Well well.. what a night!
Turning up early, the empty stadium looked even more like an oversized three sided Subbuteo set than ever! We wandered over to the Priory pub in the wasteland near by, but unlike previous years, it was devoid of Gulls fans, so as it filled up, it became slightly threatening, so we sampled the delights of the greasy bacon rolls, before sloping in to join a great turn out of travelling fans! Strangely, despite the fashion disasters of white shorts and white socks in recent games, we were back to all yellow, which seemed odd, as Oxford were yellow and navy, but as we chanted "There's only one yellow army!"
We started confidently, but an obvious danger was Nico being left to defend Batt who looked their most dangerous player, and as we know, Nico is League 2's Glenn Johnson, great going forward but suspect at times in defence. However, it didn't take long for him to toddle across to the right wing for the free kick which he whipped in. From where we were sitting (it felt like another postcode!), it seemed to fly straight in, and Nico got the congrats, but apparently Batt had covered back and deflected it in!
Our left was proving a problem, as, even when he beat Batt, Nico had little option but to feed Macklin, who showed nice first touches but then immediately gave the ball away, time and time again! He swapped wings, but then in his frustration, kicked out at Tonkin after a scuffle. As it happened in front of the dugouts and the Oxford fans, maybe the red card was inevitable, but even some U's fans thought it was harsh.
It felt like we were going to be in for a long night as the wind blew plastic bags towards their goal, that was the only thing moving in that direction! I take back what I've been saying about Branston, he was immense, despite some comical high slices under pressure. Mans at RB was underemployed and Ellis had the two carthorses, Constable and Craddock in his pocket for a while. When they broke through, Scott made an incredible one-handed stop from Constable from five yards out that in some ways proved the turning point of the game! It was brilliant and obviously instilled massive confidence into the back four as the Oxford Alamo charged and charged again! A twenty yarder was tipped over the bar as Scott arched to the left to prevent another certain goal. Batt was continuing to cause havoc down the left and it wasn't until the increasingly languid Rose was substituted for Robbo and Mans came over to protect the left. This was a match saving substitution and all credit to Bucks for it!
Towards the end of the half, Oxford looked increasingly likely to score, but strangely, Wilder decided to completely alter it around and brought on two wingers who made Danny Stevens look tall; neither of whom could cross to save their lives, and Scott spent much of the second half plucking their ineffective loops out of the air. Meanwhile, Benyon was magnificent up front on his own. Never have I seen a player accelerate so fast over three yards to constantly pressurise their back players in to sending high hopeful nonsense balls into the windy night! Zeb too is a class above.. stridingly mightily across the field, marauding with confidence and style. It was odd that he came off. Possibly knackered or strained, but the Eddie Gray sloping shoulders of O'Kane came on to shore things up quite adequately.
The Oxford fans were well and truly dispirited by now, and low murmurings and boos greeted every failure in attack. Benners was knackered and rightly was taken off for a rest! Kee looked keen, but it was so noticeable that his pace was 20% that of Eliot, no matter how enthusiastically he moved his tubby little body around. I can't really decide if it was a couple of great saves by Clarke or appalling misses by Kee that presaged our second goal, but we didn't half look good on the counter as stupid Oxford went gung-ho with no effect. I feel if he'd chipped Clarke on either occasion, the match would have been over. No worries, though, because minutes from time, he got his breakthrough, and the relief was palpable, not just for Billy, but for the whole team, as there was no going back for the Us now!! Their fans streamed away to our chants of "Is this a fire drill?", and four inexplicable minutes of injury time dragged on till the match was won.
Scenes of great jubilation of course, and it's always great to see the players run across to us. One vignette that speaks volumes for the spirit of the team was Eliot running over to Billy and mobbing him deliriously for breaking his goal-scoring duck. Bucks and the boys came over and applauded and we made our way to the car park scrum and off in to the night!
What a great, great night. To be honest, Oxford were appalling and at this rate their over-sized barn of a atmosphere free stadium will be hosting Histon and Fleetwood soon; but Oxfordshire bragging rights are mine for a while now. " Their boys took a hell of a beating!" To me, it was a crucial game, one that could have made the difference between mid-table mediocrity and a real play off challenge. The substitutions were tacticly astute, the effort and commitment were second to none, and every player (except Macklin and possibly Rose) deserve every credit for a backs to the wall performance that will live long in the memory!
