On Wednesday United went to Court Place Farm to take on Oxford City in the Oxfordshire Senior Cup semi-final. Ash Cain and Jamie Cook netted for United in a 2-1 win. The game most notable for the return of Adam Murray after his back injury. Banbury play North Leigh in the other semi-final a week on Tuesday.

Using the ‘emergency’ loan system United have brought in a new central midfielder to replace a slightly chubby outgoing one. Lee Fowler moved on after his short spell with U’s – never fit enough to really challenge for a place. In his place came Aldershot’s Lewis Chalmers on loan until the end of the season. Lewis was a part of Aldershot’s Conference championship winning team.

United have announced a early-renewal scheme for season ticket holders. Remarkably United haven’t done this before (not within memory anyway), and is a good sign of the thinking of the leadership of the club now. ST holders will be able to renew their tickets for the same price as this season if they do so by 6th April.

Thinking of tickets, Stevenage have bizarrely not made our trip to the Lame X ‘Stadium’ all-ticket. U’s fans will apparently only have 1400 places in the away stand, and the only advance tickets will be sold via a premium-rate phone number incurring around £4 charges for a ticket. Don’t they remember the chaos last year (which wasn’t a top of the table clash)??

U's Fans Queuing at Stevenage

The queue continues...

U’s fans were left queuing the full length of the ground, through the underpass and out on the other side of the dual carriageway. Having filled the away end, home fans were cleared out of a quarter of their main stand to get more in, even then there was a number of U’s fans in the home terraces. That was when we weren’t getting to the play-offs. This time we are going for the title, and this is a top of the table clash. We sold out 1500 tickets for Luton on a Tuesday evening (with the accompanying threat of violence). I suppose we will be blamed when the likely chaos ensues….

So, now onto two home games in 4 days. Hayes & Yeading on Tuesday, followed by Kettering on Saturday. Stevenage, a point behind having played a game more play Barrow on Tuesday before playing in the FA Trophy at the weekend.

Why oh why is it the morons come out on Radio Oxford after games like this. Yes of course we’ve got no chance of promotion now we’ve only drawn at Cambridge and Stevenage have won 6-0 at Eastbourne. Opinions are like buttocks, we’ve all got them, but some people’s really shouldn’t be aired in public….

Alfie Potter is ahead of schedule in his recovery from a hamstring tear. Initial prognosis was in the region of 6 weeks, but he is around 2 weeks ahead of that in his recovery so far.
Adam Murray has resumed full training after his back injury. He may be in contention for a place on the bench at Cambridge tomorrow night.
Ryan Clarke has recovered from the ‘dead leg’ he suffered last Tuesday against Wimbledon. He is likely to start at Cambridge, with Billy Turley taking his place on the bench again.

Brought to it’s knees by the the Vaughan family. Chester’s 125 year history has been wiped out by the distructive influence of Vaughan in very little time. Whilst MFW is very sad that Chester are in effect no more, I am glad that their fans can now move on. The fact that the Vaughans, nor any of their (un)paid lackies bothered to turn up to the Conference meeting shows how little they care.

As an immediate effect tomorrow’s game is cancelled, so Oxford have the weekend off. It is likely as a follow on that Chester’s results will be expunged, so U’s will lose the 4-0 home win. More on that when it comes.

Chester City RIP. All the best to the Chester fans for their new club.

I won’t really go into match reporting, I can just leave that to the Wimbledon website, whose great report can be found here. Not much you can add to that. MFW’s match gallery is here. The BBC highlights are here.

What I will say is that was one of the best Oxford United performances in ages. Right from the start U’s were out of the blocks and attacking Wimbledon. For the first 20-25 minutes U’s battered them, with Little Sammy Deering at the heart of most things. Scoring was important, Beano scoring was too, and on 14 minutes we got both. Wimbledon came back into things as the half went on, but were mainly kept to wild long shots.

The second half was about as one sided affair as I’ve seen against a team quite as decent as Wimbledon. Even before the sending off the Wombles had little of the play – indeed sub keeper Turley apparently only touched the ball 6 times. The defence were solid, the midfield bossed the game – Hargreavsio was immense, and the forwards stretched their defence. The only thing missing was more goals than just the second for Beano late on.

Great game, great result, 6 points clear. Now possibly (though hopefully not) onto Chester on Saturday, and Cambridge on Tuesday. Decision about expelling Chester will be made on Friday, hopefully in time for U’s to leave in good time. Even if Chester aren’t expelled though, it must be considered unlikely the game will go ahead – players, police and others still being unpaid.

The game will be on Wednesday 3rd March (kick-off 7.45pm) at Court Place Farm.

United played some great football, entirely bossing the second half. A goal in each half from James Constable gave U’s the win, but United dominated much of the match (as the stats testify).

Beano Celebrates His Second Goal

More thoughts, and a photo gallery later on…..

]]> http://mincheryfarmweb.co.uk/oufc/2010/02/23/a-stroll-on-the-common/feed/ 0 http://mincheryfarmweb.co.uk/oufc/2010/02/23/nothing-taken-for-granted/ http://mincheryfarmweb.co.uk/oufc/2010/02/23/nothing-taken-for-granted/#comments Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:33:11 +0000 mfwadmin http://mincheryfarmweb.co.uk/oufc/?p=155 Oxford United have signed Aldershot striker John Grant on loan until the end of the season.

Grant scored a hatfull in the Shots promotion season, and adds extra firepower and competition for places. The 12th Man fund have contributed again.

Goals from Matthews and Smikle, either side of a Green equaliser, gave Kiddy the semi-final place in the FA Trophy. U’s much changed side gave an indication of Chris Wilder’s priorities. The late gung-ho approach also showed how keen we were to avoid a replay at all costs, win or lose we definitely didn’t want a replay on Tuesday.
The fact that Stevenage scraped through against Workington, and now face re-arranging two more Saturday league games to fit in the semi-finals is also a good thing. York’s trophy game against Barrow was postponed, meaning they play on Tuesday to see if they get through to the semis, more fixture pile up for other teams is good. Elsewhere, in the BSP, Luton lost at home to Wimbledon – which keeps them back, and will hopefully tire out the Wombles for their visit to the KasStad on Tuesday.

A more traditionally positive result for United came in the under-18’s match. Oxford’s youngsters travelled to Yeovil and came away with a fine 7-3 win. Incredibly this win came despite being 0-2 down after just 11 minutes. A hattrick by Aaron Woodley, two from Sam Parrish, and a couple more from McDonagh and Harwood gave U’s a comprehensive win.