Girondins Update

Three valuable points against Nice - Now for revenge at PSG!!

It took only 11 seconds for Denilson to score the winning goal on saturday as Bordeaux scraped passed a feisty Nice outfit who probably didn't deserve to lose. I quite like Nice as a club because they always go out to try and win games and although their Stade du Ray is a bit ramshackle their fans absolutely go ballistic during games. The atmosphere and passion of supporters at Nice home games is amazing considering the relatively small set up of the club and the close proximity of French giants Marseille and AS Monaco. This was a massively important win for Bordeaux and means they have not lost a league game since the 10th December and more importantly, thanks to other results, have stretched the gap between them and 3rd placed Lille to 7 points with a game in hand.
Next Saturday is one of the biggest games in the calender and also one that I managed to attend last season PSG vs Bordeaux. For the fans of both these clubs this fixture is the second biggest grudge match (after Marseille of course...) and is always fiercely contested on (and usually off) the pitch. Last November PSG ran out 2-0 winners, their first win at Parc Lescure since 1988. That game that left les Girondins looking worryingly inept with PSG completly outplaying them in every aspect. The night was also marred by serious crowd trouble both before and after the match leading to several arrests and one fan being given a two month prison sentance for assaulting a police officer. All in all the worst night of Bordeaux's campaign this season. Things have moved on since October and Bordeaux are well clear in second whilst PSG have never really got going and sit in 8th in a season which has been another one of turmoil on the pitch and in the tribunes. Bordeaux have big score to settle whereas PSG are desperate for a decent result making the score impossible to predict, I however am going to put my neck on the line and say that Bordeaux will nick a 1-0 victory. This should be a fascinating encounter between two old foes experiancing very different seasons and is being shown at 0140am on channel 4 so stay up and watch it!!!

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/

Jim Smith's Yellow Army!!!

Kassam gone, Merry and Smith in. Oh to be an Oxford fan!!!

As part of the catch-up process this is now a bit out of date as it was last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday that the sale and takeover took place. I will attempt to sum up what the new set is.
Last Wednesday morning after a decent point away at Bury the previous night I logged on to www.oufc.co.uk only to be greeted with a farewell note from Mr Kassam!! He had sold the club and there was to be a press conference at 5pm anouncing the new ownership. Surely not, surely the prayersof us downtrodden oxford fans were not going to be answered? No, we'd had to much disappointment for that.
Unbelievably at the press conference it was unveiled that business man (and ex U's youth team player) Nick Merry had aquired Firoka's 89% stake in Oxford United and had installed the legend that is Jim Smith as both Manager and a director. Whether you were there during the glory days of the 80's or whether like me Jim smith and the side he built are mere stories, nay, legends that you have heared from a far off time when Oxford United were the pride of the Thames Valley, you cannot have helped feeling an overwhelming sense of pride and basically uncontained joy at the news. A Chairman that cares deeply about the club and it's fans and Jim Smith back home where he belongs as Manager of the football club that never forgot what he did for them all those years ago. Welcome to the Manor Nick and Jim, you are MORE than welcome.

Girondins Update

Ok so it's been a while since I wrote anything about Bordeaux, but after coming back from Poland I was swamped with a load of Open University work which I had got two weeks behind with. Obviously I had to do that before I returned to arsing about on blogger. There is a lot of other football stuff that I will tackle (pun intended) in a different post but for now I will concentrate on Bordeaux. To make this easy I will simply list all their results since the last game I wrote about as to be honest there's quite a lot and I don't really have much info on them anyway. So Voila ici est les résultats des Girondins dupuis le 14th février...

Sat 18/02/06 AC Ajaccio 0-2 Girondins Bordeaux
Sat 25/02/06 Girondins Bordeaux 3-3 Metz
Sat 11/03/06 Girondins Bordeaux 2-0 Toulouse
Sat 18/03/06 Troyes 1-1 Girondins Bordeaux
Wed 22/03/06 Montpellier 1-0 Girondins Bordeaux (Coupe de France 8eme)

Wednesday's cup exit at mid table League 2 Montpellier has apparently angered Coach Ricardo, and rightly so. He told reporters that Bordeaux have "not had the same efficiency and pace for two weeks now"... Two weeks?!? Bordeaux haven't had any "pace" since Feindouno went to St Etienne last year!! All credit to Ricardo and Bordeaux for a fantastic season but if they rely too heavily on being defensive and trying to kill off games they will get found out next year and besides, losing to League 2 sides doesn't exactly fill you with confidence for the run in. All said and done though, Les Bordelais are still flying high and are on course for that Champions League spot. On saturday they face a home game against Nice who put them out of the Coupe de la League earlier this year, a good win is an absolute necessity. Bonne Chance les Marine et Blanc!!

League 1
1. Lyon P 30 Pts 68
2. Bordeaux P 30 Pts 57
3. Lille P 31 Pts 52
4. Auxerre P 31 Pts 50
5. Marseille P 31 Pts 48
6. Rennes P 31 Pts 47

Long time no blog...

No posts for half a month!! Has my life really been that boring? Well yes, but I've also been away in Poland for a week and on returning had lots of other crap to catch up with so have been unable (couldn't be arsed) to put anything on here.
There has been pretty much nothing of interest going on football wise, Oxford continued their nose dive into the conference with a home draw against Cheltenham (yes them again) and a quite pathetic 2-1 defeat away at Wycombe. Ok so Wycombe are much better than Oxford but thats the problem!! Since when have Oxford gone to Wycombe as massive underdogs? Not good enough, they didn't even raise their game they just rolled over and died as usual. Bordeaux on the other hand have continued to do well but I shall round that up later.
Anyway... Krakow was the destination last week and it is a fantastic city. It is a little run down but in a good way - loads of character and inhabited by honest, hard working, no bullshit people. They don't complain about extreme weather and dodgy trams they just bloody well get on with it, something a lot of people here would do well to take note of. Lots of good things to say about the place like £1 a pint in underground cellers, a medievil cloth hall and two football clubs who play right opposite each other and seem to really hate each other with an almost frightening passion!!

This is the Castle Wawel, the seat of the Polish kings for hundreds of years.

The main square in the city centre with St Mary's church in the background.

Cracovia's ground. (The Pope's favourite team!!)

Auchwitz or Oświęcim. One site that needs no explanitory caption.

To see the full Album of Krakow, the salt mines (150 meters underground in a village just outside the city) and of course the Auchwitz and Birkenau concentration camps click on this link http://public.fotki.com/girondinant/krakow_feb_2006/