Oxford United- Back To The Top

December Update:

Oxford United 3-0 Dagenham and Redbridge
Folan 4’
Duberry 59'
Constable 89'

A really good win against a top 6 team. We continued our winning streak and remained top. Again Duberry scored- he's becoming quite a good goalscorer even though he's a centre-back!

Torquay 0-3 Oxford United
Leven 49'
Duberry 53'
Constable 86'

We stretched our win streak to 5 games with a good thrashing of Torquay. Constable is also top scorer (I just found out) and Duberry again socred!

Oxford United 2-1 Bristol Rovers
Batt 42'
Virgo 54'

A really close game where we just manged to keep up our win streak by an embarrassing looping header own-goal by Adam Virgo.

Aldershot 1-3 Oxford United
Duberry 32'
Constable 42'
Johnson 79'

A really good win against a strong top-half team. Duberry scored again- that was his 3rd goal in 4 games! Another good thing was Oli Johnson ended a long goal drought which should hopefully should make him score a few more goals.

Monthly Summary:

The best month yet with 4 wins out of 4. James Constable is top scorer, Michael Duberry won Player of the Month for his 3 goals and most importantly I won Manager of the Month for the second time! Here is the league table:

http://i1065.photobucket.com/albums/u392/jamstoe/LeagueTable3.png

We are doing extremely well! I never thought we would be 17 points clear half-way through the season!! Absolutely amazing!!! I will post my January transfers next!!

January Update:

Morecambe 2-2 Oxford United
Asante 9'
Wright 90+1

We opened 2012 with a draw against Top 4 team Morecambe. There was not much else to say really.

Oxford United 3-2 Port Vale
Wilson 59'
Johnson 80',83'

What a game!! Port Vale went into the lead but within 5 minutes we drew back level. I then subbed Oli Johnson on and it turned out to be the best tactical decision of the season with him scoring 2 goals in 3 minutes. They then got 1 back to make a nervy finish but we held on. A good win against a Top 4 side.

Northampton Town 1-2 Oxford United
Asante 12'
Flannigan 52'

This was a must win game against a bottom half side if we wanted to win the title and we did. I rested a few of our first team XI for our big semi-final against Colchester mid-week but we still got a result.

Colchester 0-0 Oxford United (JP South Final 1st Leg)

A close game considering they are a league above us. No scoring opportunities for either side. We'l be looking to win our home leg to get to the final.

Oxford United 1-1 Plymouth Argyle
Leven 31'(pen)

A bad game. We should have really won but we came from a goal behind to secure 1 point.

Gillingham P-P Oxford United

Postponed due to waterlogged pitch. Rescheduled for 22nd February.

Monthly Summary:
A decent month. Two draws in the league and two wins in the league. Still our unbeaten run remains in place! Things look good for the Johnstone's Paint Trophy as we only need a home win to get through. Here is the league table:

http://i1065.photobucket.com/albums/u392/jamstoe/LeagueTable4.png

So we are still 17 points clear. A bit disappointing considering half-way through the month we were 22 points clear. I've worked out if we pick up 13 more points in the next 9 games we will be crowned champions with 10 games to play! Amazing!

Here are my January Transfers:

Lucas Piazon- loan- Chelsea- ST
Max Ehmer- loan- QPR- CB
Louis Connor- free- Free Agents- GK
Ryan Connolly- loan- Derby- LM

Some good loan signings! Managed to get all the loans on no wages!! Piazon is going to be beast!

February Update:

Oxford United 1-0 AFC Wimbledon
Leven 14'(pen)

We started the month well with a 1-0 win but it should have been a lot more than that. We were dominant for most of the game and our 15 shots to Wimbledon's 6 says it all.

Oxford United 1-0 Colchester (JP South Final 2nd Leg)
Asante 66'

Get in there!!!!! We progressed through to the Final of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy after Asante gave us a crucial goal to set up a Final against Rotherham at Wembley at the end of next month. I hope we win this as this is the only Cup we could still win!

Southend United 1-3 Oxford United
Constable 45+1, 68'
Piazon 86'

We continued our good start to the month with a good win away to top-half Southend. Constable ended his goal drought with two goals. Piazon also got his first goal for us late on. We are still easily top of the league.

Oxford United 1-0 Accrington Stanley
Worley 78'

Another win which should have been easier than it was. 23rd-place Accrington should have been a walkover but we made it harder than it really was.

Rotherham 2-4 Oxford United
Constable 34'
Hall 46', 81'
Duberry 60'

What a game!!! Rotherham took the lead before Constable got us back in the game. Hall then got us in front but 4 minutes later they came back level. We then got two more goals to make it 4-2 and held on to the end.

