Oxford United

2011/12 Season Summary

2012-06-06T04:37:00.001+01:00

The phrase ‘emotional roller-coaster’ is one of the most over-used clichés in our sport, but it is one that best describes Oxford United’s 2011/12 season. We’ve seen some wonderful highs this year and some pretty awful lows.

The biggest high was arguably doing the double against bitter-rivals Swindon Town. James Constable was heavily involved in both games. He scored both goals in the 2-1 win at The County Ground making Oxford the only team to win at the Wiltshire club this season. The goals were made even sweeter due to Swindon Manager Paolo Di Canio’s comments pre-game where he labelled Constable a “Swindon fan,” so when the reverse fixture came around, tensions were high. And clearly too high for Constable as he got sent off after ten minutes for an alleged elbow.

A man down with 80 minutes left against the league leaders, you wouldn’t have blamed Oxford for losing. Despite the ten men, Oxford managed to steal the lead in the 16th minute when Asa Hall bundled the ball in from a Lee Holmes free-kick. Then two minutes later it was Lee Holmes with an assist again, this time for Oli Johnson to slide in. 2-0 up with ten men! There was utter delirium in the stands. I ended up five rows down from where I started. The remaining 72 minutes were the best defensive performance I have ever witnessed. Andy Whing, Anthony Tonkin and Michael Duberry. All lions. Every shot was charged down. Every pass was intercepted. Every tackle was made. When the final whistle finally went, you could have mistaken it for a third goal. Despite only four shots to Swindon’s twenty and ten men to Swindon’s eleven, Oxford managed to come out of the game with the three points.

Another moment this season will be remembered for again took place at the Kassam Stadium – arguably the greatest goal Peter Leven has ever scored, arguably the greatest goal ever seen at the stadium. It was Oxford vs Port Vale and the score was 1-1 with 25 minutes to go. Port Vale had just equalised through Mark Richards and Port Vale were cranking up the pressure on the Oxford goal. But up stepped Leven. It was all the Scot’s work, as he intercepted a pass from a Vale midfielder, before lobbing it over the keeper from just inside the opposition half. When the ball hit the net there was utter pandemonium around me, but as the realisation of what Leven had just done crept in, people began to look around quietly with mouths open and with incredulity in their expressions. The best goal I have ever witnessed live at a football match in my 18 years on this planet.

Another real positive has been the turnaround in fortunes of Andy Whing. He was subjected to the boo boys as early as 13th August due to being scapegoated after the 1-1 draw at home to Bradford City. The boo-boys grew louder after another 1-1 home draw, this time against 10-man Aldershot Town. Whing had always been selected as a right back at his former clubs, but managr Chris Wilder saw he was getting caught for pace and deployed him to sit in front of the back four as a defensive anchor man.

It was a masterstroke from Wilder as Whing’s performance and confidence improved. Soon he was putting in man-of-the-match performances, most notably against Macclesfield at home where he was imperious in the midfield making a number of excellent tackles. Amazingly, the same supporters who were booing him at the start of the season were now singing ‘all we want is a team of Andy Whings!’The comeback was complete as he was given the Andrew Knapton Supporter’s Player of the Year award as voted by the Oxford United supporters.

But along with the highs, we’ve had some lows. Dropping out of the play-offs despite being sat in the top seven since August was a bitter pill to take for many Oxford supporters. The way the season seemed to finish at the end of March for many of our players was odd. We did not win a single game from our last seven and picked up only two points in the process. Some supporters blamed a lack of fitness, while others blamed the influx of loan players. I believe it’s a combination of both. A damning statistic was that 16 different attackers were used this season. Wilder must learn from his mistakes next season and not on loanees, but players under contract.

Another low was the number 10 signed from Oldham in the summer, Deane Smalley. Oxford had to pay compensation to Oldham as he was under the age of 24 and it was thought to be in the region for £50,000. The forward had an excellent season on loan to League Two Champions Chesterfield in the 2010/11 season scoring 12 goals in 28 games, but this season was nowhere near to what was expected.

Two goals in 26 appearances in all competitions was what Smalley managed. Perhaps too much was expected of 23-year old Deane, he was expected to challenge James Constable in the club scoring charts, despite having a one in ten goals to appearances record at Oldham. After all, his natural position is not centre forward, it is on the right wing. In January, he was loaned out to Bradford City with similar success – 13 appearances, 0 goals. Many Oxford supporters want the club to sell him this summer, but Wilder has kept faith in his future at the club going into next season saying “The boy wants to come back, we’ve kept in contact with him and he knows he’s not done himself justice.” Let’s hope that Smalley can show the same quality he did for Chesterfield in 2010/11.

Oxford under-achieved this season – 9^th place is not good enough. But he has progressed in terms of league position every season he has been in charge of this football club without fail. Although if progression into the play-off positions is not achieved next season, it may well turn out to be Wilder’s final one in charge of Oxford United.

