season, away at Accrington, and home to Port Vale, and will I think need four points to have a hope of league 2 football next year.

Barnet - Oxford preview

originally written for Rageonline

I am sure regulars remember the last time we travelled to Barnet's Underhill 'Stadium' in October 2005.  United had packed their black away strip, whilst Barnet 'changed their kit to an all black affair two days before the season started, rather than the orange with black pinstripe shirts that they had notified the league about.' [OWS report] United were left to wear an orange top from the training kit, and red shorts.  The game, under Brian Talbot, was a nil-nil draw. 

Damian Batt featured for Barnet in that game, as did Guilano Graziolo who is currently manager.  For United, Craig Davies featured, who we saw for Chesterfield on Saturday. 

The Yellows enter the last three games of the season in 13th place, yet only six points from the play-offs.  After perhaps the most skilful game of football all season, fans saw promoted Chesterfield meander to a goalless draw against United. 

Barnet are at the wrong end of the table, but a 4-2 away victory against Gillingham yesterday suggests they are no end of season push-over. 

For United, Jimmy Sangare hobbled off, replacement Mitchell Hanson was also replaced, and so Harry Worley will presumably  take the starting line up after his two match suspension.

So-fa so good

Originally written for Rageonline

Chesterfield make their first [edit: competive] visit to the Kassam stadium [they played pre-season in July 2006] and will be celebrating their promotion to League One following the nil-nil draw between Torquay United and Wycombe Wanderers on Friday night.  Chesterfield cannot win the title today, as second placed Bury are only four points behind with three games remaining, including the Easter Monday clash between the two teams.  With average homecrowds of 6,701 compared to 3,967 in their last season at Saltergate, the move to the B2Net stadium has been a success both on an off the pitch.  

Craig Davies will hopefully be welcomed back to the Kassam Stadium, having made 26 starts and 29 substitute appearances for United, scoring eight goals from 2004 to 2006.  He is currently fourth in the League Two goals scorers table with 22, Liam Donaldson of Crewe top with 26, and our own Tom Craddock in 14th place with 14 goals.  

Last week United made the long awaited trip to Accrington Stanley, and saw out a nil-nil draw on one of the poorest pitches of the season.  Jimmy Sangare made an impressive first team debut due to Harry Worley's two match suspension, and will presumably start again today.  Damien Batt was suffering from tonsilitis earlier in the week, and Ben Purkiss took a knock in training, so we may see Stevie Kinniburgh back in the team.  

United will be pleased to be playing back on the lush grass of the Kassam stadium, and at the end of their second year, the University ground staff can be rightly proud of the fine condition of the pitch throughout the season.    

In other matches, if Stockport lose today whilst not mathematically relgated, they will be at least 9 points behind both Northampton and Burton, with three games to play and a goal difference to catch up of around 30 points.  The League 2 play-off places are still wide open, which will lead to an exciting last few games of the season.  In the Blue Square Bet Premier, the play-offs look to be between Wimbledon, Luton, and either Wrexham, Fleetwood, Kidderminster or York.  Financial problems at Wrexham may see them barred from the play-offs if tax debts are not settled first.

A day at the training ground

Back in December in the Oxford United youth team lottery I had won first prize of a day at the training ground, and lunch with the players and coaching staff.  After Mickey Lewis was tied down to a date, I was all set for 12th April.  With several senior players due to play in the Oxfordshire Senior Cup, the day was postponed by a week, and so finally the day was set for Tuesday 19th. 

With the luxury of a day-off work, I set the SatNav for Bicester Sports Association, and arrived just before 11am.  On a glorious sunny day, I saw who appeared to be ex-skipper Chris Hargreaves crossing the pitch, but was actually John Armstrong who is the football in the community co-ordinator who was to be my host for the day.  At BSA there are rugby, football and cricket pitches with a set of changing rooms and club-house.  United have been based there for two years now I believe, and with many Midlands based players, the short hop from the M40 makes it within the required one hour travelling time. 

On one pitch, ex U's players Chris Allen was taking a training session with around eighteen youngsters.  I think these were a mixture of the Oxford United Scholars and a few triallists from the community programs that the club runs.  Chris had them split into three sides of six, with three goals coned off, and the aim being for one team to keep possession and score two goals against the other two teams.  After each quick session the players were down doing ten press-ups. 

At the end of that pitch, Alan Hodgkinson was working with the two goalkeepers, Ryan Clarke and Simon Eastwood.  With the ground being baked hard, the two keepers were taking care not to land too heavily when catching balls fired in at them across the goal. 