Gillingham 0-3 Oxford United
Constable 1'
Asante 35'
Johnson 79'

We got off to a flyer in this match, with Constable opening the scoring with some lovely play straight from kick-off. Gillingham never looked like winning this one and we scored a 2 more before the final whistle.

Oxford United 3-2 Hereford United
Constable 70'
Potter 75'
Olembe 80'

We left it late, but eventually we won this one. Nothing happened much in the first half, but Hereford scored just after the break. But a miraculous turn around, with 3 goals in 10 minutes left us 3-1 ahead. Hereford scored just after our 3rd goal but we hung on until the end.

Monthly Summary:
An amazing month with 7 wins. James Constable won Player of the Month and I won Manager of the Month. We will be looking to almost wrap up the League next month, and hopefully win the JP Trophy. Here is the League Table:
http://i1065.photobucket.com/albums/u392/jamstoe/LeagueTable5.png

So we are 25 points clear and could wrap it up next month. We are doing great!!!!

March Update:

Cheltenham 0-0 Oxford United

A really boring 0-0 draw. We really should have won but we just couldn't find the goal that we needed. Not much else to say.

Oxford United 3-2 Bradford
Constable 12', 30', 48'

A really good win against a side that were capable to beat us. We never looked like losing but it was still a close game with Bradford always coming back each time we scored.

Crewe 1-1 Oxford United
Leven 33'

We really should have won this match. We had most of the possession and most of the shots but could not wrap up a win. We still have our unbeaten run though!!!

Oxford United 3-2 Crawley
Piazon 5'
Worley 61'
Olembe 90+2'

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!! Olembe wrapped up an amazing campaign in style, with a stoppage time winner to give us the League 2 trophy!!!!! Over the rest of the campaign I will be trying out some younger players.

Oxford United 3-0 Shrewsbury
Constable 26', 87'
Johnson 48'

A very nice victory over a the high-flying Shrews in our last game before the Johnstone's Paint Final. We were always on top and were never pressured enough to lose.

Oxford United 3-1 Rotherham (JP Trophy Final)
Hall 25'
Constable 43', 81'

YES!!!!!!! We won the cup with a demolishing of Rotherham to claim our second piece of silverware in 2 weeks. We came in with a positive attitude and stuck with it the whole game and were only forced to defend when Rotherham got a late 88' equaliser.

Barnet 1-1 Oxford United
Asante 80'

We were lucky to draw this one as Barnet dominated the game and should have really won by 2 or 3 goals. Again though, we still managed to maintain our unbeaten record as it stretched nearly 25 games.

Oxford United 1-0 Swindon Town
Olembe 32'

A great win that will please the fans as we beat our fiercest rivals, Swindon, at home in this really close match. We completed the double over them with Olembe curling home a free-kick- he is starting to get a knack of scoring important goals in important games!!!!

Monthly Summary:
Overall, a great month, with us winning the league and cup double but we did draw a few games. Here is the League Table:

http://i1065.photobucket.com/albums/u392/jamstoe/LeagueTable6.png

Not much to play for now as we are champions so I will be trying to test a few different players.

April Update:

Oxford United 2-0 Burton Albion
Worley 57'
Constable 63'

A good win against a decent side. Worley scored again- he and Duberry are in the Top Scorers Chart- even thought there centre-backs!

Macclesfield 1-2 Oxford United
Batt 19'
Johnson 23'
Capaldi 53'

A win that should have been more against a lower league side. I'm a bit disappointed about Capaldi's red card though.

Dagenham and Redbridge 0-1 Oxford United
Arter 59'

A really brilliant win against other already promoted side Dagenham and Redbridge. Harry Arter showed me why I spent most of my transfer on him.

Oxford United 1-0 Torquay
Worley 51'

Another OK win against an OK side. Worley again scored- he's got 9 goals for this season!!!

Bristol Rovers 0-2 Oxford United
Constable 7'
Asante 24'

Another win to extend our unbeaten run. Constable got his 27th league goal to beat the record for most in a season.

Monthly Summary:
A great month, winning every game and extending our lead at the top. I one Manager of the Month and with 1 game left, we are looking ahead to League 1 next season. Here is the League Table:

http://i1065.photobucket.com/albums/u392/jamstoe/LeagueTable7.png

Overall, a really good month and with a record 115 points with 1 game to go we are probably one of the favourites to go up next year.

Congrats on the promotion, it's good to see people wrapping up titles with a long way to go. I reckon you'll do back-to-back promotions!

#55301 kingcraigan : Congrats on the promotion, it's good to see people wrapping up titles with a long way to go. I reckon you'll do back-to-back promotions!

Thanks mate!! I've been really surprised by how good Oxford's team is!! I thought I could probably get up through the play-offs but not as Champions!!! Hopefully I'll go up again next year.

