[DAV007]

First of all, let me thank Chubbyman and the other band of accy fans who made there way down to Oxford.

Stanley started the game brightly, but a well placed Oxford through ball caught out Joyce and the defence leaving us a goal down out of nothing.

A nice instant reply from Carver, despite the announcer getting it wrong.

Oxford scored there 2nd from a weak clearance, although I dont think Lumley is totally to blame.
The defenders should have cleared it straight away and give Lumley a better pass, hats off to the Oxford midfielder who scored, it was a good finish.

Despite the score line, Stanley where the better side and had clearly done their homework on Oxford, applying heavy pressure when ever the Oxford midfield tried to pick up the ball of the defenders. This forced Oxford to go long which Stanley moped up with ease.
To compound matters for Oxford, it was noticable how the crowd had lost patience with the team due to their run of bad results, and they where getting on the players backs, with plenty of booing.

Then came the game changer, the red card. It was difficult to see from the away end, but the reaction of the other players gave me the impression it was a serious enough incident.
The ref didnt give himself any time to assess the situation and produced a straight red.

Its worth saying the referee wasnt great, he gave Stanley very little although he was not the reason we lost.

Stanley managed to keep it 2-1 or the rest of the half despite a small Oxford surge late on.

The 2nd half was a drab affair. The loss of Buxton who had played well was dissapointing, he recieved a smack in the head from one of the oxford players shins in the 1st half.

At no stage during the 2nd half did it seem likely Stanley would get back into the game, There was no game plan, no effort, our central midfield was increasingly over run with Proccy looking shattered and Joyce playing awful.

Oxford played alot of their attacks down the left flank at Hunt who got skinned numerous times, although he didnt get alot of support from midfield.

It seemed it was only a matter of time before Oxford scored again.
When they scored the 3rd it was gifted to them again from a Stanley defensive error.

Oxford went on to have numerous attacks and could have scored more, Stanley had no ideas and the full time whistle couldnt come soon enough.

To quote chubbyman 'Oxford didnt win the game, Stanley gifted it to them' I couldnt agree more, James Gray owes his team mates an apology.

Until the sending off, Stanley where comfortable and playing well despite the score line.