Moving back to the clubhouse, the senior squad were warming up with a jog around the pitches.  Damien Batt was excused from training with a sore throat / tonsillitis, Paul MacLaren was allowed an extra day's rest, and a couple of other players were doing fitness work in the gym.  There was a triallist with the senior squad, possibly Mamadou Danfa who would appear for the reserves against Luton later in the week.  Mickey Lewis and Andy Melville took the training session, and manager Chris Wilder was watching from distance with a guest.  After some fitness work, there was a short eight per side game on a half-sized pitch.  All of the squad who were training featured, Asa Hall, James Constable, Ryan Clarke, Simon Eastwood, Alfie Potter, Stevie Kinniburgh, Aaron Woodley, Jimmy Sangare, etc.

The fitness coach took them through some stretches to avoid injuries in the heat, and then it was back to the clubhouse for lunch.  Set out like a school dining room, the senior squad were on one set of tables, the juniors on another, and the coaching staff and manager on a third set off to one side.  Chairman Kelvin Thomas also joined us, with Chris Wilder's guest revealed to be visiting sports psychologist Steven Sylvester.  Steven had played first class cricket for Middlesex, and the United men were hoping to sign him up as a ringer for their cricket match against the Oxford Mail team.   Over a lunch of pasta and bologneise, the chat continued about playing friendly cricket, watching International games at Lords and Headingley, and a general chat about football in both League Two and the Premiership.  I tried asking Chris Wilder who he wanted to come up from the Conference with Crawley, but he would not be drawn - perhaps he doesn't want any team to think that he either favours them (or not).   The youth teams were then sent collecting up plates and wiping down the tables, and collecting all of the training equipment  from the pitches.  Apparently 'elf and safety has though decreed that cleaning another player's boots carries a risk of passing on infections, so that is banned.  

As it was pay day, the player's pay envelopes were on a table for collection.  It seems there is a joker or two at the club, as Constable's had "very heavy!" written on it, and Paul MacLaren's "Old Age Pension".

After a half hour talk with Kelvin about some ideas and suggestions for the club, we called it a day around 2:30.  Some of the players were heading back to the stadium for more fitness work, and with the school holidays others were due to call in at kids' training sessions. 

Overall, I was impressed with the team spirit and togetherness that the club has, and how seriously they take training and match preparation. 

[I would later find that Mickey Lewis, Andy Melville and Chris Allen had all appeared for Oxford United in my first ever game, away in the League Cup 2nd Round replay against Aston Villa on 7 October 1992]

Accrington - Oxford preview from 15 April 2011

Originally written for Rage-Online

Oxford United pay their first visit ever visit to Accrington Stanley's Crown Ground on Saturday.  This may or may not also be known as the Fraser Eagle stadium, however Fraser Eagle went bust in 2009, or prior to that the sponsored name was the Interlink Express Stadium.   Aerial pictures show the ground dropped in the middle of a 5 sided field, with house on 4 sides behind the ground, and open ground on the other side.  Strangely, none of the sides of the ground are parallel with any of the surrounding streets, and there appears to be wasteland behind all but the main stand and the back-gardens of the houses. 

The Accrington story is well known, the original Accrington FC being founder members of the league in 1888, leaving after 5 years, with Stanley Villa taking the name Accrington Stanley 1891 and their league status until the resignation from the league in March 1962, due to debts of £4,000 in transfer fees, £4,000 to the Inland Revenue, £40,000 to other creditors, and £458 of National Insurance, which seemed to be the tipping point.  Oxford took their place the following season, and a reborn Accrington Stanley FC were formed in 1968.  The Stanley swapped league status with United at the end of 2005/06, and the two teams had never played until the home fixture this season. This was a Nil-Nil draw. 

Last week saw United draw 2-2 with Wycombe Wanderers in front of 9,309, the second highest home crowd of the season after the Bridle-promoted Macclesfield game on the Tuesday bank holiday between Christmas and New Year.  The Wycombe game was entertaining, with United going ahead through Potter after 35 minutes, forcing an own goal on 54 minutes, before Wycombe pulled back two goals on 63 and 66 minutes, to leave the tie level. Wycombe will have been happy to take a point after being two down, and keep the third automatic promotion spot, two behind Bury. 

Accrington, whose squad contains many graduates of the Liverpool FC youth academy players, have won their last six home games, scoring 19 and conceding three, to leave them in eigth place on 64 points, although should Torquay's one point deduction for fielding an ineligible player stand, they would move up to seventh. 

