13th December 2014 - Oxford United (4-5-10, 21st place) v Bury (8-3-8, 13th place)
Sky Bet League Two Match Day #20 – The Kassam Stadium, Oxford
There was a definite chill in the air. It was a good day not to have to travel.
A fast-moving weather system had brought freezing rain and gusty winds to southeast England that morning and it was pretty clear it wasn’t going to be a day for the faint-hearted.
Both teams needed points. Kyle’s needed them more than caretaker Alan Knights’ Shakers, but the reason Knight was in his club’s big chair even on a temporary basis was because they were underperforming.
It did appear from the state of the team, though, that Kyle had a first-choice Oxford XI pretty well picked out. There was a gulf of quality in certain areas of the team and that was one reason why it was entering the day 21st in the table.
And for some reason, Meades had his knickers in a twist when he arrived at the stadium. Freshly back from his injury suffered in the opening match of Kyle’s tenure, he sat brooding in his locker stall even though Kyle had put him on the bench sight unseen and match-fitness yet to be truly attained.
That was the state of Oxford’s squad players – an injured player could go right back into the eighteen without even a warmup match because he was so much better rusty than some of the reserves were when they were match-fit.
Kyle tried to figure out what was bothering his winger, but when the match started he found he had other things to worry about.
Unfortunately, one of those things to worry about was his keeper, Ashdown. The former Portsmouth man put his team behind singlehandedly – or rather, doublehandedly – when he allowed an easy thirty-yard strike by Bury’s Pablo Mills to go right through his hands and into the goal twenty minutes into the game.
It was a howler of the first order, and the keeper reacted as you might have expected – by throwing his head back in frustration and mouthing something that looked like the word “hack” if you could read lips, which Kyle couldn’t.
The Shakers led away, and that was cause for some of the more jaded home supporters in the South Stand to open fire on the hapless Us.
“No wonder you couldn’t play for Leeds,” one fan yelled at Ashdown as he punted the ball back toward the center circle for the kickoff.
Kyle frowned, but dared not turn his head lest he spark something more sinister. He wanted fans to back the players and Ashdown was human, for crying out loud. That said, mistakes like that were ones the team couldn’t afford and everyone knew it.
“Here comes the new boss, same as the old boss,” the same man yelled as the team prepared to put the ball back into play. As far as Kyle could tell, the man was in the minority, but as the first half hour dragged on, the murmurs and whistles of the crowd, such as it was, started to get louder.
Kyle poked his head out of the dugout and walked to the touchline as the crowd buzzed. It appeared as though he was still on a trial of sorts, as a couple of results against lower clubs did not a successful team make. The whistles from the crowd were evidence enough of that.
But now Kyle’s men were starting to climb back into the match. Hoban came close in twenty-five minutes to make people note that there were in fact two teams entitled to contest for the ball, and then Mullins blazed over on a bouncing setup from Maddison, who had teed him up just a bit too firmly.
Then, Bury made a defensive error as bad as Ashdown’s. Maddison had the ball a full forty yards from goal on the left side and laid a ball ahead for the run of Skarz down the left touchline. His ball in headed straight for defender Adam El-Abd.
The Egyptian saw the ball coming, raised his leg to intercept and clear his lines – and missed the ball. It bounded right onto the foot of the onrushing Hylton, who beat keeper Rob Lainton easily from five yards to level the match at 1-1 in 33 minutes.
Now level, the players returned to action with a spring in their step.
Two minutes later, they were dragging again, as schoolboy defending from both central defenders allowed Ryan Lowe to find bags of space between Whing and Wright to take Adam Drury’s cheeky little lob with time to spare. Ashdown had no chance this time, and the visitors again led the match.
The match got to half still at 2-1 for Bury and despite a half where his team had had much the better of the play, both of Bury’s shots on target in the first half had found the net.
“I’m not really sure what I just saw out there,” he told his players. “But I’d better see something better in the second half. The team that battled Shrewsbury so hard must have gone to the pub today.”
