Last night

[Ascension Ox]

What a composed, professional performance. Particularly against the 10 men. Wilder was right to play cautiously, Luton were dangerous opponents.

The key men for me were in fact our centre backs and the keeper. Clarke is SO much more secure than Turley , while the much lauded Craddock got no change at all up against Creighton. From where I was sat the Nicholls red card was debatable. As far as Jamie Cook goal is concerned , well played the 12th Man!

What naffs me off no end is the continuing oafish behaviour of old school hoolies, no-marks, (some in their forties/fifties), who cost the club so much in police overtime/helicopter fuel/horses/bad publicity. Yes, most of the trouble emanated from our Bedfordshire friends, but we still have our downright skanky element.

Only moan from me on what was a generally brilliant evening. The Headington Bar was buzzing post-match, the glory-hunters are back! Good.

[GodalmingYellow]

What a composed, professional performance. Particularly against the 10 men. Wilder was right to play cautiously, Luton were dangerous opponents.

The key men for me were in fact our centre backs and the keeper. Clarke is SO much more secure than Turley , while the much lauded Craddock got no change at all up against Creighton. From where I was sat the Nicholls red card was debatable. As far as Jamie Cook goal is concerned , well played the 12th Man!

What naffs me off no end is the continuing oafish behaviour of old school hoolies, no-marks, (some in their forties/fifties), who cost the club so much in police overtime/helicopter fuel/horses/bad publicity. Yes, most of the trouble emanated from our Bedfordshire friends, but we still have our downright skanky element.

Only moan from me on what was a generally brilliant evening. The Headington Bar was buzzing post-match, the glory-hunters are back! Good.

The hoolies are all bollocks and bravado. They moved the mesh to within 20 feet of each other and got scared. They're not even worth the wear on my keyboard as I type this.

As expected, Luton were very good in the middle - better than us, but up front they are useless. Their defence is excellent too, but then they haven't been up against our strike force before, and we have the best strike force in the division.

Luton will not beat us to the title unless they sign someone who knows where the goal is. For my money, Saturday will be a tougher game, but luckily for us, Wrexham play on Thursday night as well (away to AFCW).

Luton had passages of dominance, and quite right too. We should expect that of serious rivals and it does not diminish our performance at all. Luton had to come out strong after our second goal as they no longer had anything to lose.

We also had passages of dominance, such as first 20 minutes, and when they went down to 10 men, we controlled the game pretty easily.

When Luton had periods of possession, their end ball wasn't really good enough, and I think they only really seriously threatened our goal 3 or 4 times. Clarke didn't have many saves to make.

Equally, we could have scored another through the penalty and we created plenty of chances ourselves.

It was a very well thought out game plan by Wilder, and it worked.

We are top of the league, we are top of the league. And it is going to take a very good team to beat us.

[boris]

Luton will not beat us to the title unless they sign someone who knows where the goal is.

Luton will not beat us to the title unless they get rid of Harford.

[OUFC4eva]

Why after Oxford's second goal did the &quotscum element&quot in the North Stand push the black netting back so they could move in on the hordes from Bedfordshire ?

As AO says - we have a worrying problem with a small section of idiots who seem intent on spoiling for a fight no matter who we play. It does and will cost the club a lot of money that it can ill afford if it continues - it is bloody embarrassing. I want us to be a proper family club

Great night otherwise with an electric atmosphere.

[Dr Bob]

I will not take up space by quoting all of GYs comments, suffice to say that I agree with everything you say. What a great drive back. It was so good to come away from a game have been reminded why I have spent a quarter of a century doing this. The fans, the atmosphere, the play (from two good sides, only one of which has a real cutting edge, admittedly). Wonderful. GY makes an important point about having periods of games against good teams when we will be on the back foot. What was so impressive was how everyone helped out to keep them at bay. Great stuff.

[Swissbloke]

Agree 100%.

Nothing to complain about. Wilder got it spot on. All the players were outstanding.

The crowd. outstanding. (numpties excepted)

The Kassam is very much a fortress now. LOVE IT

Oh and according to Harford they bossed the game and will still end up champions.

on the other hand, the Luton fans that I know are more down this morning than when they got relegated. A sorry realisation that this is not going to be a glory train back to the promised land.