United have one enforced change, with Harry Worley suspended after picking up 10 yellow cards, and Jimmy Sangare is likely to make his debut in defence.  With United now seven points outside of the play-offs and with inferior goal difference, the players will be fighting for their contracts.  Nonetheless,
Danny Shelley of Crewe, who are another two points back, is aiming for five straight wins and believes they have a chance. 

At the start of the month, Ilyas Khan took full control of Accrington, confirming he would settle all debts including arrears of players' wages.  Khan however announced his ownership to be temporary, with the aim of having a widely spread ownership with no controlling shareholder. 

Bury 3 - 0 Oxford United. 2nd April 2011

Another trip up North, but this time I had the misfortune to start off on a train full of X-Factor wannabees on their way to auditions.  The first carriage from Guildford had a couple literally bursting into song, so I moved up a carriage to what seemed quieter.  Little did I know, but I had a fascinating glimpse into the life and aims of two students.   One girl opposite had a pair of battered Ugg boots with the soles coming apart, and purple leg warmers.  "Because the auditions this year are in front of a studio audience, you have to be good and talented.  If we get through, we will then be in the judges's house.  But I might need to take another gap year, as I can't can't combine University and X-Factor.  Which is odd as I am studying music at Uni. But I did go to Thailand, Australia, and Thailand already on a Gap Year, but I had saved up £10,000 to do this.".  "I only went to New Zealand", complained her travelling companion.  

So this is what life is like for the youth of today, £10K gap years, or just one country on the other side of the world if you can't afford that, with the ultimate desire of being a tv pop star.  At that point, I put my headphones on to drown out their incessant whines, and continued onto Waterloo.  

At Waterloo, my ticket (Guildford-Bury with a reservation from Euston to Manchester) was rejected at the barrier, which the first worker waved me through.  At the Underground, I again found my ticket spat out, for the worker to say that "your ticket is not valid for the Tube".  I asked him how I was supposed to travel from Guildford to Euston without using the Underground, but was told to "take that up with the company who sold you the ticket".  So I then paid £6.60 for a one-day travelcard, and hopped on the Northern Line to Euston.  Only to get just two stops on to Charing Cross before finding the line was shut for weekend engineering works.  Simple, get the Bakerloo line to Oxford Circus and get the Victora Line I thought.  At Oxford Circus, the tube arrived, I sat down, and then nothing happened for several minutes, and taking the earphones out to listen to announcements, I found an 'incident' had closed the Victoria Line.  So taking the escalators to the surface I resorted to a taxi to Euston for another £8.  

Once at Euston, I had time for a coffee before getting the Virgin train to Manchester Picadilly, which took around two hours, and from there it was 40 minutes or so on the Metrolink, which starts off subterranean, winds it way through the city streets and traffic as if a tram, before rattling along an overground line to Bury, with quaint stops such as "Besses O' Th' Barn".  

Bury itself is a traditional Northern town, with an impressive church and art-deco converted picture palace in the centre, alongside a shopping mall of discount shops.  I dodged the chain pubs and walked down the Manchester road down towards the ground, stopping in the Waterloo pub around 1pm.  The landlord was a Bury fan, as were most of the customers, and the real ale was decent as well (Thwaites Original) for I think £2.38 a pint.  They had a range of football match-day snacks of different meat pies and chips, and the mysterious "Blobby" for £1.50, which turned out to be a half french stick with ham.  Bury's Gigg Lane is also used by FC United of Manchester for most home games, and it was bizarre to see their forthcoming fixture list show their next game to be against Northwich Victoria.  FCUM are I think one step below the Conference North in the Evostik league, yet it was only two seasons ago Oxford Untied were playing Northwich in the Conference Premier. 

I carried on down to the club, and into the club-house, which was showing West-Ham 2-0 up at half-time against Manchester United.  Man United got one back, and the only cheers were ironic as one of the Oxford fans has West Ham as their second team.  After Man United equalised, he walked out, and the game finished 4-2 to the Red Devils.  

As for the Bury - Oxford game, Bury's manager Knill had left midweek to join Scunthorpe, taking his assistant and the goalkeeping coach with him.  This didn't seem to upset Bury though, and within a minute, Oxford had taken a corner, seen Bury take the ball down one side of the pitch and lob Ryan Clarke to take a very early lead.  It got worse, and the game finished three-Nil to Bury.  Gigg Lane is an all seater ground, but it seems that the stand the United fans were in is a rebuilt terrace, so the seats are quite widely spread, and there is a shallow start to the terrace, before it steepens up.  I could not discern any executive boxes at all, and there was of course a huge pillar to obscure the view.   At half time, Bury even allowed smokers to exit the stand and puff away outside, but still within the ground.