Preview: Oxford United vs Swindon Town

2012-02-28T08:21:00.009+00:00

At 12 noon on Saturday, Oxford United will face Swindon Town at the Kassam Stadium in the imaginatively named “A420 derby.” The derby between the two sides has been fierce since the early 1980′s and intensified due to the regularity of meeting between the sides, plus their geographical proximity throughout the decade.

Swindon fans’ vandalism of Oxford’s stadium means there is absolutely no love lost between the two sides. They covered the bronze Ox which stands outside the Kassam pink – Oxford then used it to help raise money for a Breast Cancer charity – as well as burning the club’s initials ‘STFC’ into the pitch before last August’s meeting.

The league history is overwhelmingly in favour in terms of Swindon Town with 23 wins and 81 goals scored to Oxford’s 11 wins and 57 goals scored. There have also been 20 draws between the sides over the years.

Oxford have never faced Swindon in the league at the Kassam Stadium. The only time they have played each other at the Kassam was in the second Round of the FA Cup in December 2002. The game ended 1-0 as controversial striker Jefferson Louis scored the winning goal that day to send The U’s faithful into utter delirium. The goal, in truth, was a fluke. Louis’ flick on went straight in after Steve Basham’s run bamboozled Bart Griemink in front of the Oxford Mail Stand. Louis’ celebrations post-match have to be seen to be believed as he ran round the home changing room naked after Oxford were drawn against Arsenal at Highbury in the next round.

That was then, this is now. I, as an Oxford fan, am not confident going into Saturday’s game. Oxford’s current form has been sketchy of late with nine points from a possible fifteen in their last five games and the disappointing 1-1 draw with Macclesfield at home last weekend leaving them seventh in the table. Macclesfield had lost eight consecutive matches on the road before that.

Swindon on the other hand, have won nine games on the trot and the Wiltshire club have jumped from seventh to first since Christmas. Paolo Di Canio, who has divided opinion, appears to be working his magic with the side after spending big in January, signing Paul Benson, Luke Rooney and Lee Cox as well as Ronan Murray and Derek Boating on loan from Ipswich and Arsenal respectively.

They also failed in signing Oxford’s top goalscorer, James Constable. Known to Oxford fans as “Beano” – a nickname given to him in his younger years due to his alleged likeness to the famous Heinz product. Oxford accepted a bid, but Constable decided against even travelling up, re-affirming his legend status at the club. The Yellows’ number nine decided the last meeting with Swindon in August, netting a brace as Oxford won 2-1 at the County Ground.

This followed comments from Di Canio claiming Constable was a Swindon fan. Constable does in fact support Tottenham and after the embarrassing error, Di Canio backtracked in the post-match press conference claiming he had “wrong information.”

Oxford’s key man for the game this Saturday would have been Peter Leven. He’s scored a halfway line winner against Port Vale, a brilliant free-kick against Cheltenham from 30-odd yards as well as a curling effort against Plymouth from the corner of the 18 yard box to name a few. If the Oxford faithful are to be believed, Peter Leven does what he wants. But Peter Leven cannot guard against injury. He’ll miss the game with a shoulder injury which is a massive blow. Simon Heslop is fighting to be fit, but if he doesn’t recover in time, manager Chris Wilder will have to choose between Mark Wilson, Asa Hall and Adam Chapman to partner the tireless Andy Whing and Lee Holmes in a midfield three.

The possible inclusion of Chapman is an interesting one. He was man of the match in the Conference play-off final in 2010, but the midfielder’s promising career was thrown into turmoil after he was jailed for causing the death of 77-year old Tom Bryan by dangerous driving. Since his release in September, he has had an injury plagued six months. Earlier this week, Chapman was recalled from an impressive monthly loan spell at Newport and now he has match sharpness back, he could be Oxford’s secret weapon against Swindon. Oxford lack a free-kick taker in Leven’s absence and Chapman looks the perfect replacement.

For a side that went 22 games without a clean sheet last season, Oxford have had 11 shutouts this term which puts them fifth in the clean sheet table, while opponents Swindon are first with 15. This is a marked improvement, based upon up by astute signings from Wilder during pre-season.

Former Chelsea and Leeds centre-back Michael Duberry divided fans’ opinion when he arrived in the summer from St. Johnstone. His apparent lack of pace worried some fans, but his commanding presence has given the Oxford back line confidence this season. When he was injured in November, Oxford lost every game which further proved his importance to the side. He has hit a purple patch with four goals in his last four games, the only problem is that three of them have been in his own goal! That includes what he dubbed on Twitter as the “imperfect Hat-trick.” A left-foot own goal, a headed own goal followed by a right-foot finish in the correct net. Despite this, Duberry remains a cult hero at the Kassam. I doubt many other players could get away with scoring so many own goals in a debut season and still be loved by the fans of a club.

