FAN’S VIEW 22/23 – No.21: FA CUP ROUND ONE

Magic of the cup – is there any left?

So it’s that time of the year again when the magic of the FA Cup is supposed to weave its way through the lower echelons of the EFL and upper echelons of the non-league game. Except it’s nothing like it used to be. Nowhere near as much interest as of old but it still appeals to me after a certain fashion.

No longer all in on Saturday at 3 o’clock. Originally we’d been put back to the Sunday at 2 o’clock so that we could feature on the extended highlights. Assume we would have made a few quid if that had gone ahead but it had to be our game that was the one that was postponed because of a waterlogged pitch. That Ronnie Radford goal in a sea of mud seems like 100 years ago not 50. We’ll never see the likes again but I’d rather see a football match than 22 men covered in sludge tbh.

The rearranged date was set for Tuesday 14^th November so plans were starting to be made. Then we’re effed about again, it’s moved back a day to satisfy TV but not in this country. ESPN have got it apparently and that’s for audiences based in America only.

No wonder fans start to get disillusioned with the whole thing. We were allocated 230 seats and 900 terrace places. We didn’t sell out. Woking is less than 60 miles away. In better times than these they would have been snapped up quite quickly.

Good draw or bad draw? Given our Kassam form prior to Saturday, better to be away and as it is not far down the road for those of us who blindly go everywhere not too much of a chunk out of our time. Plus it is a place we have not visited for a while.

Our opponents

Woking are 4^th in the National League. They’ve scored in their last nine games and have kept clean sheets in the last four.

Their natural habitat though does seem to be the level they’re now at. Whenever they drop down to the NL South they get back up again quite quickly. They’re not looked on as big hitters in the National League level but if a club like Stevenage can make it into the EFL then why not the Cards? Whilst they don’t get big gates for their division when compared to ex-league clubs Wrexham, Notts County, Oldham, Chesterfield, Southend and York, being eighth highest with an average of 2,619 isn’t too shabby.

In our tier 5 days we played them six times in the league, winning two and losing one away whilst at home not a goal was scored by either team.

Peter Jordan, who has served as a director at the club since 2005, is the majority shareholder although there was some confusion in 2015 when it was reported in the press that he was going to retire and sell his stake. He didn’t.

Not much can be gleaned from their abridged version of accounts. Those to year end 31/05/21 show them to be £3.6m in the red having broken even give or take during the twelve month period.

Woking 1 Oxford United 2

Other than a Wetherspoons, the 50^th edition of the Good Beer Guide only offers up one drinking establishment in Woking. That’s the Woking Railway Athletic Club which is a members-only club but they do allow CAMRA members in too. It’s basically a working class social club based in a very large hut. To gain entry an intercom, which wasn’t working, has to be pressed. Eventually attracting someone’s attention we got in no problem but as the door slowly opened I thought a secret password might be needed. No hint of athletics but plenty of pictures of railways and trains adorning the walls. Very bright inside there were about half a dozen blokes who looked like they’d just come from work with a couple playing chess and the others glancing up at the golf on a big screen. There was a choice of three hand pumps and none disappointed. And here’s the thing – three quid a pint. In the toilets there was a notice saying the price would change during England’s games during the World Cup. Down to two quid a pint. Now that is a bargain. It’s not the sort of place we usually end up drinking in before a game but I really liked it. If I lived locally I’m sure I’d be quite a frequent visitor.

Given the rain had started to drop from the sky with some force it helped that one of our party, who joined us late on, had a car parked close by and took us most of the way to The Laithwaite Community Stadium.

To be told by a steward as we queued to get in that we should hold on to our tickets “just in case the game gets called off” didn’t bode well.

There was water everywhere and down it continued to heavily come for most of the game. I’d opted to wear my rain coat (flashers mac some call it but who was laughing now?) but even that couldn’t maintain its resistance and I suspect that I wasn’t the only Oxford fan to pile a heap of very damp clothes in to the airing cupboard on my return to Oxfordshire. There’s no real logical explanation as to why I’d decided to buy a ticket for the uncovered terrace down the side of the pitch and not a seat in the impressive covered stand to our left where I’ve sat before.

Something about being exposed to the elements like this felt like we’d gone back to the 70s when the facilities and terraces at grounds up and down the country were basic to say the least. Some people yearn for those days. I don’t tbh but am not unhappy that I lived through them and I absolutely don’t mind days like this when we win.

