Oxford and the July Challenge

Cheltenham V Oxford

Ok, this game wasn't too good. Nothing really to talk about it the 0-0 draw, but it did show the ability of Clarke - our goalkeeper - who was forced into 3 or 4 magnificent saves. The performance as a team was, quite frankly, poor and there may be a couple of changes around the corner.

Adda Djeziri

Does anyone know any decent AMR/L or Strikers for League 2/1 level?

Cheers

Oxford V Chesterfield

This is where things have started to turn a bit sour, and this really cannot last. We just suffered our first loss of the season, at home to Chesterfield. Clarke kept us in the game once or twice and we had a sniff of hope when Constable scored, only for it to be ruled offside.

Another disappointing game and we dropped down to 3rd in the league. I'm considering bringing in a loanee/free agent... anyone know somebody who won't break the bank?

Cheers

Hartlepool V Oxford

A couple of changes... dropping Constable and moving Djeziri to upfront proved to be the difference as we scraped a 1-0 victory over Hartlepool. We were, once again, all over them with 10 shots on target to their 3 but the difference came from CB Jake Wright's header.

We do, though, remain 3rd in the league. Still looking for a new AMR/L or a creative midfielder, if anyone knows one?

Cheers

September Awards

As a reflection of our below average month, we didn't feature in the monthly awards this time round. These were our scores, though:

Oxford 3 - 0 Portsmouth JPT
Oxford 1 - 1 Burton
Oxford 0 - 0 Cheltenham
Oxford 0 - 2 Chesterfield
Oxford 1 - 0 Hartlepool

Enquiring on a couple of new loanees, more to come!

Oxford V Southend

We're into October now, and with it we are trying to replicate our August performances and forget what happened last month. And the first statement on the pitch was broadcast today, with a strong 1-0 win over Southend, pushing us back up to 2nd in the table and just one point below leaders Fleetwood.

The game also played host to the debut of 17 year old youngster Connor Hunte, who we have featured earlier and, despite not getting a goal, had a very strong 7.1 match rating. He screams of potential and we'll be looking to hold onto him for as long as possible.

Next up is the 2nd round in the JPT, away to Plymouth.

Plymouth V Oxford

I figured that the JPT wasn't the most important event of this season, so put out a weakened team that lost 2-1 to Plymouth, despite their best efforts. Next we will be at home to Northampton and will be doing everything in our power to retain the 100% league win record this month.

Cheers

Good luck against Northampton

Oxford V Northanmpton

What a return! Considering we've had a few poor performances recently... this was some real football eye candy. A strong 3-0 victory against a mid table team was something we really need, especially with some of the performances that accompanied it.

Connor Hunte did excellently, getting his first goal for the club to start off the scoring, before Djeziri and Williams both got in on the act. Damien Johnson, though, took man of the match as he broke up the play excellently, as well as making one assist with an overall match rating of 8.

Hunte - 16
Djeziri - 54
Williams - 88
Johnson

I'll also be adding the above to all games from now on and I'm also going to review the save every week, so the first summary will be on Tuesday.

Cheers

Accrington V Oxford

It looks as though we're keeping up with our 100% October record, at least for one more game! Things seemed to be going badly when Accrington went in front after just 3 minutes, but our 17 year old wonderkid, Connor Hunte, got us back on level terms, in the 17th minute. Another opposition goal followed before Djeziri levelled the proceedings on the 40th minute.

We went into half time at 2-2, and it was getting nervous. But, on the 52nd minute, Accrington goalkeeper, Bettinelli did us a huge favour, scoring an own-goal. From here we preserved our league and moved top of the table by a point.

Hunte - 17
Djeziri - 40
Bettinelli - 53

Next up are 21st place Exeter. In other news, I agreed to mutually terminate our contract with Wayne Brown, who doubles as a back up goalkeeper as well as a coach. We still have youngster Max Crocombe as the number 2 keeper though.

Oxford V Exeter

A perfect October continues! And with confidence...

We were 2-0 against Exeter before 10 minutes and, despite a slight scare when they got one back, we were fully in control of the game. I'm not sure what we're going to do without Williams, he proved pivotal again today. Hunte is seeming to improve every game, he was, again, outstanding.

Williams - 5
Djeziri - 7

Meanwhile, we have extended the loan of Man Utd's Tom Lawrence for another three months, he can play in any of the AM positions and I'm going to try and pick him up permanently at the end of the season.

Player In:

Tom Lawrence - 3 month loan (Man Utd)


Cheers guys.

Wimbeldon V Oxford

We were so close to the perfect October, inches away with a Wright header, infact... but it wasn't to be, despite numerous chances. The boys should still be proud of how they've done over the past few games anyway. We didn't lose against Wimbeldon, it was a sloppy 0-0 draw where we couldn't turn possession into goals. Wimbeldon weren't a bad side, 6th in the table... but having 15 shots to their 4 was frustrating.

Mozika was sadly injured in the game and we also let Davies out on loan to Kidderminster for a month after I promised I'd find a club for him soon.

Davies (1 month loan) Kidderminster
Mozika

Better news though, we are only a couple of days away from getting Meades back since he was injured at the beginning of the database.

Cheers

October Awards

A much better month, registering 4 wins and 1 draw. There have also been a number of notable performances, especially Wright and Hunte, who have both stepped up considerably this month as well as the ever present Williams, who will be serving his penultimate month with us this coming November :(.

Anyway... as far as awards go, we picked up player of the month with Wright, who has an overall average of 7.33 and has played 90 minutes of every game this season in CB, except one game out on the left. We also managed to pick up manager of the month, which was very pleasing as a bounce back month, we also won it by a considerable amount.

The results are as follows:

Oxford 1 - 0 Southend
Oxford 3 - 0 Northampton
Oxford 3 - 2 Accrington
Oxford 2 - 1 Exeter
Oxford 0 - 0 Wimbeldon

We drew Swindon in the first round of the FA Cup, and that's up next. What a fierce derby for the first round, probably will turn out to be our biggest game of the season; I think if we can win this, we can win the league.

Swindon Town - FA Cup 1st Round

Oxford V Bristol Rovers

A slight cock-up with the fixtures, my apologies for that... it appears as though we have Swindon NEXT game, but not today as previously expected...

On with the game, we were playing a 20th placed Bristol side that we really should be beating. Despite numerous chances, our - and I quote TEAMtalk.com's review of the match - 'profligacy meant that they (Oxford) didn't score as many as they maybe would have liked'. And that was the story of the 0-0 match, again..

Despite this, another MotM award for Wright was a nice surprise and he continues to bolster his league 2 reputation. We're still top of the table, but only by 2 points now as Fleetwood turned around being a goal down to eventually win the game.

Wright - MotM

Meades has returned to full fitness after 4 months, but lacks match fitness and I'm going to soon considering terminating the loan of Lawrence: he just isn't featuring enough. 2 more months until the transfer market reopens!

Swindon V Oxford

Ok. This one was hard to take. It's never easy losing to a rival. Especially in the cup. And especially by 3 goals. And that was pretty much the story of the match. We were absolutely smashed, totally outplayed. We weren't particularly bad, they were just good. And that was difficult to stomach.

Not much to say about it really, just shit all-round.

I'm dropping this save now to start a longer, more personal and story like save. I'll post a link to it soon.