Oxford usually play a 4-3-3 but switched to a 4-4-2 for periods against Macclesfield. The weakness of 4-3-3 is that the system is susceptible to attacks down the wings, which could prove crucial as Swindon’s key man will be left winger Matt Ritchie. The former Portsmouth player moved to Swindon in the summer and has scored 10 goals as well as adding 10 assists, staking his claim to be League Two′s player of the season. Oxford will need to change to a 4-5-1 when not in possession with the wingers tracking the Swindon full backs. It is extremely important for the home side to have a midfielder move across and help cover the full back to help nullify Ritchie’s threat.

As an Oxford fan, a loss would be devastating for the fans. The fact of the matter is, Swindon are the better side and there is a reason they are sat at the top of the league. On paper Swindon should win, but derby games never stick to the script. 1973 was the last time Oxford won at the County Ground and the only season they’ve beaten the Robins twice in the same campaign. Oxford ended their 38-year wait for victory in Wiltshire earlier this season, can they achieve a famous double?

My First Game - Oxford vs Bury

2012-02-12T03:28:00.000+00:00

Oxford vs Bury. 10th August 2002. Nationwide Division 3.

The opening day fixture from the 2002/2003 season and the atmosphere was uneasy. I, of course, would not have known this being an eight year old going to my first football match with a classmate and his dad. I was blissfully unaware. The reason for the air of anxiety around the ground was because of last season's efforts. Oxford had been in the bottom division of the Football League for the first time in over 30 years. And they under-achieved. 21st was not good enough. It had cost Oxfordshire-born and former Derby and Liverpool player Mark Wright his job in charge. In came Ian Atkins. He kept Oxford in the Football League, albeit by limping over the line. Atkins had all summer to rebuild his new side. He brought exciting players in Scott McNiven, James Hunt and Matthew Robinson among others to join an already decent line-up with stars such as Chris Hackett, Dean Whitehead and Steve Basham.

So, going into the Bury game, Oxford fans were waiting with baited breath if Adkins had done the correct business. Were these new signings going to gel? And despite a shaky start to the game with missed chances for Bury's Pawel Abott, Oxford managed to grab the opening goal. It was a jinky run from Manny Omoyinmi and he completely bamboozled Lee Unsworth who, somewhat inadvertently, flicked the ball with his hand. Was that a penalty? There were shouts from all around my relatively conservative stand point in the South Stand Lower. The referee was running towards the box pointing at the spot. He'd given it. There appeared to be some argument over who wanted to take it. Not too dissimilar to my eight-year old self's usual playground antics. I always wanted to take penalties. I liked scoring goals. But finally the big centre back with short sleeves and a captains armband grasped the ball and placed it firmly on the spot. I heard someone mutter "Crosby's going to take it". Some pessimist said "He's going to miss it". The 'keeper was doing all manner of actions to put him off. Flapping his hands and waving them over his head as well as jumping up and down on the goal line. Up stepped the lumbering Crosby. A beautiful moment of absolute silence as he struck through the ball. I heard the "thwack" from Crosby's right boot. I heard the sound of the ball hit the net. And a deafening roar from behind me. I hugged my classmate's dad. My classmate didn't seem too interested. He wasn't the football breed. And that horrible anxiety at the start of the game had disappeared.

We'd just sat down and two minutes later we were back up again. Whitehead played a beautiful ball splitting the Bury defence wide open and with Omoyinmi's pace, he was away. He slotted it past the Bury keeper and the scoreline read 2-0. Happy Days! When I went back to the playground on Monday morning, I wouldn't be Beckham or Owen or even Scholes. I'd be Omoyinmi. He was my idol. Shame I couldn't say his surname, so I settled with calling him "Manny." As an eight year old, I didn't appreciate Dean Whitehead's role in the team. An assist and an all-action performance. He was just tireless. Never stopped running. But it was Manny who I'd remember. Later on, Manny had another chance where he should have squared it to Oldfield, but fluffed the opportunity. Half time came and went. The announcer told us that Oxford were now sitting pretty at the top of the Nationwide Division 3. There were smiles and handshakes all around me. Happy punters finally get to see an Oxford United team that were challenging for promotion.

I don't remember much else from the game apart from the Bury goal. It was a sweet strike from just inside 25 yards. Top corner. It hushed us. You could hear a pin drop. That anxiety that was there at the start of the game was back. And it wasn't nice. Apart from my classmate. He jumped up and screamed. You'd of thought it was Oxford who had scored. As I mentioned earlier, I don't think he was a football person. He realised his error as hundreds of eyes bore into him and sat down rather sheepishly. "I thought it was the final whistle" was his explanation. But luckily for us and for him, the goal was too late for Bury to have enough time to have a real clear-cut chance for the equaliser. Soon enough the final whistle blew, and my first football match had ended. 2-1 win to those boys that used to come from up the hill.