Whilst spectating was not for the faint-hearted the same applied to the players too. Every single one of them on both sides gave us a cup tie to remember where no quarter was asked nor given. Spray shot into the air as foot made contact with ball but it never held up and did zip about a bit with a high level of skill being needed to keep it under control.

I thought we played well but was also very impressed with Woking. I’d watched Derby destroy Torquay on TV the previous evening but on this evidence the gap between bottom of the National League and the top is massive. A mate who supports the Gulls told me our tie would be tricky and he was right. I’ve seen a few teams this season in L1 that are worse than Woking.

I honestly think that we were the better team but can totally see why Woking fans thought they were. Darren Sarll their manager thought his side was the one with the most intent. The producer of one Woking podcast at both half and full time thought that his team were “absolutely dominating” ours.

The stats don’t show that. We had 51% possession. They did have more shots than us: 14 to 9 and more on target: 5 to 3 but its being clinical and having the rub of the green that gets teams over the line.

I commented to a friend in the first half that although it was very even and both teams were equally giving their all there were a few glimpses that we had that extra bit of class on the ball and all things being equal that was what would win us the game.

That said of course it could have gone the other way. On another day our first might have been disallowed and I think if it had gone against us we’d have appealed but it doesn’t look like the keeper, Craig Ross, had “control of the ball with his hands” i.e. both hands on the ball or the ball was between one hand and any surface.

They could have gone a goal up early on with what would have been the most bizarre of own goals. A home player making a backwards pass that cannoned off Lewis Bate from 25 yards out and over Eddie McGinty and onto the bar and over for a corner. That would have been an utter fluke and not deserved but sometime they go in.

The next time they hit the bar, when they were seeking a second equaliser, was different altogether. James Kellerman’s swivelled shot was unquestionably a piece of quality and neutrals would have thought he, and they, deserved for it to be an inch or so lower. Naturally we didn’t.

We took the lead with six minutes of the first half remaining. Stuart Findlay pushed a pass down the line to Steve Seddon who looked for Matty Taylor in the box. Whether our number 9 was looking just to control the ball, shoot or pass is irrelevant. It came off him into the six yard box and a sliding Billy Bodin got it over the line. Ross very nearly pulled off a brave save.

That lead lasted just four minutes. Findlay got under a high free-kick and when it came back down Scott Cuthbert got the ball to Joe McNerney who played it back towards the centre of the goal. Seddon got a touch but not a clearance, with the ball only going to Jermaine Anderson. Whilst he was probably thinking of turning and shooting and glory to be had, it was grabbed by Rohan Ince who ran on to the ball bending it beautifully past the outstretched hand of McGinty.

We’d made four changes to the starting line up of three days earlier and one of those was between the sticks. I’ve previously been very critical of McGinty, calling out what I’ve perceived to be clown like behaviour. Mates have thought I’d been unduly harsh. Every time the man from Ireland did well and there were a few of those, his name was shouted quite loudly in my direction. I can take it and very glad to do so too.  No rushes of blood here resulting in him ending up marooned many yards from goal. His handling was fine, he did well to block a low shot with his legs when we’d switched off from a free-kick and pulled off a very good save in the second half. By the end my confidence in him had shot up tremendously.

The other changes were Ciaron Brown, James Henry and Marcus Browne not starting. In their stead were Seddon, Cameron Brannagan back from suspension and Tyler Goodrham. The latter is an entertainer and really does seem to have something about him with potential to go far in the game. It was he who put us back in the lead with the second period just eight minutes old.

It was a well worked goal. Woking, for all their good play on the night, never put together a move like this. Seddon cushioned a pass to Marcus McGuane who moved it on quickly to Brannagan who had been pointing where he wanted it placing. He’d intended a shot but the precision of the pass was a foot or so out meaning Cam had to track back on himself before rolling it into the path of Goodrham who had advance to his right. A great low finish did the job.

There was still a long way to go and Woking were as determined as they come to get back on terms but for the next 10-15 minutes we played our football and could have had another.

As that third didn’t materialise we were unable to breathe a sigh of relief until it was all over.  That Kellerman effort wasn’t the only time they came close.  Reece Grego-Cox put a header straight at McGinty from the edge of the six-yard box when he’d been left unmarked. For all our good defending when we’d got the requisite number of bodies back to defend our goal, that was slightly alarming.

We weren’t breached a second time though and now face Exeter a week on Saturday. The way we are playing now that is a very winnable tie. One I expect to watch in the dry.

Game over, job done and it has just stopped raining