Oxford v Aldershot

Oxford United VS Aldershot Town

After an amazing night in east London on Wednesday i find myself still on a high the Sunday night i am writing this.

Let me start off my name is Rhys i am 19 and I am from Aldershot. As you may guess i am an Aldershot fan and hive been for around 12 or 13 years now and this is my 6th season as a season ticket holder. i have seen the rise of a club from non league into our rightful place back in the football league after the original Aldershot FC went bankrupt in 92 i have witnessed 3 promotions in my short time of supporting my club. i wouldnt want to be anywhere else on a saturday afternoon that the rec or as away fans will know it the EBB stadium.

Some intresting facts about Aldershot Town FC:

• This is the 20th season of Aldershot town FC
• We have never suffered a relagation in our 20 year history
• The old club won the first ever play offs in 1986/87 in what was a 2 legged affair final beating Bolton in the semis and Wolves home and away in the final
• In our final season the TV rights for the BSP were brought from Sky buy Setanta sports who created the Setanta shield (conference league cup) which was only around for 2 years the winners being Aldershot Town and ue to our promotion we couldnt play in the competion in the second season AFC Telford
• Until Crawley broke our record last season we had the most amount of points record in the conference 101 (the things money can buy you these days)
• We are the smallest town in the football league only just slightly smaller than Accrington

The Aldershot players you want to keep your eye on this season are Ben Herd, Luke Guttridge and Danny Hylton. Ben Herd puts 100% in to every match and for his efforts has been made this seasons club captain, Luke Guttridge made a slow start to his life at the club last season but after christmas he went on a scoring spree over the month of january and has been in the side when he has been fit and Danny Hylton is the longest serving player at the club and is now starting tofind his form Danny Hylton was all set the move to AFC Wimbledon last season however Kevin Dillon was sacked as shots boss and Dean Holdsworth had other ideas since then Danny has been on fire weather he's on the wing or playing upfront Danny has improved as West Ham fans will know the name Danny Hylton the man who knocked them out of the carling cup in the 89th minute.

Now the match

The game came to life 10 minutes into the match when Aldershot full back Antony Straker was red carded for being last man and briniging down Oxford striker Lewis Guy this gave confidence to Oxford knowing for near enough 80 minutes it would be 10 vs 11. The free kick amounted to nothing 20 minutes in the U's went 1-0 up poor keeping form shots keeper jamie young allowed allowed James Constable to put the ball over his head into an empty net and the shots now looked up against it.

Into the second half and what ever Dean Holdsworth said to his players it really seemed to work as the shots came back from the break with a fighting spirit and went straight looking for the equaliser and it came after a good amount of pressure from the shots Danny Hylton crossed the ball in for Luke Guttridge to fire home the equaliser for the shots and from there on it was all Aldershot Alex Rodman unlucky from 20 yards into the last 5 minutes and the pressure was coming from Oxford with around 4 corners in the last 5 minutes and you could tell the nervousness on the face of us shots fans.

Full Time bravely battled back from Dean Holdworths side the point was a hard earned point but its nice to once again have a point on the board.

My match ratings

Oxford Utd

• 01 Clarke            6
• 05 Duberry          5
• 06 Wright            5
• 16 Whing            5
• 04 McLaren (Batt 60yellow card)        5
• 08 Heslop (Potter 46yellow card)      7
• 20 Leven                           5
• 26 Davis                            5
• 09 Constable                     6
• 10 Smalley (Pittman 74)    4
• 27 Guy                       5

Aldershot

• 01 Young           4
• 02 Herd             6
• 03 Straker          3red card
• 05 Jones            5
• 15 Morris            6
• 04 Guttridge         7
• 07 McGlashan (Bubb 75)  5
• 08 Collins         8 (MOM)
• 11 Rodman (Pulis 86)   7
• 09 Rankine (Vincenti 15yellow card) 4
• 10 Hylton             7 

DH: Bigger result than West Ham kick starts our league
better side in the second half sustained a lot of pressure stood toe to toe with 10 men
bbc sport: how did you see the red card
DH: I saw the referee put his hand up and give him the red card
he made his decision at the time and we had to regroup at half time we are a good counter attacking side who enjoy the game to much
bbc sport: versatility in the squad jamie collins coming in and doing a job
DH: he was superb championship fitness commitment to each other fitness is key
bbc sport: luke guttridge back from injury
DH: great goal he took it well and deserved it he told me he would score
the goals will come and we really do look a good side


From Deanos analysis and my personal analysis we battled back bravely and i am very porund of my team for the way they performed in adversity.

