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Marvin, the Gills & 1976

Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2016 8:48 am
by OUFC4eva
Showaddywaddy were no.1 in the "hit parade" on December 11th 1976
when the U's last defeated Gillingham in Oxford in the Football League.

United: Burton, Fogg, Bodel, Clarke, Shuker, M.Briggs, B Jeffrey, Houseman, Duncan,
Foley and Tait.

Goals from Houseman, Jeffrey and Tait saw the U's win 3-1
in front of 3,519 on that cold Saturday afternoon.

Incidentally, the manager of the U's back then, Mick Brown
was in the U's club shop last night along side big Ron Atkinson
who was signing copies of his new autobiography.

Chatting to Mick Brown he recalled his fondness
for managing the U's under difficult financial
circumstances with lots of young players having to be developed.
He's now scouting for Aston Villa at 77 years of age.
He particularly bemoaned the sale of Mick Tait to Carlisle
in early '77 and how his hand was forced to bring in finance
or the club could have folded back then.

Back to the Gills game of 2016 - we deserved it but it was close.
A wonderful goal from magic Marvin Johnson
after a superb one two with Kane Hemmings won it for the U's.
Marvin shot low across Nelson into the bottom right corner
and promptly celebrated with gusto the birth of his new daughter, Ava.

Robbie Hall impressed me - he's very quick and nimble footed
and when fully up to speed will cause big problems for defences.
The mercurial Chris Maguire got MoM again and he is a massive
talent! Curtis Nelson is looking asssured now too.
Alex MacDonald had a super game too and looked full of
energy. Thick fog descended on Grenoble road during half time
and it made for difficult viewing from the SSU
during the second half but we held firm thanks to
"Clint" Eastwood in particular.

League leaders Scunthorpe away next - we couldn't could we?

Re: Marvin, the Gills & 1976

Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2016 2:19 pm
by Kernow Yellow
I saw us beat Gillingham 6-0 at the Manor in the mid-80's. Not a league game though of course.

Just seen the highlights - that fog at the final whistle is quite something! Lucky it hadn't got quite that bad earlier. I wasn't at the game, but it didn't sound quite as exhilarating as Saturday. A big 3 points nevertheless - winning tight games in difficult conditions is an important skill.

Re: Marvin, the Gills & 1976

Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2016 3:08 pm
by recordmeister
Fogg was there last night, too...

Re: Marvin, the Gills & 1976

Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2016 7:09 pm
by GodalmingYellow
We got less than we deserved against Gillingham, although they applied a bit of pressure towards the end as you might expect.

Rob Hall was a great signing, and if we can keep him (get him) fully fit, he is just as good as Kemar Roofe.

Our first XI is starting to look balanced and more settled, although for me Ledson wasn't in the game enough and I prefer Rothwell in that position.

Both Maguire and MacDonald had very good games and unless he is not fit, I don't want to see Macca being dropped again.

Lunny wasn't quite as good as against Coventry, but I like that he is getting a little further forward.

I agree with the earlier comments that Curtis Nelson seems to have got into his game made. Big shame about Dunks though. Hopefully he will be back soon.

We missed Skarz at left back. Full backs are specialist positions and playing bit part players in those positions never works that well. Having said that Johnson had a good game. He is starting to look a little more confident and is attacking the ball now rather than waiting for it which makes a big difference obviously.

Overall it was a good win and we've got the Gillingham bogey team monkey off our backs finally.

Scunthorpe away will be a very stiff test, and I will be happy with a single point from that game.

Isn't it funny how a couple of wins and leaping a few places up the table makes you feel a lot better about our prospects?