Stockport and Notts County Photo's

Only a few weeks ago things really did look like Oxford were going to drop into the conference. We went to Edgely Park in Stockport for a showdown with a team just below us to see if the U's had any pride left in them. As it turns out they didn't and went down 2-1 to a late penalty thanks to John Ashton's stupid challenge. The train ride back was one of the worst moments of being an Oxford fan and all we could think about was the very real prospect of relegation and how our club was being left to die at the hands of inept ownership and management.

Surely there was no turning the corner now? Were the once mighty U's really facing non-league obscurity???

Oxford pretend to attack the Stockport goal...

What a difference a week makes!! After another horrible defeat, Brian Talbot publicly slated Ashton for losing us the game. He has a point, but every saw Ashton's challenge, we already know it was stupid and it's simply glossing over the fact that he's a rubbish manager and can't motivate any of his players to play football. Blaming Ashton in the press was something you wouldn't even expect from a sunday league boss and that stupid outburst coupled with the fact we're shit meant that the first thing Kassam's new (but ultimately short-lived) directors did was to show him the door and replace him with the excellent Darren Patterson.

Following a 'Kassam out' protest (which can only be described as organised carnage) before wednesday's game with Bristol Rovers the U's under new management went on to record only their second win of the year and all f a sudden things were looking up. On the back of that it was finally decided at about 9pm friday night that we would make the long(ish) trip to Nottingham. We were well rewarded with a decent if boring 0-0 draw and it felt strange to once again feel optimistic about Oxford.

Oxford really do attack the Notts County goal

Little did we know as we left Meadow lane that by wednesday we would have even more cause to be optimistic... the return of Jim Smith and the takeover of businessman Nick Merry!!

Sadly I haven't got any photo's of Smith's return to the Manor and the wonderful 1-0 win over Peterborough due to... well... a long story that involves me being stuck at a wedding in Cambridge, but I do have some more photo's of our away days at Stockport and Notts County. Click on this link to see them: http://public.fotki.com/girondinant/stockportandnotts/