As its still early days I predict: OXFORD UNITED WILL BE CHALLENGING FOR THE 7TH PLACE FINISH WITH THE SQUAD THEY HAVE THEY SHOULD BE UP THERE CHALLENGING FOR 3RD MAYBE. ALDERSHOT TOWN WILL FINISH IN THE TOP 10 FOOTBALL IS A RESULTS BUISNESS BUT ALDERSHOT HAVE HAD 5 GOOD PERFORMANCES ALL READY THIS SEASON AND HAVENT HAD ANYTHING TO SHOW FOR IT IN THE LEAGUE. Hopefully as well after the draw was made yesterday the Shots could sneak into round for of the Carling cup having knocked out West Ham at Upton Park and will hopefully knock both Carlisle and Rochdale out of the cup at The Recreation Ground.

Full Time Oxford 1-1 Aldershot
attendance 6673
Man of the match Jamie Collins

Facebook: Rhys Emberson
Twitter:Rhys9emberson

This was done with no input by me. The blog is missing posts from the Swindon game :O and Shrewsbury. Normal service will resume with Burton. Apologies

Rotherham v Oxford United

As the new season starts, I find myself on holiday in France which means I have to call on another (as I will for all games that I can). Via twitter I found the best RUFC blogger I could.

To make this easy to understand who is talking about what, you'll find all my Rotherham's input in italics and a different font.

I'm Gareth,  and this will be my eighth year as a season ticket holder. In that time I’ve seen nothing but misery. Two relegations, 37 points taken off us, a move to Sheffield’s Don Valley Stadium and the heartbreak of a playoff final defeat. Maybe it’s about time I started watching football elsewhere!

Some interesting facts on Rotherham United:

-          We reached the first ever league cup final in 1961 losing out 3-2 to Aston Villa over two legs.

-          We won the first ever FA Cup penalty shootout 7-6 against Scunthorpe United in 1991

-          In 1996 we were the winners of the Auto Windscreen Shield beating Shrewsbury Town 2-1

-          In 1889 we signed the first ever fully professional black footballer Arthur Wharton

-          We have been into administration three times, the latest being in 2008.

-          We are set to move into our new 12,000 seater stadium ready for the start of the 2012-2013 season.

The Rotherham players to keep an eye out for the rest of the season would be Lewis Grabban and Danny Schofield. Grabban looks a real talent. Skill, pace, an eye for a goal, he seems to have everything, and he’s only young. Schofield is also another coup in my opinion. The former Huddersfield and Millwall player brings experience to this very young side. Not only that, but he adds the quality we lost when Nicky Law moved to Motherwell. It was his deft pass that set up Grabban for his goal. I have a feeling that these two will cause teams some real problems.  

Now onto the game. 

The first half of the match was a real non-starter. It was as though both teams didn’t want to get off to a bad start to the season. Oxford created the first real opportunity when an Asa Hall header hit the post from a Davis free kick and Michael Duberry blazed over the bar from around six yards out.

Rotherham did manage an effort in the first half when a Cresswell header from a Schofield corner was tipped over the bar. However, I’m not entirely certain it was going in, but, at least we managed to threaten the Oxford goal.

It was Rotherham who took the lead early in the second half. Lewis Grabban, from 19 yards out with the outside of the foot, found the top corner. A superb goal with Clarke having no chance.

Oxford did rally as the half went on, however, they never really tested goalkeeper Logan. Efforts from Constable and Leven went wide of the target.

Rotherham mustered another chance with Grabban outpacing Wright and keeper Clarke dived onto low strike from Grabban to his right.

I was amazed that we’d managed to hang on; especially seeing as this was our first clean sheet since pre-season began.

These were the line-ups and my player ratings for both sides.

