Wow.. What an afternoon. Extremely pleased I went to this one now. We made a couple of poor defensive errors for the two goals and although Deegan's challenge wasn't a good one, the ref wasn't gonna give anything until the players and fans complained, then he came back and gave him a second yellow. But to be honest we still looked comfortable with 10 men. Lovely diving header by pigott, both of the new guys seem to be a lot more mobile but the game passed Cassidy by a bit. To be fair we should give them time. Brown changed it up and it worked.. BBBC coming up with the winner sending us home happy.. Also some heroic defending by all, bWilliams.. Actually played really well today, and one amazing save by Bentley when it looked to be going in to break our hearts... Alas for a change it was our day. Now let's keep it going.. Phil brown and the boys looked as happy as us fans and the end.. Think we all needed today UTB
Agree with this.
Both sides looked decidedly shaky at the back today so despite our horrendous scoring record of late there was always going to be goals in this one.
Binnon-Williams made a few errors early on but grew into the game and made some vital blocks, interceptions and clearances that saw us over the line.
Thompson started in similar fashion but sadly didn't improve as much as his defensive partner. I don't know the details of Barrett's injury yet but let's hope he can step in to sure up the defence soon enough. Some leadership at the back would really have helped today and made it more comfortable.
That said, take nothing away from the lads. Every single one of them put everything into that performance and it was the sort of game which reminds you why you support your local side even if enduring League Two football.
It was my first game for a while and how we've missed Ben Coker. Definite candidate for MOM as most of our good attacking play came through him or David Worrall who was also a real threat on the right. Worrall had the beating of his man constantly throughout the first half and Oxford had to resort to hacking him down just to cope.
My take on Deegan's sending off was that it was a definite foul. Whether the offence was bookable is up for debate but the ref had made a rod for his own back already by flashing yellow cards very early in the game which set his standard.
Deegan's first booking was needless. A cynical foul with Oxford on the break but we had plenty of cover and they weren't looking that threatening anyway. With the first booking within the first 15 mins or so he was gonna be walking a tightrope for the remainder of the game. I said at the time to my gf that it was far too early for that player to be booked and we might well be in trouble later on. He's got to learn to reign it in when on a card especially that early in the game. The only black spot on a great afternoon.
Despite being down to 10 men I felt at halftime that we could still win the game. Oxford had been as poor at the back as we had and were making our normally toothless attack look threatening. The goal before half time was a real kick in the teeth coz I felt we'd had the better of the half overall.
Piggott took his goal superbly to get us level and from then on the remainder of the match was a superb advert for League Two football. Constant end to end football and you couldn't take your eyes off it.
When Barry Corr came on you could tell he was up for it. Winding up his marker with little digs and throwing himself into challenges as the sole man up front and our only real out ball from a barrage of Oxford attacks.
Our goal lead a charmed life in the second period and if the game had ended 4-4 no one could have complained.
Let's hope we can follow up today's result and performance with 3 points down at Fratton Park next week. And hopefully keep 11 players on the pitch.
Up the Blues!