Blue
Square Premier - 15th April 008
At KitKat Crescent - Att 1,808 (152 Oxford)
Report
Down to the last few players standing due to a rash of injuries
and multiple suspensions following the fallout from the Woking
game, City fielded one of their youngest ever teams in Tuesday's
home game against Oxford. Despite dominating for long periods
and restricting the visitors to just one shot on target throughout
the 90 minutes City went down by a goal to nil, but despondency
wasn't on the menu.
Jimmy Beadle made his debut in the centre of midfield while
there's a new Andy Mac at full-back as Andy McWilliams made
his first start as part of a back four and a three-man attack
comprising Onome Sodje,
Richard Brodie
and Leo Fortune-West was rather forced on Colin
Walker by the available troops. Not that a passing spectator
would have known that this was as much Hobson's choice as it
was Walker's as City passed it around nicely. Everyone had an
early touch, looked comfortable and took it from there. Ben
Purkiss is rapidly making raking cross-field passes his
trademark, Beadle was industrious in the middle alongside Manny
Panther, McWilliams overlapped up the left with gay abandon
and Martyn Woolford
dragged his would-be marker all over the place. But City couldn't
engineer any gilt-edged opportunities.
Woolford had the best chance with a shot from 20 yards that
looked like it was on it's way underneath Oxford stopper Billy
Turley, but the keeper got something on it that saw the ball
deflect downwards and bounce over the bar. Fortune-West had
a good opportunity moments later as he picked the ball up with
his back to goal, spun on the proverbial sixpence, but dragged
the left-footed shot wide.
Not that Oxford were completely non-existent as an attacking
threat, but the City defence marshalled them well leaving Josh
Mimms with a relatively comfortable evening, though the young
keeper did everything asked of him with aplomb and looked assured
in his handling and distribution. However, when livewire Oxford
forward Yemi Odubade spotted Mimms slightly off his line, he
fired in a 30 yarder that drifted narrowly wide to the relief
of the massed ranks in the Longhurst.
Just before the break, an almighty goalmouth scramble almost
resulted in a City goal as Brodie's burst into the box caused
havoc though when the shot eventually came it was blocked. Sodje
almost scrambled in the corner and Turley was brave in coming
out to smother Woolford's shot; the keeper taking a bang to
the shoulder in the process.
Just on the flip-side of the interval, Oxford went ahead thanks
to a real sucker punch. City didn't deal with a long ball and
it pinged around the box before falling to Eddie Anaclet on
the back post and the full-back poked it home from close in:
Oxford's one shot on target in the whole piece. City responded
in some style with Beadle and Woolford working it up the middle
of the pitch, bamboozling the Oxford defence, but Woolford's
tame shot was easy for Turley.
Oxford managed to butcher a three-on-three break as the defence
scrambled back and forced Matt Green to rush his shot which
went well wide before a melee of their own in City's penalty
area almost produced a second goal. Mimms saved well, but it
wouldn't have counted anyway as a flag was up for offside.
Changes were made, but chances were still hard to come by until
the dying seconds when Woolford - a handful all evening - was
tripped just outside the box. Picking himself up, he took the
free-kick himself; over the wall, the keeper wasn't getting
there, but it just grazed the top of the crossbar. Seconds later,
the referee blew for full-time.
While defeat is never ideal, there was more than enough positives
to take from this. Having brought on 17-year old Adam Boyes
and 18-year old Liam Shepherd, there were five teenagers in
City's line-up at the final whistle and none of them looked
out of place. Of the rest, only two were older than 23; 25-year
old David McGurk
and the veteran Leo Fortune-West. For the side to have played
with such brio and confidence despite their tender years can
only stand the football club in good stead for the future. There
was a lack of anything much in the final third, so there are
things for this young side to work on, but it highlights the
need to keep the youth and reserve sides running in order to
produce players for future seasons.
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