[DLT]

You calling me a Glory Hunter AO?

Lets not blame the Bedfordshire boys for the grief last night. There were hundreds of irregular OUFC spectators there spoiling for 'confrontation'.

What pees me off is the fact that they are invariable time wasting posteuring cowards who wouldn't dream of 'going one on one' with anyone more than half their size. They all want to be 'in on the action' but not at the centre.

Why didn't the Police react by walking up the aisle beside where the netting had been moved and pull back the taunters from both sides?

Football wise, loved it. We beat a good team and our spine looks very strong (Clarke, Foster, Creighton, Murray and Bulman, who really impressed me).

[Dr Bob]

Why didn't the Police react by walking up the aisle beside where the netting had been moved and pull back the taunters from both sides?

I think you have already answered your own question - because they are posturing cowards (the thugs, not the cowards!). Having pushed the netting so far, they could have pushed it the rest of the way and got to each other had they really wanted to, espcially initially when there were only a few stewards around. Given that, it was probably exactly the right thing to do to keep an eye on them to make sure nobody did try to get across the gap, let the heat dissipate, then pull the netting back a bit more at half time. That way, there is no direct confrontation either between sets of thugs nor between thugs and police/stewards.

On a different theme, was I the only one impressed (by Conference standards) by the ref? We did not see the big-crowd posturing we have seen from some, I think the red card was right and generally I thought he handled a potentially very tricky match pretty well. The only incident I saw that I thought he got wrong was Green's challenge in our own box at the start of the second half - it looked (and sounded) to me like he caught their player's feet and tripped him up. Still, mustn't criticise refs too much....

[Matt D]

Luton will not beat us to the title unless they get rid of Harford.

tactics? ability to forge a team from component parts? ability to identify and bring in the right players? motivational skills? all the above?.. i'd be interested to hear why you think he's such a weakness for luton.

for me, the big difference between the two teams was heart and grit. we saw luton do what oxford sides have done so often - puff their chests out, but when things don't go their way, rapidly deflate.

i was nervous until the last quarter of the game or so as i thought luton's players had plenty of ability, but you just believe that wilder's oxford will keep going until the referee tells them that the game's over.

[Swissbloke]

On a different theme, was I the only one impressed (by Conference standards) by the ref? We did not see the big-crowd posturing we have seen from some, I think the red card was right and generally I thought he handled a potentially very tricky match pretty well. The only incident I saw that I thought he got wrong was Green's challenge in our own box at the start of the second half - it looked (and sounded) to me like he caught their player's feet and tripped him up. Still, mustn't criticise refs too much....

Yup I was thinking that on the way to work this morning. Great display, but was that because he gave a pen, sent a man off and we won 2-0!

[Hog]

Great evening and it was topped off nicely for me by Radio Oxford having an extra hour and the lovely phone call from Jamie Cook's mum - I thought she was going to burst with pride! Lovely stuff

[John Byrne's Underpants]

Fantastic! More nights like these please (but preferably without the hoolie element .

[OUFC4eva]

Remember dangerous opponents Exeter from the play off semi final home leg in 1997 ?

There we were under the cosh at 2-0 up and I looked around and saw the likes of Danny Rose, Andy Burgess, Rob Duffy, Yemi, Carl Pettefer et al
and the panic that spread through the team as we surrendered the midfield was shocking to witness.

Last night I looked around and saw the likes of Clarke, Creighton, Bulman.,Foster, Clist and Constable....

[GodalmingYellow]

Remember dangerous opponents Exeter from the play off semi final home leg in 1997 ?

There we were under the cosh at 2-0 up and I looked around and saw the likes of Danny Rose, Andy Burgess, Rob Duffy, Yemi, Carl Pettefer et al
and the panic that spread through the team as we surrendered the midfield was shocking to witness.

Last night I looked around and saw the likes of Clarke, Creighton, Bulman.,Foster, Clist and Constable....

1997?

I know Duffy played for us for longer than I wanted, but I didn't realise he had been with us for 10 years...

[boris]

It just felt like it.