Past
News
Page
Sunday 21st December 2003
Oxford got a very good point at Huddersfield yesterday after battling back
from
a going down to a first half goal to draw 1-1, that goal should never have stood
as Efe Sodje was off side from the resulting shot on goal, Paul McCarthy got a
yellow card for protesting to the referee's assistant and all the talk in
the press
room at half time was" Should the goal have stood ?"
But come the 2nd half that goal was too be the least of our worry's, Big
Julian Alsop
was adjudged to have elbowed the lanky Efe Sodje, All the players waded in
for a
free for all as Jules was shown his 3rd Red card of this season, meaning
that he will
now be suspended for 5 games, when he left the field he showed Terriers boss
Peter
Jackson just what he thought of his players theatrical efforts, Not before
James Hunt
had given him and ear full as he left the field, Big Jules must have
repeated the name of
his supposed victim a few times as he left the field (F Sodya), But that
sending off just
made the U's all the more enraged and Ian Atkins sent on super sub Mark
Rawle to
see if he could do one of his pieces of magic..........Oh and how Atkins was
justified,
Rawle had only been on the field for 3 minutes when he met a brilliant cross
from Matt
Bound, Rawle rose above the Terriers defence and hammered home one of the
most
spectacular headers by and Oxford player in many a year, the keeper stood no
chance
and the U's fans went ecstatic behind the goal, Now at 1 each and down to 10
men
you could see the U's getting all the points out of the game with the way
they battled
and passed the ball around, that and the heroics of the always rock solid
Andy
Woodman in the U's goal, he made many fine saves in the game to keep the
terriers at
bay, but none better than the one that made sure of the point for Christmas,
many will
say he should never have got to the ball, but he did and we are all
grateful, it was the
best save I have ever seen him make, from where I was sat in the press box
it looked
in, then just to make things even in the dying seconds Huddersfield had a
player sent
off, Fowler made a reckless challenge on Deano as he went down the left and
the ref
showed him his 2nd yellow of the match, what disgusted me was the way Fowler
then
applauded the crowd as he ran off the field, Talk about unsportsmanlike
conduct, I
remember in a rugby match at the world cup one of our boys got done for
doing the
same thing, so should Fowler.
On the final whistle all the players ran towards the U's fans to thank them
for their
great support, all 616 (617 really) of them in the 9368 crowd, all went home
happy
and that included the Huddersfield fans, if they are big enough to admit it.
Look how clever I am everyone- Says Paul Wanless
Deano lies flat out after Fowler(Left on knees) went through him
Players disagree over the Alsop-Sodje incident
James Hunt and Julian Alsop exchange words
View of the away end from my seat in the 2nd half.
Friday 19th December 2003
Oxford travelled to Huddersfield today for their game at the Alfred McAlpine
stadium
tomorrow and were hoping to train somewhere in Yorkshire.
Oxford have all the squad apart from Andy Scott up north for the game and
expect
this match to be their toughest yet, The Terriers have a good home
record which is on
par with ours, Admission to the ground tomorrow is
£14.50p for Adults, £7 OAP's
and £5 for Juniors, unless you are entering
with an Adult then the Kid for a quid
scheme will help you get in cheaper.
Alcohol is on sale at the ground, but be ready for a good soaking if it
rains, as the
refreshment bars are behind the stand are in the
open........If it rains you will get as wet
as me at pitchside..
Wednesday 17th December 2003
Oxford have the chance to extend their lead at the top on Saturday
at
Huddersfield as most of the teams just below Oxford are playing each
other, infact all over the Christmas period their are games that could
mean us extending the lead further as long as we keep winning.
Saturday will be our first game at the McAlpine Stadium for a few
years, so hopefully the U's will have a few extra fans travelling to
support them in their last game before the festive period.
Tuesday 16th December 2003
The New Ozone cinema opened it’s
doors for the first time last night
to VIP’s and Oxford United
season ticket holders, the cinema itself is
a very well setup complex, you
go up 2 flights of stairs
to get to the
cinema level, though for disabled viewers there is a lift
that takes
you all the way.
Once on the cinema level you have the Box Office on your right with
a Café
Bar next to that with
another refreshment bar on the left of
the Box office selling items like
Popcorn and coca cola,
there is also
a sweet stand, so all are catered for.
To the left of the entrance to the screens you have 2 Auto Ticket
machines
where you can purchase your tickets without queuing at
the Box office, that
may save you some time.
I viewed a few of the screens before the cinema was opened and
it seems that
most of them are
different sizes, No12 cinema was
one of the smallest, No6 that we watched
the Movie in was a
very
good size and will be a great atmosphere when it is full.
Before watching the film I purchased a small coke and a small
popcorn, the
Coke was £2 and the
popcorn £3, so most people that
view a movie there will have to expect to
spend a around £5 on
refreshments, the small portion of popcorn is a very good portion
though so
don’t threat, the large
popcorn would feed the whole row
and is about 18 inches in height!!.
Once into the cinema the seating is superb, Huge padded seat and
the spacing
between the seats
is huge, plenty of foot space and you
don’t even need to get up when people
walk along in front of you,
over all very comfortable.
Once the movie had began the extent of the new high-tech sounds
system came
out of the speakers, the sound was deafening but superb,
very clear sound,
the best I have heard in any cinema to date, one
other good feature during
watching the movie was the illuminated step,
they glow blue so that you can
see your way down the steps during the
movie-should you need to leave your
seat.
Once the film had finished Firoz Kassam was stood at the passage to
the
screen to personally thank every person that watched the film for
coming, it
was a great gesture and everyone thanked him back, he
must have said “Thank
you for coming” at least 250 times and was
short of breath when we left,
He said “it was a very good turn out”
and he was very impressed with the
surroundings.
I think there will be quite a few people coming back this week now
to see
Lord of the Rings,
but on this showing alone, I think the
cinema will be a huge success.
Fans start coming through the door
and reaching level 1 of the complex
The lobby from the top of the stairs
Door through to Bowlplex
Entrance to the screens
Screen No12 seating
Cafe Bar in the Lobby area
Refreshment Bar
Fans queue for the screening
Screen 6 for the movie
.JPG)
Firoz Kassam shakes hands after and the Ozone sign outside.
Monday 15th December 2003
Oxford reserves lost 1-0 this afternoon to Northampton reses at
Iffley
Road, Oxford.
Lee Steele played another 90 minutes and Mark Rawle played
85 mins, both on
their road to a
first team start with the busy
schedule over the festive
period.
Off to the opening of the new cinema tonight, pictures will appear
here
later tonight or tomorrow hopefully.