So it’s the Ox(en) versus the Bulls tomorrow and great excuse to use one of my favourite songs in the headline above (that gives you some idea of how old I am!). Having said that, you’ll still find me munching my way through a burger or two before kick-off.
Hereford’s goalkeeping coach and the assistant manager to Jamie Pitman, Russell Hoult, has registered as a player at the grand old age of 38 and will presumably by used as back up for regular stopper and former skipper Adam Bartlett.
Oxford will be hoping to ‘do’ the double over Hereford after beating them 2-0 at Edgar Street with goals from James Constable and Tom Craddock. However, the visitors are on fire away from home and will be hoping to notch up their sixth away win on the bounce.
Craddock’s former Luton team mate, Hungarian defender Janos Kovacs, 25, returns to the squad following a suspension, but Pitman is expected to retain a settled side.
Kovacs didn’t play against Oxford earlier this season, but will be hoping for the sort of rip roaring end to the game he played in for Luton against last year against the Yellows. Luton scored two goals and had a man sent off in the last minute if memory serves me correctly while Oxford replied through Matt Green.
But Chris Wilder will live with that outcome if he ends up with a similar result at the end of the season – promotion.
Wilder has taken time out this week to praise the Oxford support and told the club website:
“Look at the fantastic support we have had for the last two away games. To take somewhere in the region of 500 to Morecambe was amazing.
The atmosphere our fans can create at home can really drive the players forward. I want this place to be difficult for the opposition to come to.”
Pitman allayed any concerns regarding new injuries and told the Press Association:
"Everyone`s in full health. Everyone`s ready to go so as long as it stays like that we`re at full-strength again apart from the long-term injuries."
I've set up this blog (Monday-Friday) to give extra coverage to teams I cover for the national press. Any views and opinions are all my own. Best wishes, Jeff. Follow me on Twitter and I'll update you each time I blog. http://twitter.com/JeffTaplin P.S. During the summer break I reserve the right to ramble on about anything and everything!
Showing posts with label James Constable. Show all posts
Showing posts with label James Constable. Show all posts
Friday, 25 February 2011
Monday, 20 September 2010
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.
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.
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.
Monday, 6 September 2010
Oxford United 4 Morecambe 0 – Good Luck Charm
I have a couple of mates who watch Oxford week in week out and have been telling me that the side have been playing well despite failing to notch up their first league win. Well they got in on Saturday - and in some style too.
My last visit to the Kassam saw Oxford destroy Bristol Rovers 6-1 in the League Cup and so in my two visits to watch the Us this season I’ve seen them score ten goals. The local reporters in the press box were practically begging me to come again and while my presence obviously has an effect, I really think I should give a little credit to the players!
First on the roll of honour is 25 year old skipper James “Beano” Constable.
The last time I spoke to Constable was when he had just joined Walsall. After re-introducing myself to him (and mistakenly aging him by 6 years – sorry about that James!), he told me how much he was enjoying life at the club and what had happened in the intervening years. He said:
“The move to Walsall and another one to Shrewsbury didn’t work out for me and when Oxford showed an interest I jumped at the chance. You only had to see the set-up and the fan base to know it wouldn’t be a Conference club for long and so I jumped at the chance to join them. To be captain here is special and I take the responsibility seriously.”
James scored his first in the 25th minute and I had a gut feeling that a goal was coming and so had the camera video running as Simon Heslop took the corner. The footage isn’t that good and certainly doesn’t do justice to the goal. Then again, it’s better than nothing and gives you an idea of the view we have in the press box.
Heslop’s opening goal was the pick of the bunch and while Constable deserved his man of the match champagne, Heslop is rapidly becoming the main man in Oxford’s midfield following his signing in the summer.
Heslop, 23, started out – and spent five years - at Barnsley and said:
“I lost count of the number of clubs I’ve been to on loan over the years, but I think my career only really took off when I signed a three year deal with Oxford this summer.
I was asked to drop back a little bit in the second half as we didn’t want to throw away the lead, but I definitely enjoyed the goal.”
Laurence Wilson picked up a second yellow card for Morecambe before Constable added two more goals late on and the assist by Alfie Potter saw him being immediately thanked by his skipper.
Substitute Potter said:
“It was typical of Beano to come straight to me and pat me on the back rather the run off celebrating. It also shows that practice makes perfect as we’ve been doing that in training.”
At two-nil Oxford looked comfortable and keeper Ryan Clarke had been a mere onlooker for most of the game, but showed that he was ready and willing when called upon by producing a superb (and brave) double save from Paul Mullin. He reacted instinctively to palm away the striker’s header before diving to smother and hold on to a point blank follow up shot.
Afterwards though Clarke was full of praise for Constable and said:
“He’s a bully, but in the best possible way. Our defenders were complaining about the treatment they got from Damian Spencer when we played Aldershot, but I pointed out that Beano dishes that out every week. It’s a lot better playing with him than against him!
I’ll try to tell him that my saves and a clean sheet are just as important as his goals, but I doubt whether he’ll be having it.”
After Oxford’s League Cup demolition of Rovers I predicted that they would be there or thereabouts at the end of the season and on this display I have to say I saw nothing to change my mind, although obviously they will need me sitting on my fat behind in the press box if they’re to rack up the goals :-)
My last visit to the Kassam saw Oxford destroy Bristol Rovers 6-1 in the League Cup and so in my two visits to watch the Us this season I’ve seen them score ten goals. The local reporters in the press box were practically begging me to come again and while my presence obviously has an effect, I really think I should give a little credit to the players!
My clipping from this morning's copy of The Sun
The Sun’s football website: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football
First on the roll of honour is 25 year old skipper James “Beano” Constable.
