SoS

And when do we find out whether you won at Oxford or not?

Yes, I did just read this whole thing through at 2am.

Lionel_Perez

Right, well I've got a bit of time on my hands so I finally want to get this finished. No promises though!

Oxford (Away)
Part Two of Two

Transfer deadline day has come and gone without any in's or out's at the Abbey. Southend claim we made concerted efforts to sign left winger Danny Maye, but Fallon has denied this and who are we to argue with him. As a result the line up is unchanged from last weeks win over the Swans. Ian Atkins is still in charge of Oxford, despite the fact they are just four points and two places clear of the relegation zone, and unsurprisingly he has included six defenders in his starting line up. One of these, the dangerous left back Paul Powell, has been deployed at left midfield, presumably in an attempt to nullify Tudor. Up front he gives debuts to former Arsenal and, ahem, Cambridge City striker Carlin Itonga, alongside top scorer Manny Omoyimni.

Any nerves we may have been suffering are settled after just six minutes. And, after all the good football we've played this season, its an almost perfect example of route one football. A huge booming clearance from Marshall is misjudged by Crosby allowing Omer to race clear. As usual he tries to be too precise, and his attempted shot is too close to Oxford keeper Virat Vangjan. Luckily for us, the Thai keeper can only parry the ball out, and Simon Rodger is first to react and fire the ball into the empty net. The next half an hour is pretty ordinary, and most people are frantically trying to get the Southend score on the radio. None of our group thought of bringing a transistor so we're reliant on this bloke sitting a couple of rows in front. Now I may have mentioned before that I find people who bring radios to games very annoying - if you're so interested in other games why bother to pay and watch us? Also some of us don't want to know what’s going on at West Ham or Derby or wherever. This bloke is typical of his kind: "Blackburn are winning 2-0 now!" Great, if I could choose one game which I have the greatest indifference about in the country, nay the world, today it would probably be Blackburn against whoever they're playing. We finally ascertain that its 0-0 at Rochdale so it's all good.

The boys grab a second while Oxford are down to ten men, with Powell off the pitch getting treatment. A weak clearance from Vangjan is headed forward by Gary Mac to Wanny, who exchanges passes with Rodger before feeding the ball through to Riza, who finishes well with an angled drive across the keeper. Powell doesn't re-appear, and is replaced by United reject Jamie Cassidy, and in the closing stages of the half we almost add a third when Andy Duncan gets a toe to Simon Rodger's corner but sees his shot strike the base of the post. It’s still Rochdale:0 Southend:0 at the interval so the 2,500 or so U's who have made the trip are buoyant.

Seeing as they have a two-goal lead to pull back, it's not surprising Oxford come out for the second half in a more positive frame of mind. Substitute Jamie Brooks is giving Roberts a torrid time on our left flank, and twice draws terrific saves from Marshall. But any hopes of an Oxford comeback are shattered in the 59th minute. Gary Mac chips the ball into the area, where Youngs is on hand to nod back to Rodger, who side foots into the corner from the edge of the box. Minimal power, maximum placement just about sums up the veteran midfielders season thus far, and he’s proved to be a tremendous acquisition. With the game pretty much sewn up, and things at Spotland still going our way, the U’s fans are in fine voice. We swap choruses of ATKINS OUT, and WE HATE ATKINS MORE THAN YOU with the Oxford fans, before embarking on a rendition of STEVE FALLONS AMBER ARMY that lasts about 20 minutes. Tommy even tries to start OMER RIZA SOUNDS LIKE PIZZA again, but for some reason he is a lone voice.

Its even relaxed fare on the pitch. The players are not exerting themselves too much, and are allowing Oxford much of the possession. The fake U’s even have the ball in the net in the 79th minute, but Omoyinmi’s joy is short lived, as he had strayed offside. With a couple of minutes left on the watch, we make a rare break forward and win a corner. As Tudor jogs across to take it, a huge roar goes up behind us. Rochdale have scored!! We confer with our nearest radio man and apparently it’s true! We’re going up! Everyone in the stand is hugging and dancing, and amid all the excitement nobody seems to have noticed we’ve won a penalty. We later find out an Oxford player handled from the corner, and all eyes are back on the pitch in time to see Phil Warner’s spot kick saved by Vangjan. The grin on the full backs face, despite his miss, confirms that the players have heard what we already know.

By the time referee Ganfield blows his final whistle we are in the middle of a conga line that seems to circle the entire stand, and includes players David Bridges and Alex Revell, not in the squad today but present in a watching capacity and happy to join in the festivities. Fallon and the players race off at the final whistle, but soon return to milk the applause of their adoring public. The sponsors have provided champagne which is being sprayed into the crowd by mssrs. Tudor, Youngs, and Riza. I can already see a long night ahead.

debski

nice story this - like your concept!
keep it going, please

Terk

great to see this back, and a fine achievement :thup:

Brian of Nazareth

excellent! And what a great win to clinch promotion with, well done LP

Lionel_Perez

Cheers Fellas

Bury (Home)

As I suspected the celebrations last Saturday carried on long into the night. We made a swift return to Cambridge, and hit the cities pubs with gusto. I’ve never seen so many U’s shirts out in the town on a Saturday night. When the pubs closed we headed onto Cambridge’s, ahem, premier nightspot, Ballere, in the hope of spotting our heroes amongst the scantily clad 15 year old girls and the Ben Sherman-shirted Arbury boys. In fact, of all the ****my nightclubs in Cambridge, Ballere is the worst, but its not hard to see why the footballers like it with the aforementioned young girls hanging around looking for a semi-famous bloke to spend the night with. Renowned skirt-chaser Luke Guttridge likes it so much that he’s been spotted there several times since his move to Manchester.

