2021/22 Prediction League; Game 32 v Oxford United (home)

Div3North · 07-02-2022, 13:58

Accrington Stanley FC

v

Oxford United FC

2021/22 Prediction League Game 32; v MorseLewisHathawayEndeavour FC (home)

My heart went out over the weekend to Kyril Louis-Dreyfus (majority shareholder and Chairman - or as the French say, "President" - of Slumberland AFC ) ..... having been at the top of the League Un Tour d'Eiffel gazing down on Les Paysannes (Peasants), their last six games have brought them a single goal win, two draws and three defeats, and dropped them to fourth ..... Saturday's defeat at home (2-1 to Donnie) was especially embarrassing, since Donnie were bottom of the table with just five wins, and Monsieur le President Pour Toute la Vie Dreyfus's first response would inevitably have been to sack the Manager ("Ou sont les Tricoteuses?")........... except that he couldn't, because he sacked him last week after the 6-0 Debacle at Bolton .......

Mmmwwwwahahahahahahahahaha!

You have to wonder, though, based on Saturday's fixtures, what's going on in the world of footie ...... Are we heading back to The Bad Old Days, or even starting our own Bad New Days? And where in the name of all that's Holly are these ridiculous amounts of "time added on" in the second half of games coming from? it won't be long before going to a game will be like going to one of Ken Dodd's theatre shows, where you had to catch the milk float to get home .....

There was, of course, The Nonsense at Rotherham ..... kicking the ball off the penalty spot and barging into Harry P ...... The final whistle was about 90+8 mins in, from memory............. And Morecambe v Bolton - 90 + 17, allegedly because of some racial abuse, with Bolton's equalizer timed as being in the 104th minute of the conventional 90 mins ........... Ian Evatt (Bolton Manager) said:

"From minute one the barrage of abuse from directly behind the dugout was astonishing. No protection. Encroachment, spitting and it takes the worst of all remarks - a racist remark - for somebody to stand up and do something about it. I'm emotional. This game never fails to disappoint me. I feel for Stephen [Robinson, Morecambe boss], because his team has fought and it's not in any shape at all a mark against him, he was outstanding on the touchline and completely understanding."

Evatt said he was proud of the way his players, who had trailed to Cole Stockton's goal, had "stuck together" after they came from behind to earn a point through Amadou Bakayoko's 104th-minute equaliser once the game had resumed.

"If one of us gets abused, we all get abused. We all stuck together, we all did the right thing and this needs to be stamped out of the game. It's the worst I've seen by far. Just because we are sportsmen and professional people and we work for opposition football clubs, it does not give you a right to say and do what you want to us. We are human beings and we deserve to be treated like human beings. Some things are bigger than football and today is bigger than football."

Hard to disagree with a single word of that ............ Kick It Out! Kick them out!

And Oxford v Pompey too, where a "medical incident" in and around the tunnel at half time caused a delay of 20-some minutes .............. The DreamySpires' Manager Karl Robinson "didn't know what had happened", it seems, because his team were in the dressing room, but by all accounts it must have got a bit feisty; 1-1 after ten minutes, Pompey's Joe Morrell red-carded after 16 mins for a high tackle (on "FourPens" Brannagan), Pompey 2-1 up on 51, and Oxford snatching the points with goals on 82 (that man Brannagan again) and 90+6 ..... and the game lasted at least two minutes more ........... and apart from the one red card, the ref waved his yellow card about too .......... Starter for Ten, then: how many players did the ref "yellow card" during the game?

And talking of late goals, does anyone know - Second Starter for Ten - the earliest goal scored after kick-off which won an EFL match 1-0?

Oxford United were formed as Headington in 1893, adding the suffix United in 1911 after merging with Headington Quarry. The club was founded by Rev. John Scott-Tucker, the vicar at Saint Andrew's Church, and a local doctor named Robert Hitchings. The team's first football match (it was annexed to a Cricket Club initially) was against Cowley Barracks. Having squatted here and there over the early years, a permanent home was found in 1925, when they purchased the Manor Ground site on London Road, where they stayed until 2001, when they bought Victor Kayam ........... no. hang on .... Kassam

Going professional was first considered in the 1948–49 season: Vic Couling,(I knew his Cousin, Vic Warming-Up) the president at the time, applied for Headington to become a member of a new Second Division of the Southern League (others who applied included Weymouth, Kettering Town and Cambridge United). Although the expansion plans were postponed, the First Division was to be expanded by two clubs, and Weymouth and Headington were elected (it was later discovered that Llanelli had just one vote fewer than Headington.) Oxford played their first season in the Southern League in 1949, the same year they turned pro. In 1950, they became the first professional club in Britain to install floodlights, and first used them on 18 December against Banbury Spencer (lovely bloke, Banbury ....) They initially played in orange and blue striped shirts, but changed to yellow home shirts for the 1957–58 season (the reason for the change is unknown). In 1960, Headington United was renamed Oxford United, to give the club a higher profile.