The last time I spoke to Constable was when he had just joined Walsall. After re-introducing myself to him (and mistakenly aging him by 6 years – sorry about that James!), he told me how much he was enjoying life at the club and what had happened in the intervening years. He said:
“The move to Walsall and another one to Shrewsbury didn’t work out for me and when Oxford showed an interest I jumped at the chance. You only had to see the set-up and the fan base to know it wouldn’t be a Conference club for long and so I jumped at the chance to join them. To be captain here is special and I take the responsibility seriously.”
James scored his first in the 25th minute and I had a gut feeling that a goal was coming and so had the camera video running as Simon Heslop took the corner. The footage isn’t that good and certainly doesn’t do justice to the goal. Then again, it’s better than nothing and gives you an idea of the view we have in the press box.
Heslop’s opening goal was the pick of the bunch and while Constable deserved his man of the match champagne, Heslop is rapidly becoming the main man in Oxford’s midfield following his signing in the summer.
Heslop, 23, started out – and spent five years - at Barnsley and said:
“I lost count of the number of clubs I’ve been to on loan over the years, but I think my career only really took off when I signed a three year deal with Oxford this summer.
I was asked to drop back a little bit in the second half as we didn’t want to throw away the lead, but I definitely enjoyed the goal.”
Laurence Wilson picked up a second yellow card for Morecambe before Constable added two more goals late on and the assist by Alfie Potter saw him being immediately thanked by his skipper.
Substitute Potter said:
“It was typical of Beano to come straight to me and pat me on the back rather the run off celebrating. It also shows that practice makes perfect as we’ve been doing that in training.”
At two-nil Oxford looked comfortable and keeper Ryan Clarke had been a mere onlooker for most of the game, but showed that he was ready and willing when called upon by producing a superb (and brave) double save from Paul Mullin. He reacted instinctively to palm away the striker’s header before diving to smother and hold on to a point blank follow up shot.
Afterwards though Clarke was full of praise for Constable and said:
“He’s a bully, but in the best possible way. Our defenders were complaining about the treatment they got from Damian Spencer when we played Aldershot, but I pointed out that Beano dishes that out every week. It’s a lot better playing with him than against him!
I’ll try to tell him that my saves and a clean sheet are just as important as his goals, but I doubt whether he’ll be having it.”
After Oxford’s League Cup demolition of Rovers I predicted that they would be there or thereabouts at the end of the season and on this display I have to say I saw nothing to change my mind, although obviously they will need me sitting on my fat behind in the press box if they’re to rack up the goals :-)
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
Oxford United 6 Bristol Rovers 1 – The Massacre
My clipping from this morning's copy of The Sun
It’s easy, this writing lark!
One hundred words on the final whistle. Piece of piss really when you’re covering a fairly minor first round Carling Cup tie unless …
I was looking forward to seeing how newly promoted Oxford fared against League One outfit Bristol Rovers. It was going to be a good test for them against a decent side and a win wouldn’t necessarily have been a shock – this wasn’t a footballing win though, it was blood sport at its most horrific.
Striker James Constable in particular looked to be a man making up for lost time after several seasons plying his trade in the conference. On Saturday in the goalless draw against Burton, Constable had to deal with veteran defender Darren Moore and the Oxford skipper admitted he had to check Moore still wasn’t behind him before kick off in last night’s game. However, he had no such problems with the Rovers defence.
Constable scored two and had a hand in two others (for winger Matt Green and midfield Simon Heslop) and his awareness was superb. Constable’s co-striker Jack Midson also found the net and Heslop wrapped things up with his second in the dying seconds with the Rovers players desperate to get back on the team bus and go home.
Simon Heslop also deserves special mention (as an excited Oxford fan called Ian Smith pointed out to me at half time) and he certainly helped boss the midfield and gave his teammates the platform on which to strut their stuff.
Whatever the level of football, most of us have been on the end of a drubbing like this at one time or another, but something was seriously wrong with the Rovers players last night and, although Paul Trollope claimed afterwards that spirit was good in the camp, I have seen a fair bit of these players in the last couple of seasons and felt that the problems ran deeper than a bad day at the office.
There are some very good footballers in the Rovers team which makes it an even more puzzling result and it’ll be interesting to see how they get on in the West Country derby game against Yeovil on Saturday. My feeling is that the cider drinkers will be licking their lips in anticipation if they get their hands on the DVD of this one!
But it would be churlish to put this result down to Rovers’ ineptness. As bad as they were, Oxford were excellent.
Every Oxford player got stuck in and the movement and passing were superb – the finishing wasn’t too shoddy either!
Poor Mike Green – making his first competitive start in the Rovers goal after four years with the club – deserved much better protection. Frankly the goals weren’t his fault and I hope that his teammates all chip in to buy him a decent bottle of malt so he can drown his sorrows – it’s the least they can do for him. Trollope said that several of them apologized to him in the dressing room afterwards and so that’s a start.
Mikkel Andersen is first choice as Rovers keeper for the next month while on loan from Reading, but he was away on international duty with the Danish U-21s last night. Don’t be surprised if he “misplaces” his passport when he gets wind of this performance.
Chris Wilder was chuffed with his players last night and well he might be. It’s a tricky job sitting in the dugout knowing what your players should be doing and yet not being able to really influence proceedings (ask Paul Trollope), but last night’s game was one of those that Wilder could sit back and enjoy knowing his players were doing everything right.
I suspect he wasn’t too disappointed with Chris Line’s Rovers goal either. It allowed former Rovers’ keeper (and fan) Ryan Clarke to bend down and pick the ball up and stretching exercises are good for an athlete after all!
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