He made little attempt to hide his disdain. Being too nice was something he had been accused of doing at Torquay and he had taken that lesson to heart.
Besides, that loudmouth in the stand had started flapping his gums again before the break and it was starting to get annoying.
Kyle let Fazackerley play the ‘good cop’ in the team talk while he made his expectations abundantly clear just before sending the team out for the second half. And immediately, Oxford’s play began to brighten.
Everywhere except in front of goal, that is.
Hoban was the first to waste a gilt-edged chance, firing wide from less than ten yards as he hit the ball with the outside of his boot from a scramble in front of Lainton’s goal.
Then it was MacDonald, the set-piece hero of the Shrewsbury match, putting the ball deep into the mass of parked cars beyond the west fence.
And to make matters worse, there was Wright, the club captain, limping off bleeding after a heavy challenge on Tom Soares. He had won the ball but had gotten the worst of the exchange, replaced by Dunkley on the hour.
They looked the better team, Oxford did, but were unable to find a way through. Maddison took a corner which bounced around like a live grenade in the Bury six-yard box in 65 minutes, but the ball found its way into the grateful arms of the diving Lainton in the end. They were snakebit.
Just after seventy minutes, MacDonald proved it again by taking a free kick from thirty yards out that curved delightfully around the wall, past the despairing dive of Lainton – and squarely off the inside of the keeper’s right post.
Then, Whing changed everything by hustling to be first to the rebound, hitting the open goal in 71 minutes to get the match level again at 2-2.
“Never a dull moment with these lads,” Kyle told Fazackerley as the faithful who hadn’t yet started for home showed their full approval.
Being level again obviously agreed with the Us, who pressed forward over the next few minutes with a series of sharp crosses from both flanks, but the Shakers defense held firm. They tried the middle, with Maddison finding Hylton at the top of the penalty area with his back to goal.
He was felled by a challenge from behind by Ellis Plummer right on the line. Kyle looked at referee Stephen Martin.
The man in black wasted no time in pointing to the spot, while the Bury bench and visiting support went completely crazy. While they were arguing, Kyle noticed with a bit of alarm that Whing had grabbed the ball, which seemed odd on a club with at least two better penalty options in both of the strikers.
Yet the defender wanted the ball and the strikers let him have it. Whing whipped a perfectly taken penalty into Lainton’s top left corner to put Oxford ahead for the first time in the match.
It was at that time that Mullins waved to come off, having taken a kick to the calf in the buildup leading to the penalty. Kyle turned to the disaffected Meades, who did not look best pleased.
“Get in there and lock down that right side, you can do it,” Kyle said, and the player looked at him like he had two heads. His reaction was one of anger at being called upon to play.
Kyle frowned. He hated the raw petulance the player was showing him. But there was no one else on the bench Kyle could trust. So he changed his tack from Mr. Nice Guy to Mr. ‘Start Running’.
“Get in there before I change my mind and bust your arse to the reserves,” he snapped, signaling to the fourth official that a change was at hand.
Meades was pedestrian. Evidently he thought he was still not fully recovered, or he didn’t want to be out there, or some such thing.
Kyle brought on Rose for the knackered O’Dowda two minutes from time, but it was just to waste time. Bury had no fight left.
And in the end, the man behind the home bench was gone by the final whistle anyway. Kyle thought he had missed quite a fightback, but might well have been having a good time down the pub.
Oh, well. Sometimes life allows you to stick a thumb in someone’s eye. Those are among life’s best moments.
Oxford United: Ashdown: Bevans, Whing, Wright (captain, inj, Dunkley 60), Skarz, Mullins (inj, Meades 82), MacDonald, Maddison, O’Dowda (Rose 88), Hylton, Hoban. Unused subs: Clarke, Ashby, Balmy, Godden.
Oxford United 3 (Danny Hylton 33; Andy Whing 71, pen 82)
Bury 2 (Pablo Mills 20, Ryan Lowe 35)
H/T: 1-2
A – 4,106, The Kassam Stadium, Oxford
Man of the Match: Andy Whing, Oxford (MR 9.1)
Sky Bet League Two Match Day #20 – The Kassam Stadium, Oxford
There was a definite chill in the air. It was a good day not to have to travel.