Rotherham United

• 01 Logan - 6
• 02 Tonge - 6
• 03 Newey – 7.5
• 05 Cresswell – 7.5
• 22 Brown - 8
• 04 Harrison - 6
• 08 Taylor - 6
• 11 Schofield – 7.5 (Pringle 84)
• 10 Le Fondre – 6.5
• 20 Holroyd - 6 (Evans 72)
• 23 Grabban - 8

Oxford United

• 01 Clarke - 7
• 02 Batt - 6
• 03 Tonkin - 7 (Pittman 68)
• 05 Duberry – 7.5
• 06 Wright - 7
• 16 Whing - 6
• 14 Hall - 6 (Leven 75)
• 18 Payne – 7 (Potter 57)
• 26 Davis – 6.5
• 09 Constable - 6
• 10 Smalley - 7

Browny: Rotherham will be up and around the top and failed to break us down and we looked pretty assured at the back. No lack of effort from the team

Couple of observations, the pitch seemed very slow and the ball didn't seem to run which helped there direct style. And how embarrassing is it to have two microphones in front of the home fans to enhance the noise they were making. Geez they would have to be good microphones because you simply cannot generate an atmosphere there

All in all nothing to be too downcast about, its very early days

I thought Oxford did look pretty solid defensively, but, didn’t really have much goal threat and failed to trouble our keeper. 

Browny: Lets not be too downcast after one game. It was a pretty poor game with the two teams largely cancelling each oter out and settled by a worldy


Strange team selection in some ways, Payne has had a very good pre season in central midfield and played on the right side where he was less influential. Didn't expect to see Davis start but thought he was impressive. Concerned that the ball came back too easily from the front men and in general our delivery from crosses was poor

From reports I've read the injuries of Capaldi, Leven, McLaren in particular have had a big affect on our first game of the 2012 season. But as Moobs says: I'm not being critical of the team or performance just this viewpoint. 2 of those players haven't played for us yet. New players should compliment an already decent side. Relying on them to patch flaws in your side after the first match of a season is a pretty lame excuse. So I suppose onwards and upwards

Tedbundy: We lost game in midfield today:Whing isnt a midfielder .we need to get Leven, Heslop,Maclaren fit asap ...cant blame strikers as they got no service...we looked solid at the back even if Batt had a stinker ...Really if game had been 0-0 we would have been happy but unfortunately Rotherham produced the one moment of magic to decide it....One other thought...hadnt been there b4 but it struck me as a good place for a team 1-0 up to kill a game ...when the ball went off on the far side it always seemed to take ages to come back into play...

yelloexile: from what I could see about a mile away from the pitch, was that the midfield did let us down a little. The other thing was that pretty much all their effective attacks came down our left side, and they occasionally ripped us apart from there - which is where their goal came from, despite it being a blinding strike.

I'm not too pessimistic though. Duberry was immense. Clarke pulled off a couple of very good saves. We hit the post and should have had a penalty, and the lino near us had a shocker.

After seeing the first league match of the season, for both teams, it’s still hard to judge where they’ll finish. I’m still of the opinion that we  may scrape into the playoffs, but likely a tenth place finish.

I predict that Rotherham will be challenging in the Top 5 for most of the season.  You can shut ALF up for a whole game and they still have enough quality to score a screamer - this differs a lot from what I saw last season.

I’d imagine Oxford’ll be in the mix come May, but likely to finish in the playoffs.

It's obviously hard to predict after or even before our first game. But I'd like to think as the team gels we'll really pick up. Stupidly early days though.

Full Time: Rotherham 1-0 Oxford

Attendance: 4,484

MOM: Troy Brown (Rotherham)

Twitter: @GarethSimmons

Blog: http://itsnotallprawnsandwiches.wordpress.com/

Quotes taken from www.yellowsforum.co.uk. Any posters unhappy with the inclusion of their quotes please let me know.

Fantasy Football and OUFC Squad.

Fantasy Football -

It has now been announced that we can buy tickets for the scum away game on Monday. I cannot wait.

