Oxford United 2 (Basham 2)  Hull City 1 (Allsopp)

A good game this, despite the best efforts of the
referee, who I had to check wasn't from Humberside.
Hull made a string start and for the first 15 minutes
looked well on top. Their passing looked crisp and the
U's had to work hard to keep the Tigers at bay. Oxford
were no picking up Price cutting in from the right and
Allsopp was proving to be his usual handful up front.
United gradually took control of the game, strangely
after Robinson had been booked for a tackle from
behind. Basham teed up Alsop 20 yards out, and the big
man's shot beat Fettis but also the bar. Hull's
passing game was breaking down, and on 22 minutes
United took the lead.
A glorious diagonal ball from Brown found Alsop.
Rather than head for goal, he nodded to his right to
allow Basham to tap home unmarked from close range.
5 minutes later, United doubled their lead. Alsop
found Robinson overlapping on the left. His cross was
aimed toward the back of the 6-yard box and Basham got
ahead of Joseph to head home.
Hull were still trying to pass, but United's defence
looked rock solid, and Wanless was bossing the
midfield. Hull's one gilt edged chance of the half
fell to Green whose shot just inside the box, was
brilliantly blocked by Woodman, who also succeeded in
blocking the follow up.
Hull replaced Fettis with Musselwhite for the second
half, but normal service was resumed with United
controlling the midfield. McNiven's  run and cross to
the front post found Basham but Musselwhite was wise
to the move and was able to catch. Hull's play was
markedly more ragged  with passes being misplaced and
crosses regularly finding the west car park.
Increasingly United were content to let Hull attack,
soak up the pressure, and hit back on the counter
attack. All this was to change on 64 minutes.
A Brown corner was whipped in towards the penalty
spot. Musselwhite caught the ball but was caught by
Alsop and was flattened. This sparked off a minor
brawl out of all proportion to the challenge, and the
referee got caught up in the atmosphere of the piece
by sending Alsop off.
This stirred the visitors, and began to put the Oxford
goal under real pressure. On 74 minutes Allsopp
shamefully went to ground when only in the vicinity of
Wanless, but Burgess' free kick was blocked and the
follow up cleared. It seemed rather indicative of the
game.
On 76 minutes Allsopp showed exactly what he is
capable of. A ball was played into substitute
Forrester, who laid the ball back to the Aussie who
hit the ball into the bottom right corner with the
outside of his boot.
United made life difficult for themselves in the last
14 minutes but Hull lacked the ideas, or the execution
to force a draw, United worked the harder, and even at
the death were able to hit back on the break.
A minor point to close with, I thought Hull were a far
better side than Millwall.