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Oxford United went to Rushden & Diamonds last night in the first leg of the play-off semi-final, and were unlucky to be held to a draw.

Going with a strong forward line United started well in front of an away following that outnumbered the home fans. United withstood some rough challenges in the first half, including a blatant elbow on Jack Midson that was only punished by a yellow card. U’s took the lead on the half-hour, James Constable turning and lashing in a shot after extracting himself from Clist.

Rushden started the second half more brightly, but U’s were still better…right up until the ref changed the game. Adam Chapman won the ball in midfield before being un-ceremoniously dragged to the ground from behind by Tomlin. The Rushden players reacted with less disbelief at the decision and broke forward, the ball running to Byrne who shot high into the roof of the net.

So the match goes into the second leg evenly balanced. United will be backed by a sold-out crowd, Rushden still have some tickets left of their 1309 allocation though.

The Oxford United ticket office sold an amazing number of tickets today (well done to the staff at the club) for both legs of the play-off semi-finals.

For the first leg at Nene Park, U’s have only 2 days to sell 2800 tickets. At the end of day one, with only season ticket holders and an hour of member sales, 1588 have been sold. This leaves approx 1200 to go on open sale tomorrow (Wednesday) from 9.30am.

The Bank Holiday Monday 2nd leg looks set to be a sell out too. U’s have sold 9202 tickets for this game, which given the 1309 given to Rushden, plus the segregation, doesn’t leave many…

Rushden photos here due to the issues with photo gallery…

Oxford United beat Rushden & Diamonds 1-0 last night to move three points clear at the top of the Blue Square Premier.

Beano came back after suspension, as did Rushden star Lee Tomlin. Alfie Potter was the U’s to miss out with a hamstring injury.

The match can be summed up in five parts:

1. Average Oxford. United were at well under 100% in most areas of the pitch. Too many passes went astray, too many opportunities were gifted to Rushden, especially yet another woeful Rhys Day back header. Too little cohesion in the play all over the park. Beano missing another penalty summed it up nicely.
2. Awful Rushden finishing. Even when gifted opportunities they never really stretched Clarke. It also mostly came from our cock-ups, their creativity wasn’t great.
3. Awful pitch. Has it ever been worse since we moved ground? Not really helping the footy, of either team in this case.
4. Cynical Rushden. Rarely has a team not managed by Steve Evans wasted time so much. Every time the keeper got the ball, every throw in, every free-kick, every random player sitting down but not apparently needing the physio; right from the first whistle through to the point that the ball hit the back of their net. My personal favourite was their keeper running over to the corner flag for no apparent reason (confused as to where the ball was?!) when the ball was back by the goal at a goal-kick (he did also manage to run half way up the pitch to delay the penalty). When will we ever get a ref that books as many as he should for that?
5. Two penalties. The first I couldn’t see from the far end, but the tv highlights (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_conf/8520450.stm) show a pretty clear foul on Wright by Louis. Beano did his best Jonny Wilkinson impression to foil a half-time lead.
   The second seemed harsh at the time, and probably harsh on review. But the defender did have both arms around Green and was easily led into pulling him down. Adam Chapman showing great bottle, stepped up, ignored the gamesmanship, and blasted the ball down the middle for the winner.

Adam Chapman Blasts Home The Winner

So, we didn’t play great, we rode some luck, but we still won. Three points clear, with game in hand is a good position – playing a bit better would be nice though.