In other news the fantasy football (fantasy.premierleague.com) is up and running with a cool new look. I have picked my team :-

De Gea (6.5) Schwarzer (5)

Sagna (6.5) - Clichy (6) - Jose Enrique (5) - Elokobi (4.5) - Alcaraz (4.5)

Young (10) - Downing (8.5) - Etherington (6.5) - Whitehead (5) - Tiote (4.5)

Carroll (10) - Berbatov (9.5) - Gyan (8)

Not too shabby eh? Wing backs are the way forward, Baines was 8 and although he makes my team every year, he's not worth 8. They get assists and clean sheets so they are in preference.

Downing is still a Villa player and I can imagine a move to Liverpool will increase his price so I couldn't say no to a bargain.

Other players I considered were Marc Albrighton - who I think is fantastic, he's so young and he's bound to start now. His crossing is brilliant and you'll get him at a mere 6.5. Friedel for Spurs at 5.5 isn't a bad shout. Assou-Ekotto and/or Dawson as well. 5 and 5.5 (No Spurs defenders are about 5.5 yet a lot of their midfield is above 7)

There are still weeks to chop and change and decide so have fun with it. Might even make a bloggers league!

Oxford United Squad 11/12

So, I think we're basically done except a second goalkeeper, we've strengthened in all areas and have gone from 12th favourites (where we finished last season) to 4th favourites behind moneybags Crawley, Fascist Inbreds and Bristol Rovers.

Signings - 

Ryan James

Michael Duberry

Tony Capaldi

Andrew Whing

Peter Leven

JP Pittman

Deane Smalley

Defensively we have signed an inexperienced (never played a league game) centre back in James. He's left footed and looks okay but I'll have to see him play first. Then the exact opposite in Michael Duberry, been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Played as high as you can get but since lost his legs.

We have Whing RB from Orient who dropped down a level for his family and Capaldi who had a poor season for Morcambe due to waiting too long in the transfer market or something.

In midfield we've signed Leven. Leven looks the part but is currently injured, I can only say from what everyone else has been saying but I haven't heard a negative review with most people expecting Leven to go up instead of down.

Upfront we have JP Pittman and Deane Smalley, Smalley looks class from his pre-season games, as does Pittman actually.

So our squad at the moment -

Clarke

Batt

Tonkin

Whing

Capaldi

Wright

Duberry

Worley

James

Clist

Leven

Hall

Heslop

Payne

McLaren

Pittman

Potter

Woodley

Smalley

Constable

Craddock

Pre-season highlights -

Pre-season. Fun. (ENGLAND)

A quick message about my relaunch. Last posts were hideous and no-one read them but hopefully now, I will be able to inspire, engage and brighten your days!




So, it's gotten to the stage during the summer (first week of July) when I'm desperately watching Championship review on Sky for any dose of football I can get my hands on. However Oxford  did win 6 - 0 against Didcot yesterday - I didn't go.


Pittman (x2)
Payne
Potter
Smalley (p)
Woodley


That is enough to maybe last the weekend, however what am I supposed to do except play excessive amounts of FIFA?




This is where our wonderfully over-rated, underachieving and rubbishly selected national side come in. Now, call me naive, but I'm honestly very happy with the new players coming through the ranks. This is shown by our U17 and U21 recent achievements. 
However the young players aren't picked in the big tournaments because "they don't have enough experience". Well how about fucking playing them? Honestly! Don't just start an U21 side because experienced heads need to be in the mix, but about 1/3 of our U21 side could probably fight there way into the first 16

Hart

Kelly     Terry     Ferdinand     Cole

Wilshere

     Johnson                                                  Young

Gerrard     Rooney

Carroll

Green, Jones, Smalling, Henderson, Lampard, Albrighton, Sturridge

Now that, is just a personal opinion of mine and doesn't even include Parker, Downing, Defoe, Bent, Walker, Johnson, Gibbs, Rodwell or even Gareth 'fuck sake' Barry.

But that is my final point, we generally don't have the quality. Which England players would the best countries clamour for? Rooney? Cole? Young? Ferdinand? Hart?

It stops after Cole. So if that is the case, why are we not giving our younger players experience? Why don't we play with Henderson, Wilshere, Kelly, Sturridge and Carroll? They're our future, our current set haven't lived up to their standards and aren't getting any better so if we're to have any chance surely we need to let this new generation gel.

Right, I've probably left you even more bored than when you started. Tweet me @oxbeav, comment or message me in some form.