Sure enough, most of the players were there, and were pleased to shake our hands. Will even declared his undying love for Shane Tudor, and brought the bemused winger a drink. He kind of spoilt it by saying “of course when you first joined us I thought you were ****e,” but I don’t think Shane was too offended. There were plenty of sore heads (and unsympathetic girlfriends) on Sunday morning, but it was nice to see us get some good write ups in the Sunday papers for once.

It’s back to business today, and after Saturday’s exertions Fallon gave the players the day off on Monday, in preparation for today’s clash with second placed Bury. A win will be enough to seal the title for us, and as such the game was made all ticket a couple of weeks ago, and is expected to be close to a sell out. As a result there’s no time for drinks today as we have to be there pretty early to get our spot, and beforehand I have to go into town with Louise to regain some of the brownie points I lost last weekend. After watching her try on about 50 million skirts she doesn’t want to buy, I head down to the stadium, picking up Mick on the way, and we take our places at 2.10.

I always days like this leave me with mixed feelings. Obviously big crowds are great for the clubs ailing finances, and its nice to see the ground full on the odd occasion, but there’s a part of me that likes being able to turn up at ten to three and still be able to get my space on the terrace. Despite our success this season, crowds have hovered around the 4,500 mark and there’s always been loads of room on the terraces (good news for me bearing in mind that I have to stand in the vicinity of Mick and Fat Ginger bloke). I also don’t know how to keep myself amused for an hour. I read the program cover to cover, but by the time I’ve taken in the news that today’s referee is M.Dearing, it’s still only 2.20. On the way down I was trying to tell myself it would be like going back to my youth, when I used to love getting to the ground early to savour the atmosphere, but in reality its nothing like that, and after five minutes of watching stupid warm up routines I’m bored sh!tless.

Getting here early has paid off though, as by 2.30 the Habbin is already nearly full, and come kick off time I’m closer to Mick than I like to be. Worse news is that Fat Ginger bloke is standing on the step directly behind us and looms over me like a large red, whinging behemoth. Fallon has made one change, as Tom Youngs picked up an injury against Oxford and hasn’t recovered in time to play. With Paul Simpson also on the treatment table, Owen Paynter starts on the left wing.

Bury are one of the better footballing sides we’ve faced this season, and after a high tempo 25 minutes that yields chances for both sides it’s a shame the first goal stems from a blatant piece of cheating. Bury playmaker Ian Kilford launches a long ball forward which is flicked on by Lee Unsworth to John Newby, who nips in between Duncan and Angus and races in on goal. But the ex-Liverpool strikers first touch lets him down, and Marshall is able to nip out and smother the ball. Presumably to atone for his error, Newby takes a tumble over our sprawled keeper, does a double forward roll that would earn him 10.0 in any Olympic gymnastic contest, and looks suitably pleased when Mr. Dearing points to the penalty spot and shows the disbelieving Marshall a red card. Owen Paynter is sacrificed for reserve stopper Martin Brennan, whose first task is to pick the ball out of the empty net after Martyn Forrest has blasted home the penalty.

The Shakers have got their tails up now, but we still look dangerous through the pace of Tudor and Riza, and Omer misses a good chance to equalize just before half time, shooting wide from inside the box. Our fury is compounded when Borley kicks Simon Rodger after taking exception to a meaty challenge, and gets only a booking for his troubles. Dearing and Newby both exit the pitch at half time to a chorus of boos.

Standing in front of us are a family of four who are obviously here for the first time. The two little girls are both about eight and their dad is explaining things to them as we go along. Now I’ve nothing against new fans coming, but I don’t want to hear screaming every time the ball goes vaguely near either goal. To be fair the mother does tell them to stop it, but unfortunately it has no effect.

There is much screaming in the second half as we pepper the Bury goal with shots. One is on in place of Riza, and his increased physical presence is giving the Bury defence all sorts of problems. He, Tudor, and Rodger all test Steve Wilson in the Shakers goal, while at the other end Martin Brennan is having a quiet afternoon, with only one save to make from nifty striker Liam George. But as the match moves into the closing stages, we still haven’t made the breakthrough. Then a great ball from Warner sends Tudor scurrying away down the right. His cross is aimed at One, but is headed away by Redmond as far as Gareth Roberts, who unleashes a shot that is going wide until it takes a massive deflection off Unsworth and ends up in the back of the net. Cue pandemonium in the Habbin. A surge from the rear of the stand means fat ginger bloke pushes into my back, and with Mick standing his ground in order not to squash the little girls in front of him, I end up as the meat in a fat bloke sandwich. I think my head was under a fat ginger armpit at one stage, and it didn’t smell pleasant I can tell you.

So the unbeaten home record remains in tact, but the title will have to wait for another week. The glory hunters head off, unhappy that they’ve missed out on the celebrations, while the rest of us contemplate a trip to Scunny and how much easier life will be when we’re struggling in the second division and crowds are back down to the usual 3,500.