So there you have it, my first football match. Oxford carried on strongly that season and were in the automatic places for most of it, until dropping down to 8th in the final few months and thus missing out on the play-offs by a place and a point to, wait for it, Bury. Maybe if we had have made the play-offs that year we might have been promoted and never got relegated to the Conference in 2006. What if?

Youcef El Barhdadi

Playmaker

2012-02-10T05:06:00.000+00:00

This is a little poem I found while on the internet that I quite enjoy. Tell me what you think. All credit goes to Dan Leydon.

A sumptuous scythe

Of dexterous pleasure,

To deduce the length

No eye could measure.

Crystaline, perfect,

To within a hair,

He hit the pass,

That wasn't there.

Mehdi Kerrouche - From Red to Yellow.

2012-02-09T10:00:00.005+00:00

As of yesterday afternoon, Mehdi Kerrouche has signed a one month loan contract at Oxford United from Swindon Town. Anyone who knows me, knows of my disdain for Swindon Town, and specifically their manager, Paolo Di Canio being a lifelong Oxford United fan. So, for Oxford to take a player from their squad pleases me. But a player of Mehdi Kerrouche's ability? I am delighted.

Kerrouche fell out with Di Canio back in December when he was substituted after 26 minutes against Colchester in the FA Cup and dropped from the first team squad for the following match against Southend. Di Canio indicated that he was not working hard enough and had become stagnant in the first team squad. Kerrouche clearly has undeniable ability having played in the second tier in both France and Portugal and has an acceptable strike record in both countries but his work ethic still does remain questionable. His first Swindon goal came in style with a 25 yard free kick in the 3-1 loss to Southampton at The County Ground. After scoring against Southend in early September, he went on a run of five goals in eight games including two late goals against Crawley Town as Swindon beat them 3-0 away at Broadfield. Three of those five goals were headers and despite being under six foot, Kerrouche found the space against three physically imposing sides in Crawley, Barnet and Southend to nod home. November was less fruitful with only two goals, but Kerrouche still helped Swindon to important wins away at Port Vale and at home to Huddersfield.

Now, the French-born Algerian has an important role to fill for Oxford United over the next month. Oxford need another striker to be weighing in with a goals as they lack a true goalscoring threat if James Constable becomes unavailable for selection due to either injury or ill-discipline. Constable is currently off form and has not scored in six games and is still on nine for the season with his last goal being on Boxing Day 2011 away at AFC Wimbledon. It has been nearly 600 minutes since he slotted past Seb Brown for that goal.

Peter Leven has been consistently outstanding in this Oxford side and is on six goals with every single one of them, bar a penalty against Bristol Rovers, being a technically excellent strike. His goals range from long range free-kicks to a dink over the keeper when played through to lobbing the goalkeeper from the half-way line. The latter is on a Soccer AM's shortlist for best goal of 2011 in The Football League. He's amassed ten assists already this season which is the second best in League 2 meaning Oxford's strikeforce can enter any game confident of decent service if he plays. Kerrouche will need to work closely with Leven so he can anticipate any through balls, and if he is successful, it could be an extremely prosperous spell at the Kassam Stadium for Kerrouche. Peter Leven holds Oxford United's key for unlocking defences in this league.

Rendell getting away from Duberry
during his loan spell at Bristol Rovers
in the 3-0 home win at Kassam

Oxford signed serial loanee Scott Rendell on the January deadline day until the end of the season. This is his ninth different club he's had a temporary spell at. The next highest scoring striker still at the club is John-Paul Pittman, with three goals, who will be back in four weeks time after a hamstring injury which is a shame for him as he was in good form with goals against Crawley, Aldershot and a 25 yard belter against Hereford recently. Kerrouche's loan is due to end when Pittman comes back, so it is up to Kerrouche to show Oxford manager Chris Wilder why he should keep him.

Robert Hall has six for the campaign and has endeared himself to the Oxford fans with his sharpness in and around the box with a lovely goal against Plymouth, winning a penalty against Bristol Rovers and a late winner in London against Dagenham & Redbridge, but West Ham are not willing to loan him back to Oxford after being recalled on the 21st of December.

Oli Johnson was signed early in the transfer window after he was released by Premier League outfit, Norwich City. He looks quick, but he will take time getting his sharpness back which could take about a month after playing reserve team football for Norwich for the last past year. His stats show he is a one in four striker, and from watching him play it appears that he is a very one dimensional striker and does not link play up well.

So, it will be up to Constable, Kerrouche and Rendell to decide the course of Oxford's season in this next 30-or-so days that contain eight fixtures.