LFL: OXFORD

This was another really lacklustre performance and Oxford won because they clearly wanted it much more than we did. As for building momentum, we seem to be getting worse.

BEFORE

This match may not mean much to us in terms of its result but it matters a great deal to Oxford who are still battling to avoid relegation and will want to get a point or three. So, we can expect a real tussle. No doubt there'll be a lot of changes and substitutions for us but as long as we get some momentum going in this and our final game against QPR. I'll be happy. Hume should play some part after his suspension and it's possible one of our long-term injured players might come on for a cameo appearance. I wanted to go to the game but the London Branch received a very small number of tickets and I wasn't among the lucky ones so it'll have to be SAFSEE for me. In one of the early kick-offs Coventry have a difficult away game against in-form Luton so a defeat or a draw for them would be a great start to the afternoon. Match prediction: 2-1 to us.

I got the team-news about an hour before kick-off and, as expected, there were wholesale changes from the Blackburn game. Hume, Hjelde, Neil, Roberts, Rigg and Le Fee replaced Browne, Anderson, Abdul Samed, Watson, Jones and Aleksic so it was a much stronger side. Cirkin and Seelt were among the subs while Mayenda was being rested. After pummelling Coventry for much of the game Luton finally took the lead in the last minute of normal time and survived ten minutes of added-time to win 1-0. This meant that Boro could overtake Coventry if they won today while Millwall weren't far behind either. Also, if Bristol City beat Leeds on Monday then we'll definitely be playing Bristol in the play-offs.

THE GAME

I got SAFSEE on and we conceded a corner in the first minute. It took us a while to finally get it clear with Goodrham sounding a menace. Oxford kept coming at us and soon we had to experience one of Vaulks’ long throws. Patto did well to turn a Brannagan shot out for a corner and next thing a long punt from Patto had Isidor racing goalwards but he was rather easily nudged off the ball by Helik. It did result in a corner to us, though, but it came to nothing. Commentator Barnesy waxed lyrical about red kites circling above the stadium. It makes a change for our seagulls and pigeons I suppose. After weathering Oxford’s early assault, by the tenth minute we were starting to press forward ourselves. The first yellow card of the game was given to Goodrham for a pull on Hume in the fourteenth. Le Fee took the resultant free-kick and it led to our second corner, which was headed away. The game evened out and the next chance we had was in the twenty-first when we were awarded a free-kick in a good spot but it ended up with a shot from Rigg being blocked.

As we entered the second quarter of the game Benno said we were lackadaisical. Ruben Rodrigues became the second player to go into referee Tim Robinson’s book in the twenty-eighth for a foul. Oxford soon took the lead when Nelson had a free header and nodded Vaulks’ free-kick into the bottom right corner. BBC Sport said it was into the top right. Benno was going mad saying that Patto had to command his box. In the thirty-fifth Rigg fed Isidor from the goal-line but his attempt was blocked. With five minutes to the break Cumming in goal hadn’t been stretched at all and Benno said we’d been lethargic. A couple of minutes later he added that we’d been sloppy, as another pass went astray. There was only one minute of added-time and it remained 0-1 as the half-time whistle went. Obviously the Oxford fans were happy but it had largely been a no-show from us. Benno summed up by saying we’d had no pace, no tempo and no quality and he added that if players were taking it easy to save themselves for more important games, they shouldn’t put the shirt on. In other games Millwall were 1-0 up while the Boro match was goalless.

There were no changes, as usual, as we kicked off again. We soon conceded a free-kick twenty yards out and after Patto failed to get a grip on the ball, Helik was first there to fire it home from close range. As we hadn’t had a sniff of a goal so far I couldn’t see us getting even a draw. Benno said that we had nothing going forward but surprisingly, in the sixtieth, we had a chance when a Le Fee pass found Rigg and his header hit a post. We started to go forward more at any rate and Cumming actually touched the ball a couple of times.

With twenty minutes on the clock we brought on Cirkin and Watson for Hjelde and Roberts. Watson soon forced another corner and that eventually led to Le Fee attempting a bicycle kick but it went wide of the post. Abdul Samed and Browne came on for Neil and Le Fee with about ten minutes left but I wasn’t expecting any miracles. Oxford were packing their defence now and their victory seemed assured as we entered the last five minutes of normal time. We won a corner just as six minutes of added-time were announced and it almost immediately led to another We were finally working Cumming but it was all too late. It ended 2-0 and the home fans were delighted as they’d secured another season in the Championship. Our fans had had very little to cheer about and Benno and Barnesy said we’d lost our sparkle and fight.