Oxford United 0 Hartlepool United 1 (Watson)

I'm tempted to put "Please refer to last week's match
report," for this one, as the games were remarkably
similar. The fan would be tempted to conclude that
management have learned nothing form the defeats
suffered so far.
Oxford made two changes from the team that started at
Bournemouth; Ford came in for Waterman, and Scott for
Whitehead. Scott and Basham formed the forward line
with Oldfield switching to wide right.
Both sides made a bright start with Hartlepool's
Eifion William s doing well to Find Gordon Watson
whose cross/shot was well gathered by Woodman
Oxford soon found their stride with Ford's passing
and vision putting Savage through on the left, which
the Hartlepool defence did well to clear.
Arguably the pivotal moment of the game came after 6
minutes when Basham was forced to come off with a
tweaked right Hamstring to be replaced by Omoyinmi.
The forward line would never be the same
Oxford was for the first time this season controlling
the midfield but the gilt edged chances were few and
far between. Williams and Watson were looking
dangerous on the counter for the visitors, with the
Oxford defence seemingly incapable of picking up
Watson whenever he made a run from
 The deep.
On 11 minutes a through ball from Ford on the left
put Omoyinmi through but his shot was well saved by
goalkeeper Anthony Williams.
On 21 minutes Hunt found McNiven on the right. His
cross was just in front of Scott coming in on the back
post.
On 34 minutes Oxford proved that the defence is still
susceptible to crosses. Watson swung a free kick on
the wing in. Westwood headed but Bound did well to
clear.
A minute later Hartlepool and in particular, Watson
made a monkey out of Oxford. The Oxford left failed to
pick up a routine ball and Watson got in first with
what looked suspiciously like handball. He ran from
the right, towards to the centre of the box completely
unhindered and unleashed an unstoppable shot past
Woodman into the bottom right corner.
Once again Oxford went into the interval having
conceded just before the break and having had the vast
majority of the possession.
The second half started with a nasty clash of heads
at an Oxford corner between Scott and Lee. The Oxford
forward clearly had come off the worst and Hackett was
readied to replace him. However Scott recovered
sufficiently to continue.
After 50 minutes the influential Watson played in
Clark who did well to turn and shoot, but Woodman
saved well.
As in the first half Oxford had the vast majority of
the ball but seemed unable to create nearly enough
gilt edged chances. The midfield sat deeper and deeper
and as a consequence Ford became increasingly
ineffective. The team huffed and puffed but created
precious little of the required quality.
An example of this was in the 54th minute when Savage
did well to put Scott through but he smashed the ball
high wide and not very mighty.
A minute later Oxford created a rare gilt edged
chance. Poor defending put Scott clean through on
goal. He carried on into the box before scuffing his
shot allowing Williams to claw the ball away with his
fingertips.
Oxford were having a purple patch. Omoyinmi had a
turn and shot saved followed by another scuffed shot
by Scott. Atkins switched to 4:3:3 but the impact was
minimal as the forwards continued to spurn the half
chances that were created.
With time running down Oxford continued to press
strongly and had two penalty appeals turned down. The
first saw Scott being made to be the filling in a
centre half sandwich, the second saw an excellent
through ball by Savage resulting in Omoyinmi go down
in the box. Perhaps if he hadn't have been so quick to
go down he may have got something.
With the home side pressing strongly Hartlepool
looked to hit on the counter, and on 83 minutes Eifion
Williams ran into the box from the left. He brushed
past Crosby but his shot was well saved by Woodman.
As the clock ran down Oxford's attempt became more
frantic and all quality disappeared completely. Ford
was booked for needlessly kicking the ball away and
then wasted a free kick just outside the Hartlepool
box. Omoyinmi found time to shoot straight at the
keeper and Oxford's monkey was well and truly hanged
on a conviction of being the victim of a hit and run
raid twice in a week( Shame it wasn't the Hartlepool one).


Oxford United                                                                      Hartlepool United

Andy Woodman                                                                     Anthony Williams                          
Scott McNiven                                                                       Micky Barron
Matt Robinson                                                                       Graeme Lee
Matthew Bound                                                                     Chris Westwood
Andy Crosby                                                                          Mark Robinson
David Oldfield                                                                       Paul Smith
James Hunt                                                                             Mark Tinkler
Bobby Ford                                                                             Richie Humphreys
David Savage                                                                          Gordon Watson
Andy Scott                                                                              Darrell Clarke
Steve Basham                                                                         Eifion Williams

Subs                                                                                       Subs
Sam Ricketts                                                                          Jim Provett
David Waterman                                                                   Paul Arnison (for Clarke 70)
Manny Omoyinmi (for Basham 6)                                         Kevin Henderson (for Watson 81)
Dean Whitehead                                                                   Tommy Withrington (for Smith 70)
Chris Hackett (for Oldfield 81)                                             Adam Boyd    

Bookings                                                                               Bookings
Ford (88 kicking ball away)                                                  Watson (foul 60)
                                                                                              Barron (foul 78)


Next Match:-Torquay United at Home-Next Saturday






            
       Click above or call on 01993 702010