Two years later, in 1962, the club won the Southern League title for the second successive season and was elected to the Football League Fourth Division, occupying the vacant place left by the previous Accrington Stanley's demise. They didn't break any early pots (two successive eighteenth-place finishes) but they won promotion to the Third Division in 1965.

A year before that promotion (1963/64), Oxford became the first Fourth Division club to reach the sixth round of the FA Cup, beating Folkestone, Kettering, Chesterfield, Brentford (after a replay) and Blackburn (3-1) en route, before PNE did them 2-1 on their way to losing the Final 3-2 to the Hammers ......... they haven't got that far since. They did, though, win the old Second Division in 1984/85, and after just 23 years were promoted to the Top Flight; they survived until 1987/88, when they went down again to Div 2 in company with Chelsea, Pompey and Watford, but they did win the Milk Cup in 1986, being prevented from European Glory by the Heysel ban on English sides

They were GreasyPoled to the Bananarama the year we came up - oh sweet revenge! - as (I believe) the only team to have won one of the Cups and gone out of the League), returning to the fold in 2010 by winning the Playoff Semi against Rushden and Diamonds, and then doing York in the Final (3-1) ........ 2015/16 saw them finish second in League Two behind the Cobblers, and ahead of Brizzle and us .... Boo!

They ended last season in 6th place, despite losing 8 of their first 13 games, but got ambushed at the Omar Khayam by Blackpool 3-0 in the semis, and lost 6-3 on aggregate over the two legs; they also did us 4-1 at Fortress Wham (which wasn't, obviously) although we got a 2-1 revenge win at theirs (goals by Paul Smyth and Michael Nottingham). For the summer Sales, Sackings and Signings I refer you to the thread opener for Game 10 (that's the one where they thumped us 5-1); since then they've ProperSigned AMF Marcus Browne from Middlebrough, Northern Irish AMF Oisin Smyth from Dungannon Swifts ("Oisin" - pronounced "Uh-sheen" means "small deer", or in mythology, a poet or a warrior), and also striker Sam Baldock from Derby ... striker Daniel Ebenezer Kwasi Agyei left for Crewe ...... well, someone had to ..............

Their home record is W10 D4 L2 (3-1 to Plymouth and 3-2 to Wigan) GF33 GA17, and away it's W5 D4 L5 GF21 GA19, for an overall P30 W15 D8 L7 GF54 GA36 for 53 points and 5th place ........ 54 scored matches Rotherham and Sunderland ......... we've scored 35 (only Pompey of the 14 teams above us have scored fewer) and let in 46 (all 14 above us and three below us have conceded fewer than we have) .......... our problem seems to be that we've created about 127 goals, but haven't scored them ......

Leading scorer is Matty Taylor - 14 in the League, 16 in all) ... they're out of the FA Cup (4-3 to Brizzle aet in Round 1 after a Desmond), out of the EFL Cup 2-0 at QPR (Round 2) after a penalty win over Burton following a half Desmond, and the Troffy, where they finished bottom of their group, only managing to beat Spurs Kindergarten XI 3-2

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 7.45pm on Tuesday 8th February .....They've been a bit of bogey team to us over the seasons, have MorseLewisHathawayEndeavour; in the League overall, 8 to them, 6 to us and 5 draws ..... in League One, three wins each and one draw ... Their last six are three wins, two defeats (Lincoln and Wycombe away, both by 2-0), and a draw ......... we do, on those numbers, have a chance, but I'd suggest putting 10 men on Brannagan and not conceding any penalties (unless anyone's prepared to run on, kick the ball away and bump into FourPens before he takes it!)

And back to our Starters for Ten; Referee Sam Barrott yellow-carded Oxford's Elliott Moore, Herbie Kane, Cameron FourPens and Steve Seddon, and as regards Pompey - as well as the red - he booked seven others, viz GK Gavin Bazunu, Sean Raggett, Ryan Tunnicliffe, Denver Hume, Michael Jacobs, George Hirst and Ronan Keating - sorry, that should be Ronan Curtis .... so eleven in all ......... and I can see some fines coming along, although I'm not sure what the tariff is for one red and seven yellows actually is ........................

And as regards early goals winning 1-0 games the overall record seems to be 8 seconds after kick off, by Marcos Tavares as Maribor beat fellow Slovenian PrvaLiga side Domzale by the only goal in one in 2016/17: the English winner (currently) is Byron Moore (now at Torquay) who scored the winner/only goal of the game for Brizzle at Los Wombles after eleven seconds, curiously also in the same season .... gallant runners-up (on 12 seconds) were Ian Bogie (Portly Value at Stoke 1995/96) and Bryan Hughes - yes, our Bryan Hughes - for Brum v Huddersfield in 1999/2000 .... but the earliest sending off is still much quicker!

Good luck to everyone! ............ Keep the Faith! ,,,,,,,,,, And thanks for playing!

COYR!