Glory Hunter - A Journeyman adventure

Playoff spots once again, hopefully this season you can hold on and make it through them. A shame to have to play a top side in Sunderland in the FA Cup 2nd round and to fall one round short of that potential gold mine of a fixture in the 3rd round. However, the money gained so far should help out with balancing the books.

On the field

With match postponements causing some havoc with our fixture list, December was a remarkably quiet month this season with just 4 games played as it allowed the team to catch their breath and recover from the so far gruelling schedule. The one slight problem is that they might have also taken their foot off the pedal as we were knocked out of the FA trophy and picked up just 4 points from the 3 league games.

To be fair, we were massive underdogs against Notts County in the FA trophy, a side at the time atop of the Non-league pyramid and expected to beat us. We played well for around 75 minutes but unfortunately in the first 10 minutes of the match and the last 5 we switched off and we eventually lost 2-1 despite our best efforts.

Moving onto the league we left it late, very late to score two goals to finally see off 10 men Hungerford before playing out the most boring 0-0 draw with fellow Promotion hopefuls Weymouth that you have ever seen. It was a point but a massive missed opportunity to catch them. However, the wheels truly fell off in what proved to be the final game of 2020 as Barnet smashed us 3-0 at home. To be quite honest over the last three games we deserved a spanking and we got one. The table now looking like this


So we are still very much in the play-off but 2nd and 3rd look a distant dream as it stands which means we are going to need to think about 3 rounds of play-offs again. Welling still look a little far away to worry us just yet and we have a game in hand against struggling Chippenham in January to help extend that lead further. We still have one more long term loan available for the season and after the last few games it looks apparent that should be a right winger. Terrique Anderson started the season well but he has dipped and we dont really have a decent alternative so that will be the priority for January.

As you can see the board are still happy and keep offering me a new contract. I have walked away as right now i am not sure if my future remains with Oxford City past this season. Talking of the future.

The Future

We got the first glimpse of our youth intake for next season.


Nothing to write home about to be honest. A goalkeeper is nice and they might be a better back up to King than Caro but it isnt what i really wanted. Some defensive options could be interesting particularly the full backs as we are short there. Still i expect they will be pretty poor when they actually come through.

Now our little foray into the FA Cup did provide some much additional finances. As of the 1st January we have just shy of £230k in the bank. No signs from the board to help expand our wage budget but i did get them to agree to this


Now whether i am here to see it is another question but the move to Maidenhead has really pushed the fans away and our attendances are half of what they were last season. Even if i am not here to see it i will be proud to say that i should be leaving this club better off than when i left it.

As it stands... should i stay or go at the end of the season?

One win in three league games is not ideal for a Play Off push, that's for sure. Great news about moving back into Oxford with the stadium, however. It would definitely be a shame not to oversee the arrival at the new ground, though!

I think if you get promoted you should stay, if you don't, look for another challenge

Transfers

So January saw a little bit of movement on the player front as i used my 6th and final long term loan in. I mentioned we needed a right winger and i added Robert Apter from then Parent club Blackpool. Some great physicals for this level and double figures for crossing means he is rated a star player. Only problem is on his debut against Truro he injured himself 20 mins in and is now out for 8 weeks. Luckily we are picking up none of his wages.

Now the eagle eyed of you, may have noticed i said then parent club as after the Apter loan i actually changed our parent club to Sunderland. They have much better facilities so should have a better quality of player and probably more importantly they are paying us an extra £10k per year for the privilege.

We also let non contracted players Tapp and Rowe leave the club on frees as in reality i would probably play the regens over them should we need to.

On the field

After a disappointing December we needed a big month to get ourselves back on track and my god did we get it as we won 5 and drew 1. Now none of the games were vintage and infact we won 4 of the games by just the one goal but we fought hard and took the points when it mattered. I should also point out that other than the game against Tonbridge, all of the sides we faced were in the bottom half of the table so they were there for the taking.


It was such as good month we finally won the manager of the month award and the board are ecstatic with me and i am now deemed untouchable by the board. The good news as well though is that i look to be nailed on for the play-off spot with Hemel Hempstead and Havant & Waterlooville falling away. The fact we could even sneak in to a top 3 spot gives me real hope that we could in fact get out of this league which will make a decision to stay even more likely. come end of the season. On a side note we have equalled last seasons points tally with 8 games to spare which i think says more about how last season played out points tally wise.

Onto another month

Great to see you back on unbeaten form the New Year. I know an 11-point gap between outside the Play-Offs is already huge, but would be fantastic to have another unbeaten month like that or something similar.