May Update:

As it was the only game in May, I have decided to do a big match report on the Aldershot game. Here we go:


Oxford United 2-0 Aldershot
Flannigan 38'
Constable 76'

Oxford United finished the season in style as they swept aside Aldershot. They dominated the first half-hour; having many chances but not finding the finish that was needed.

But finally, a goal was scored as Ian Flannigan bundled in a Peter Leven corner. Oxford United have been good at set-pieces this season, with lots of goals coming from them. Oxford continued to pressure but did not score any more before half-time.

Oxford started where they left off in the second-half, again piling the pressure on Aldershot but not finding the finish to give them another goal.

That was until Oxford tried a bit of Route-1 football. Ryan Clarke picked up an Aldershot free-kick and rolled it out to Tony Capaldi. The left-back then knocked the ball up to James Constable who coolly slotted home to round off a really good win.

The rest of the game was goalless and not much else happened after that goal.

Elsewhere, Port Vale moved up 1 place to secure promotion with us and Dagenham and Redbridge, Rotherham finished 4th, Cheltenham finished 5th, Shrewsbury finished 6th and Southend finished 7th. Accrington and Hereford were relegated, finishing 19th and 20th respectively. Here is the Final League Table:

http://i1065.photobucket.com/albums/u392/jamstoe/LeagueTable8.png

Overall, a really amazing season with a record number of points and I'm proud of every single one of my players and staff. We have shown brilliant spirit with two pieces of silverware to our name and we will now be looking to pre-season. My next update will be the season summary and awards.

Season Review:

Premier League:
Winners: Tottenham Hotspur
2nd: Arsenal
3rd: Man United
4th: Man City
Relegated: Wolves (18th), Swansea (19th), Newcastle (20th)

Championship:
Winners: Reading
2nd: Birmingham
Play-Off: Southampton (3rd)
Relegated: Portsmouth (22nd), Crystal Palace (23rd), Peterborough (24th)

League One:
Winners: Sheffield Wednesday
2nd: Charlton
Play-Off: Scunthorpe (5th)
Relegated: Bury (21st), Chesterfield (22nd), Yeovil (23rd), Exeter (24th)

League Two:
Winners: Oxford United
2nd: Port Vale
3rd: Dagenham and Redbridge
Play-Off: Rotherham
Relegated: Accrington Stanley (23rd), Hereford (24th)

FA Cup: Sunderland
League Cup: Sunderland
Johnstone's Paint Trophy: Oxford United
Champions League: Man City
Europa League: Atletico Madrid

As I said before, a fantastic first season. James Constable was named Top Scorer for League 2, Ryan Clarke, Mustapha Dumbuya, Harry Worley, Peter Leven and James Constable were anmed in the League 2 Team of the Year, and most importantly, I won the League 2 Manager of the Year!!!!!!!! I have applied for a number of Olympic jobs but Great Britain, Spain and Brazil have all been unsuccessful. My last hope is Singapore. My next update will probably be pre-season and transfers. See you there. Hope you enjoyed reading this!

Pre-Season and Transfers:

Here are the summer signings:

http://i1065.photobucket.com/albums/u392/jamstoe/Transfers2.png

Some really good signings in there- considering I got £0 Transfer Budget and £10k Wage Budget (I singed Slane and Hegarty on 48-month instalments.

Here are the pre-season results:

Maidenhead 0-5 Oxford United
Asante 21'
Constable 31'
Olembe 52'
Potts 62'
Vermijl 78'

A good thrashing of a non-league side! We had 21 shots to 2 and 63% of the possession. Both strikers, a full back and a winger got on the score sheet so it shows anyone in the team can score.

Oxford United 3-0 Falkirk
Hall 20'
Asante 25'
Constable 87'

A fantastic win over a team that has a lot stronger squad than us. We never looked like we were going to lose and dominated the whole match.

Oxford United 1-1 Celtic
Constable 62'

An excellent result against the hardest team I've ever come up against in the save. It was a very even match but we edged it stats-wise with 12 shots to Celtic's 7 and 54% of the possession- although Celtic did have 7 shots on target to our 4 which shows we need to work on the accuracy of our shooting.

Gateshead 2-3 Oxford United
Johnson 16'
Worley 69'
Constabld 89'

A disappointing performance even though we won. We dominated most of the match but switched off at the start of the second half and Gateshead got back in the game because of it.

Blyth Spartans 0-2 Oxford United
Leven 12'
Constable 51'

A decent game against a side we really should have beaten by 5 or 6. A perfectly struck Peter Leven volley gave us the lead and we never looked back from there really.

Overall, a good pre-season and we will be looking forward to a very tough game against Sheffield United on the first day of the season.