A fast-moving weather system had brought freezing rain and gusty winds to southeast England that morning and it was pretty clear it wasn’t going to be a day for the faint-hearted.
Both teams needed points. Kyle’s needed them more than caretaker Alan Knights’ Shakers, but the reason Knight was in his club’s big chair even on a temporary basis was because they were underperforming.
It did appear from the state of the team, though, that Kyle had a first-choice Oxford XI pretty well picked out. There was a gulf of quality in certain areas of the team and that was one reason why it was entering the day 21st in the table.
And for some reason, Meades had his knickers in a twist when he arrived at the stadium. Freshly back from his injury suffered in the opening match of Kyle’s tenure, he sat brooding in his locker stall even though Kyle had put him on the bench sight unseen and match-fitness yet to be truly attained.
That was the state of Oxford’s squad players – an injured player could go right back into the eighteen without even a warmup match because he was so much better rusty than some of the reserves were when they were match-fit.
Kyle tried to figure out what was bothering his winger, but when the match started he found he had other things to worry about.
Unfortunately, one of those things to worry about was his keeper, Ashdown. The former Portsmouth man put his team behind singlehandedly – or rather, doublehandedly – when he allowed an easy thirty-yard strike by Bury’s Pablo Mills to go right through his hands and into the goal twenty minutes into the game.
It was a howler of the first order, and the keeper reacted as you might have expected – by throwing his head back in frustration and mouthing something that looked like the word “hack” if you could read lips, which Kyle couldn’t.
The Shakers led away, and that was cause for some of the more jaded home supporters in the South Stand to open fire on the hapless Us.
“No wonder you couldn’t play for Leeds,” one fan yelled at Ashdown as he punted the ball back toward the center circle for the kickoff.
Kyle frowned, but dared not turn his head lest he spark something more sinister. He wanted fans to back the players and Ashdown was human, for crying out loud. That said, mistakes like that were ones the team couldn’t afford and everyone knew it.
“Here comes the new boss, same as the old boss,” the same man yelled as the team prepared to put the ball back into play. As far as Kyle could tell, the man was in the minority, but as the first half hour dragged on, the murmurs and whistles of the crowd, such as it was, started to get louder.
Kyle poked his head out of the dugout and walked to the touchline as the crowd buzzed. It appeared as though he was still on a trial of sorts, as a couple of results against lower clubs did not a successful team make. The whistles from the crowd were evidence enough of that.
But now Kyle’s men were starting to climb back into the match. Hoban came close in twenty-five minutes to make people note that there were in fact two teams entitled to contest for the ball, and then Mullins blazed over on a bouncing setup from Maddison, who had teed him up just a bit too firmly.
Then, Bury made a defensive error as bad as Ashdown’s. Maddison had the ball a full forty yards from goal on the left side and laid a ball ahead for the run of Skarz down the left touchline. His ball in headed straight for defender Adam El-Abd.
The Egyptian saw the ball coming, raised his leg to intercept and clear his lines – and missed the ball. It bounded right onto the foot of the onrushing Hylton, who beat keeper Rob Lainton easily from five yards to level the match at 1-1 in 33 minutes.
Now level, the players returned to action with a spring in their step.
Two minutes later, they were dragging again, as schoolboy defending from both central defenders allowed Ryan Lowe to find bags of space between Whing and Wright to take Adam Drury’s cheeky little lob with time to spare. Ashdown had no chance this time, and the visitors again led the match.
The match got to half still at 2-1 for Bury and despite a half where his team had had much the better of the play, both of Bury’s shots on target in the first half had found the net.
“I’m not really sure what I just saw out there,” he told his players. “But I’d better see something better in the second half. The team that battled Shrewsbury so hard must have gone to the pub today.”
He made little attempt to hide his disdain. Being too nice was something he had been accused of doing at Torquay and he had taken that lesson to heart.
