Smash ‘n’ grab - Frustration

Oxford United were given a taste of what to expect from many visitors to the Kassam when they were frustrate by Stockport on Saturday.

Whether they like it or not – and despite the fact that the have just been promoted from the Conference – Oxford are arguably the biggest side in League Two. In my view only Bradford challenge them in terms of support and resources and that makes them a scalp worth having.

I suspect that Stockport boss Paul Simpson would have been delighted with a point prior to kick off and his side worked hard to frustrate the home team from the off.

George Donnelly’s 41st minute winning goal was well worked and executed, but was an unexpected bonus. And, one save and a punched clearance aside, Oxford keeper Ryan Clarke had one of his quietest games in a long time.

Even before the goal Stockport didn’t look like they wanted to take advantage of the superb surface and get the ball down and play football. Had they done so, I suspect that Oxford would have creamed them.

But County stuck to their game plan and their travelling fans drove back up the M6 grinning from ear to ear. A job needed to be done and the players had done them proud.

Oxford’s problem isn’t so much dropping points to Stockport, but learning to adapt their game to get past the numerous teams who visit the Kassam using similar tactics.

Having seen them three times this season, I have no doubts that they are smart enough as a group to learn from the Stockport experience. They have already shown plenty of guile, inventiveness and imagination this term and so boss Chris Wilder knows it’s in their locker and I’d bank on him bringing it out.

This result was a blip for Oxford. Indeed, Wilder was able to put the result into perspective and said:

“I’m not going to criticize my side because they were throwing everything at them towards the end.

We need to be a lot more clinical than that. Beano is disappointed he didn’t score at the end of the game, but a few of our players had chances and we didn’t take them.

Stockport changed their shape after 25 minutes, which, I guess, was a compliment to the way we were playing.

A lot of sides will come here and play like that and so we have to get used to it.”

Paul Simpson has an altogether trickier problem at Stockport. The club as a whole are finding their feet again after a turbulent couple of years that nearly saw them go out of business and Simpson will need to be given time to restructure the team before they can begin to play the type of football he once graced the Manor Ground with when he played nearly 150 games for Oxford.

In the meantime, Simpson is wily enough to know how to get results with what he has got. His team may not be very attractive, but they work hard for each other and they all seem to be pulling in the same direction.

I suspect they’ll end up in the top half of the table, but can’t see them making the top seven this season. However, I’m sure that this would be seen as a move in the right direction by the County faithful after all they’ve been through.

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.