Oxford United 0 Stockport County 1 – Mojo

Before the game I was discussing Oxford with my U’s friend Chris. As readers of this blog will be aware, I had already seen ten goals in two Oxford home games this season. Chris had seen them lose twice.

My clipping from this morning's copy of The Sun

The Sun’s football website: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football

Now I’m a neutral, but Chris is a diehard and so it was a case of seeing whose mojo was the stronger. United fans will be glad to hear that I’ve now banned Chris from the Kassam!

Stockport came to do a job and left smiling. They managed to score a well worked goal in the 41st minute – a long cross field ball from Greg Tansey, superbly controlled by Adam Griffin on the left and then whipped over for George Donnelly to nod in his fifth goal in seven games.

Keeper Ryan Clarke stood no chance with the goal and, one decent save an a punched clearance aside, must have been wondering whether he needed to change his deodorant as no-one really came near him for the rest of the game.

Oxford then spent most of the match huffing and puffing, but failed to break County’s defence down. Skipper and striker, James Constable, became increasingly more desperate to score against former manager Paul Simpson – the man who had ditched him from his Shrewsbury side.

Towards the end Constable did manage to find the net, but was ruled offside and that decision just about summed up Oxford’s day. I can’t say whether it was a correct one (the press box was at the furthest point from the action), but I suspect that the players realized t that point that they’d be having a quiet night in with the missus rather than clubbing it in the city centre.

It was frustrating for the home support, but I guarantee that there will be games like this later in the season when Oxford need to do what Stockport did and the fans will be delighted if they sneak a result in the same way.

It was the first time County had won away at Oxford and their boss - former U’s winger Simpson – was honest enough to admit that it was a “smash and grab” performance.

Chris Wilder was obviously frustrated at the final whistle, but showed what a class act he is by putting himself up for three or four interviews. He said:

“I can’t criticise my team as we threw everything at them. They are disappointed and no-one more so than James.”

I’m away on business this week drinking Belgian beer and eating Belgian chocolate in Antwerp, but will post more quotes from the key players in tomorrow’s blog.