NINE 2 Eleven 2

[Baboo]

What a strange day out. It’s not supposed to be the done thing to question Jim’s tactics but seeing the formation (not sure what we were trying to do) we started with I couldn’t help but think we were a couple of steps towards Atkins away at Rushden territory. We are supposed to be the team everyone fears (probably kidding ourselves on this one now) yet we start with one up front. No right back or right wing back – Anaclet was always further up the field. And if that’s where Jim wants someone Eddie is not the man for that job imho. On the other side Johnson hasn’t got the legs to get up and down. Quinn in midfield (that was his position wasn’t it??) is not where he belongs - we’ve seen enough to know that.
Add to this the fact that most players had off days (not for the first time now) and it is not surprising that we couldn’t beat 9 (NINE) men. Gilly and Pettifer were both very poor by their standards and Duffy, other than the goal, contributed nowt. Burgess doesn’t do enough when a game needs taking by the scruff of the neck and other than Hargreaves fighting but limited qualities we had no one who looked remotely like driving us on to victory. We lacked pace and width. (Same old story) The only player to excite was Yemi – I used to think that it was best to have him in reserve but now I feel we should give him a start.
Another worrying factor was that even with 9 (NINE) Stevenage looked as likely to score as we did. We should have kept the ball on the floor, passed it around, stretched them and completely knackered them, then run in a goal or few. We didn’t, we still whacked it forward far too often.
Things need to be sorted – but they could have been worse. Strange game, fancy Dagenham failing to beat Southport.
We are still top of the league so I shouldn’t grumble too much. But what the F**k was that police presence all about. Apparently all the coppers outside the ground were from Watford and had received a call to get over there during the game. At a guestimate I would have said that there were 40 -50 or possibly more, some with dogs, a helicopter overhead, and 5 or 6 police vans and a few cars parked outside. Was that all a reaction to the small scale incident at half time? Someone over reacted big time and wasted council tax payers’ money on this one. They should really be held to account but we know that will never happen. After all no one was held accountable for Hillsborough.

[Mally]

Agree with everything Baboo has said about the game. We really only played for about a quarter of the game and at 2:2 Stevenage looked like the side with a 2 player advantage.

As for the policing it was like going through a time warp back to the 70's and early 80's. What on earth were the dogs on the pitch all about? A good 5 minutes from the end and throughout the time it took to clear the away end they were barking and straining on their leads a couple of feet away from the totally well behaved Oxford Fans. They couldn't have been more provocative if they'd tried.

Outside with the massed ranks and helicopter hovering overhead I felt like a 5 star police scene from a Grand Theft Auto game, I was expecting swat teams to abseil out of the sky with sub machine guns at any moment.

They are all probably collectively patting themselves on the back for containing &quotthe trouble&quot but the truth is that there was no suggestion of any trouble to contain.

[A-Ro]

Unless as suggested it was a complete over reaction to the half time incident where it is possible the police realised they had not done the right thing and that we might have reacted badly to it.

The police and stewards went and spoke to the &quotvictim&quot but he simply waved them away which I suppose was his only alternative as the only other action would have been for him to make a complaint and he wouldn't have fancied all the court / police time that would ensue.

The sensible thing to have done would have been to get the player to apologise, then it would have all dissolved into nothing.

[Mally]

The sensible thing to have done would have been to get the player to apologise, then it would have all dissolved into nothing.

I think once the player hadn't apologised immediately the chance had gone. Bringing him back later would probably have only made things worse.

You have to ask why their players were warming up in front of Oxford fans in the first place? Also kicking balls towards the crowd at half time is completely irresponsible. During the game everybody is watching the ball but at half time nobody is looking at the pitch and it's asking for trouble. Surely players are told not to do this and I'd like to think that Stevenage would take some sort of disciplinary action against him but I doubt that they will.

[Kernow Yellow]

I couldn't believe the police at the end of the game. The dog-handler on the pitch nearest the exit was edging his dog ever forwards, staring aggressively into the away end. A few people asked why it was necessary, which only resulted in the dog being allowed even nearer the crowd and an even more aggressive stare. There wasn't any suggestion of trouble, or even needle between the two sets of fans at all. The police seemed to be trying to stir it up for some reason.

The incident at half-time was nothing really. I happened to be walking past the guy just as the ball smacked him in the face, and he was understandably upset. The reason it became an issue for others was that the sub was allowed to continue running near the goal smirking and kissing his badge, instead of being told to go and sit in the dressing room for a bit.

As to the game itself, even at half time I never thought we were going to lose. We'd been shocking at the back, but dominated every other area of play in the first half. When that continued after the break and we were back on level terms so soon, I honestly thought we were going to score 4 or 5. The fact that we stooped playing at that point is a big worry. For the last 15 minutes we looked far more likely to concede than score.

But the general consensus before the game was that we'd take a draw, and we came back from 2-0 down. And it wasn't as if it was a boring game...

[A-Ro]

I couldn't understand the police presence after the game either, there was nothing like it before the game and the helicopter as well. What did they think was going on?

I saw a police car making sure nobody could get away from the ground quickly as well, I just didn't understand it one bit.

[Mally]

There have been similar (but not quite on the same scale) heavy police presences at other away games this season. My theory is that the local police commanders who regularly looks after the conference club games are out of their depth and panic when they see or hear about crowds of over 1000 when they are used to 150 away fans. Because, presumably they can charge the football club for the policing their arse is covered both ways.

The other possibility is the Thames Valley Police football liason officer playing the big time charlie and talking up Oxford fans' reputation in the lead up to the games.

[GodalmingYellow]

Agree with Baboo's assessment of the game generally.

Interesting to see that Burgess thinks we battered (TiU report) them in the second half. I know who I felt looked more like scoring afterwe had pulled it back to 2-2, and it wasn't Oxford.

[Mally]

Agree with Baboo's assessment of the game generally.

Interesting to see that Burgess thinks we battered (TiU report) them in the second half. I know who I felt looked more like scoring afterwe had pulled it back to 2-2, and it wasn't Oxford.

Agree. For the first 15 minutes of the second half we totally steam-rollered them. Yemi was on fire and his run for the first goal was top class but after the second goal we lost the plot and started hoofing. I think Duffer deserves a mention for his laziness in the second half. He was slow to close down their keeper when he was wasting time and then took an age to get back on side which had the effect of breaking down attacks.

[Baboo]

My theory is that the local police commanders who regularly looks after the conference club games are out of their depth and panic when they see or hear about crowds of over 1000 when they are used to 150 away fans. Because, presumably they can charge the football club for the policing their arse is covered both ways.

But the plan had not been to police the game so heavily from the off. The policeman I talked to after the game said they had got the call and were told to get over there sharpish from Watford. I think some of the police that had been ordered over were just as bemused as the Oxford supporters and perhaps a little embarrassed too. Some of them were trying to be helpful in telling people the safest way to get to the car park the other side of the dual carriageway. They were not all like the agressive shaven headed dog handler.

But the whole incident does remind me why law abiding citizens sometimes have a genuine loathing of certain elements within the police force.

Contrast this to Lincoln at home a few years back when there was real police work to be done - the boys in blue were conspicuous by their absence that day.

Shame, because I thought these days were long behind us.

[Kernow Yellow]

But the whole incident does remind me why law abiding citizens sometimes have a genuine loathing of certain elements within the police force.

Completely agree. If that dog handler doesn't understand why he was getting the criticism he was, then he's extremely stupid.

If, as I suspect, he was enjoying the situation and deliberately making it worse, then he's deserving of every bit of contempt that came his way.

I thought the days when we were 'fair game' for heavy-handed policing just because we were at a football match were behind us.