FAN’S VIEW 23/24 – NO.20: BOLTON AT HOME OXFORD UNITED 0 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 Very big game this one for many reasons. We desperately needed something from it following Saturday’s disappointing effort at lowly Cheltenham. Two defeats to start Des Buckingham’s reign would have been a real downer. We needed to prove we can go  [ more ]

FAN’S VIEW 23/24 – NO.19: CHELTENHAM AWAY CHELTENHAM TOWN 2 OXFORD UNITED 0 To say I left Gloucestershire a little disappointed would be an understatement. A bit angry too but that soon morphed into a kind of philosophical acceptance because this is the lot of a football fan. Yes Cheltenham, who didn’t score in their  [ more ]

FAN’S VIEW 23/24 – NO.18: ORIENT AWAY At the end of the Maidenhead FV I wrote “Anything for us to worry about? Liam Manning to Bristol City paper talk. I’ll leave that for another day. With football you just don’t know what’s round the corner. Makes it interesting”. Monday 6 Nov. No sooner had I  [ more ]

FAN’S VIEW 23/24 – NO.17: MAIDENHEAD AT HOME FA CUP FIRST ROUND OXFORD UNITED 2 MAIDENHEAD UNITED 0 Most years at this stage of the competition I pine for the old days when the FA Cup meant something much greater than it does now for each and every team that enters. For Manchester City and  [ more ]

FAN’S VIEW 23/24 – NO.16: LINCOLN AWAY LINCOLN CITY 0 OXFORD UNITED 2 There are some towns and cities that we travel to year after year that I develop a soft spot for. Lincoln very much falls into that category and there’s family reasons for this too. No two places are quite the same and  [ more ]

FAN’S VIEW 23/24 – NO.15: WYCOMBE AT HOME OXFORD UNITED 2 WYCOMBE WANDERERS 2 The performance of referee Seb Stockbridge merits a whole FV of its own. Best to try and unpick that first then analyse the performance of the boys in yellow. When Stockbridge’s name was read out there were groans. I commented to  [ more ]

FAN’S VIEW 23/24 – NO.14: WIGAN AWAY This can very much be split into two: pre-match in Wigan and the game itself. The very enjoyable and the not very pleasurable at all. Pre-match We knew from the two visits here in the 21/22 season that this northern town, situated almost equidistant between Liverpool and Manchester,  [ more ]

FAN’S VIEW 23/24 – NO.13: BLACKPOOL AT HOME Over many decades I’ve got to know so many people through football and made many friends. It’s a common bond. It’s a point of reference. When you start a new job talk soon turns to this beautiful – and at times not so beautiful – game of  [ more ]

FAN’S VIEW 23/24 – NO.12: BRISTOL ROVERS AT HOME OXFORD UNITED 2 BRISTOL ROVERS 1 Well that certainly left something to unpick. Away from the intensity of lunch time at the Kassam with time to reflect and having watched replays of some of the action I feel more able to give an objective and fair  [ more ]

FAN’S VIEW 23/24 – NO.11: SHREWSBURY AT HOME Last season I kept churning out stats that showed how far we were falling short both as an attacking force and defensively compared to the teams at the top. When it was all over we ranked 16th in the goal scoring charts having found the back of  [ more ]