Besides, that loudmouth in the stand had started flapping his gums again before the break and it was starting to get annoying.
Kyle let Fazackerley play the ‘good cop’ in the team talk while he made his expectations abundantly clear just before sending the team out for the second half. And immediately, Oxford’s play began to brighten.
Everywhere except in front of goal, that is.
Hoban was the first to waste a gilt-edged chance, firing wide from less than ten yards as he hit the ball with the outside of his boot from a scramble in front of Lainton’s goal.
Then it was MacDonald, the set-piece hero of the Shrewsbury match, putting the ball deep into the mass of parked cars beyond the west fence.
And to make matters worse, there was Wright, the club captain, limping off bleeding after a heavy challenge on Tom Soares. He had won the ball but had gotten the worst of the exchange, replaced by Dunkley on the hour.
They looked the better team, Oxford did, but were unable to find a way through. Maddison took a corner which bounced around like a live grenade in the Bury six-yard box in 65 minutes, but the ball found its way into the grateful arms of the diving Lainton in the end. They were snakebit.
Just after seventy minutes, MacDonald proved it again by taking a free kick from thirty yards out that curved delightfully around the wall, past the despairing dive of Lainton – and squarely off the inside of the keeper’s right post.
Then, Whing changed everything by hustling to be first to the rebound, hitting the open goal in 71 minutes to get the match level again at 2-2.
“Never a dull moment with these lads,” Kyle told Fazackerley as the faithful who hadn’t yet started for home showed their full approval.
Being level again obviously agreed with the Us, who pressed forward over the next few minutes with a series of sharp crosses from both flanks, but the Shakers defense held firm. They tried the middle, with Maddison finding Hylton at the top of the penalty area with his back to goal.
He was felled by a challenge from behind by Ellis Plummer right on the line. Kyle looked at referee Stephen Martin.
The man in black wasted no time in pointing to the spot, while the Bury bench and visiting support went completely crazy. While they were arguing, Kyle noticed with a bit of alarm that Whing had grabbed the ball, which seemed odd on a club with at least two better penalty options in both of the strikers.
Yet the defender wanted the ball and the strikers let him have it. Whing whipped a perfectly taken penalty into Lainton’s top left corner to put Oxford ahead for the first time in the match.
It was at that time that Mullins waved to come off, having taken a kick to the calf in the buildup leading to the penalty. Kyle turned to the disaffected Meades, who did not look best pleased.
“Get in there and lock down that right side, you can do it,” Kyle said, and the player looked at him like he had two heads. His reaction was one of anger at being called upon to play.
Kyle frowned. He hated the raw petulance the player was showing him. But there was no one else on the bench Kyle could trust. So he changed his tack from Mr. Nice Guy to Mr. ‘Start Running’.
“Get in there before I change my mind and bust your arse to the reserves,” he snapped, signaling to the fourth official that a change was at hand.
Meades was pedestrian. Evidently he thought he was still not fully recovered, or he didn’t want to be out there, or some such thing.
Kyle brought on Rose for the knackered O’Dowda two minutes from time, but it was just to waste time. Bury had no fight left.
And in the end, the man behind the home bench was gone by the final whistle anyway. Kyle thought he had missed quite a fightback, but might well have been having a good time down the pub.
Oh, well. Sometimes life allows you to stick a thumb in someone’s eye. Those are among life’s best moments.
Oxford United: Ashdown: Bevans, Whing, Wright (captain, inj, Dunkley 60), Skarz, Mullins (inj, Meades 82), MacDonald, Maddison, O’Dowda (Rose 88), Hylton, Hoban. Unused subs: Clarke, Ashby, Balmy, Godden.
Oxford United 3 (Danny Hylton 33; Andy Whing 71, pen 82)
Bury 2 (Pablo Mills 20, Ryan Lowe 35)
H/T: 1-2
A – 4,106, The Kassam Stadium, Oxford
Man of the Match: Andy Whing, Oxford (MR 9.1)
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