On the field

All good things have to come to an end and that was the case in February. The highs of January could not continue as we hit another slight sticky patch. To be fair the four the games we had in this short month were far tougher including playing high flying soon to be Champions Wealdstone plus fellow Play-off hopefuls St Albans.

It started with a disappointing 2-2 draw with Dartford with Terrique Anderson getting both goals. It was a game we were at times lucky to be in. The one good thing to come out of it is i have found out Terrique Anderson knows where the goal is when he plays on the left. If only i hadnt played him as a right winger for the last 6 months!

We bounced back from that draw though and got a great victory away to St Albans with both Bryon and Owusu scoring long range goals to give us an important 2-1 win. A tough 1-1 draw with Chelmsford followed with Anderson continuing his good form and getting us the equaliser before we had another capitulation this time against Wealdstone as they smashed us 3-0 in a game where Anderson got a red card instead of a goal.


Our bid for top 3 has taken a hit and it is a sure gone thing that Wealdstone will win the league after literally obliterating every team that has stood in front of them. I checked and i cant see any reason why they have suddenly become the leagues version of Liverpool. Bath and Barnet are catchable but do look very likely to get that 2nd and 3rd. If we can have another January run of form then we have a chance. The last time we got smashed 3-0 as in the final game of 2020 so we have bounced back before.

Im confident of the play-offs still but i just dont know what team will turn up. Earlier in the season we had a number of players in form averaging over a 7.00 but that has dropped right down to just 1 player averaging that for the last 5 games (Terrique Anderson). Charley Kendall has gone off the boil which is the most worrying thing as we rely heavily on his goals whilst Slack is on a drought as it is.

Time to have another tweak and perhaps a team meeting to try and keep the momentum going

Good work, a play-off place is all but confirmed at this point. Hopefully the last few games can act as a way of gaining some momentum again before heading into the lottery known as the play-offs.

Good work here JT, looking forward to seeing if you can earn promotion

On the field


I think the above tells you the main story for the month as we secured our play-off spot for the 2nd year on the trot in what has been a largely positive month of March as we picked up 3 wins from 4 games. Dorking Wanderers were the first side up and Charley Kendall got himself out of his little rut with two goals with Bryon also banging in a long distance goal to set up a 3-2 victory to get the month going. Chesham were then beaten in the next game 3-1 as Kendall again got himself a goal alongside Anderson and Apter scoring his first since his loan spell.

We then had a little blip against Braintree as i went chasing the victory and got caught on the counter attack as we went down 2-1. This set up the final league match of the month against struggling Hampton and Richmond Borough in what proved a combative match as we got 7 yellow cards in a tight 1-0 victroy with Zac McEachran scoring from a corner. It leaves the table like this


We are now in the driving seat for the top two play-off positions and we can not let them go as i see it as our best chance of going up. Interestingly, the end of March sees us play our 42nd league game and when we look at last seasons final finish we have lost 6 games less than last year and more importantly turned them into 4 wins and 2 draws to see us 14 points better off. It also equates to 3 goals more but more importantly 15 less goals let in as we are becoming a better side. A side good enough to get promoted? I am not so sure.

I am so unsure, that when the Barnet manager got sacked i did apply. They are a bigger club and even though we are ahead of them in the table, their budget and reputation would allow me to go to the next level. Only problem, they didnt give me an interview stating my lack of experience in promoting teams being a problem. Well screw them... Onto the final games of the season

Youth Intake


We do really need to sort out the personalities as its clear we love an unambitious player but ignoring that this is a much better youth intake than last season's first effort. Dwayne Rushton is the star of the show and already a 2* left back which means he is only a little bit behind first choice Jefford. He will go straight into the first team and might even come off the bench this season to give him some game time.

Matthaios Kassos is rated the best prospect by the team but i am not so sure he is going to be ready for the team anytime soon. Brayden Bradbrook was heralded as the goalkeeper that could do something but like Kassos, he is some way off and he will not be threatening the first team anytime soon. Interestingly we had a Swede in the youth intake with Benjamin Karlberg coming through. I think he is better than the scouts are giving him credit for and we are light on strikers so he becomes 3rd choice should we need him.

Toby Hobbs is probably the 2nd best player that came through but will need retraining to sit further back in the midfield as we dont play with an AMC but again there are some decent passing stats there to work with.

All in all not too bad

I've actually seen a decent intake for once! Kassos and Rushton look like tidy players for the future and it will be interesting to see how and when they will eventually fit into Oxford City.

Give Kassos a year and he will be good enough for the first team squad

Definitely a better intake this year, that's for sure. If you can hold onto one of those semi-final play-off positions, you automatically give yourself an advantage. Good luck!

Congrats on making the playoffs, hopefully Bath get knocked out early so you don't have to play them again Seems to be going well so far, keep it up!