Its all over

Well thats it for another year. Oxford United can now call themselves an established non-league team and it hurts. I have deliberately gone quiet on the subject of Oxford and our play-off campaign as I have tried to remain low key, tried to not get carried away with the belief that just for once we might acheive something. It hasn't softened the blow.
On Tuesday 8th May we were beaten at home by Exeter on penalties in front of 10500 people live on Sky in the play-off second leg. If the truth is told (and believe me it has) then we were damned rubbish and barely deserved to get as far as penalties. I cannot muster up the passion or enthusiasm to go into a rant, I'd rather just draw a line under it. This season has been for the most part fun, despite the football being dreadful and us having precious little success after Christmas. I would go as far as to say this season and its trips to 'real' football grounds up and down the country has given football back to many of our fans after 5 years in the sterile 4th division. Say what you like about the Conference but it is a far more interesting place to be than than League 2/Div 3/Div 4 or whatever it will be in the future but Oxford Utd simply cannot afford to be in the Conference in the Conference without some serious cost cutting. When we reclaim our place in the Football League it will be a great day but it will also be a shame to leave a league where fans are treated as fans - not expendable commodities.

It must also be noted that after yet another heart breaking end to a season I have realised I am not cut out to keep a record of the highs and lows of being a football fan. I continue to go to games on a regular basis (sometimes 3 in 8 days) but I am slowly losing the passion. I didn't go to the Oxon Senior cup final this year even though it had previously been one of my seasons highlights, I stopped going to Banbury in January and haven't felt the pull to go back (I more than get my fare share of non-league grounds with Oxford these days) and most importantly of all I no longer wish to write about my experiences.
Next year all will change for me, I won't be living in Bicester for much of the year and probably will not be going to much football, least of all Oxford. I will continue my part-time interest in Bordeaux but to be honest without living near to the club its difficult to write about anything other than re-hashed news. Basically this is my last post. I may try to do something else next year but as far as this blog is concerned, well...

Il est mort.

Bordeaux - Un vrai courage à leurs coeurs

Last Sunday a sell out crowd at Parc Lescure witnessed perhaps the turning point when a team thought to be punching above it's weight makes the next step and becomes one of genuine quality. A home game against Lens is alway one of the hardest of the season, in fact last years fixture was won with the only shot on target - and that was from the penalty spot!! The Lensoise are not only a good footballing side, they are backed by some of the loudest fans and most loyal fans in the country with 700 fans made the very long trip south west and making themselves heard all evening.
Any fears that the quality of Lens would mean Bordeaux adopting their game killing tactics were quickly put to when when right from kick off they took the game to the visitors forcing corners, firing in crosses and shots and then in the 11th minute taking the lead thanks to ex Lens striker Jussie. Les Girondins continued to dominate the first half playing with exactly the spirit that was lacking during the early season, indeed it appeared to be only a matter of time before the lead was doubled, would it really be this easy?? Well no...
In the 38th minute David Jemalli got himself sent off for one of those tackles that can only be described as 'Leg-breakers', the sort of tackle that anyone who has a tibia can only watch behind a cushion. Any other team may have gone to pieces but if there is one team in the world that can sit on a one goal lead for nearly an hour then it surely is Bordeaux. Sure enough Ricardo made the changes and Bordeaux went into the withdrawn defensive mode that earlier in the season would bring wistles of discontent from Virage Sud, no heckles this time though as Les Girondins put in a solid display of bravery and maturity to hold on an record a victory that not only put them into pole position in the race for second, but a victory that will be long, long remembered by the 32377 people in attendance.

Parc Life

It seems like the race for the Champions League is back on. Two saturday's ago Bordeaux played out a tedious 0-0 draw with old enemy PSG and were given an absolute hammering by the French press and football community in general. An article on www.football365.fr claimed that Bordeaux are at the main culprits of a number of teams killing French football and ruining the good reputation of their domestic game. Slightly mis-guided as Ligue 1 has never been exactly admired outside of France itself, but despite being a supporter of Les Girondins I would generally agree with the accusations.

It is not only the press and opposition fans who have grumbled, top scorer JC Darcheville broke ranks to go the press saying he is frustrated by the restrictive tactics employed by Ricardo. Darche has received some pretty harsh criticism over the last two seasons but as he pointed out - how is he supposed to score goals when the team is content to pass the ball around in their own half for 90 minutes rather than take a risk? The whole PSG game was a bit of an embarrassment for Bordeaux as a club and despite attempts to justify the tactics, it became clear that the criticism had been noted and that there would be a much more positve line up for wednesday's game in hand against AS Nancy.

Having glamorously jetted in a few hours before the game and booked in at the quaint, English speaking but essentially dangerous Hotel Studio (not sure what French for 'squalor' is...) I made my way to the grandiose old stadium and spent the best €9 I've ever spent. Promises of a more attacking attitude were confirmed when Ricardo sent out a traditional 4-4-2 with Chamakh and Cavenaghi prefered to last weeks forward line or Darcheville and err... no one. In truth Bordeaux destroyed Nancy in a way that I've not seen them do before and although they still lack a certain 'class' they are finally starting to look much better than their opponents. 3-0 did not flatter. The atmosphere in Virage Sud was the best I have experienced in my four visits with the last half hour or so filled by singing, bouncing, dancing and even some Mexican waving!! I'm not really a fan of the old Mexican wave but the Virage Sud was infectious last wednesday and the whole thing really got the whole ground pumping. The atmosphere was even mentioned in the first paragraph of L'equipe's report the next day as being particularly celebratory.

Having beaten Nancy and dragged themselves back in touch with the Champions League Les Girondins were then thrown an unexpected life line the following Saturday. With Toulouse losing a little unexpectedly in Rennes Bordeaux were given the opportunity to not only draw level on point with TFC but to go ahead into 3rd on goal difference. All they would have to do was win away at UEFA cup chasing St Etienne. The frienship between the Ultramarines and the Magic Fans is well known but few were expecting any favours at this point in the season but a solid professional performance saw Bordeaux run out 2-0 winners and only 1 point behind 2nd places RC Lens.

Next game at Parc Lescure...?? Yes you've guessed it... LENS!!

ALLEZ BORDEAUX ALLEZ!!

I have created a blog of my visit to Lescure for the Nancy game which you can find at the following link:

http://girondinant.skyrock.com/

Play-offs it is then

"O Football, Football! wherefore art thou Football?
Deny thy promotion and refuse thee the Daggers;
Or, if thou wilt not, but let us back in the league,
And I'll no longer be an Oxford fan."

William Shakespeare's now famous reaction to Dagenham finally clinching the Conference title on Easter Saturday pretty much summed it up for us all. How on earth had a self proclaimed 'Pub team from Essex' not only overturned an 8 point deficit but won the league so easily? At 5pm on Saturday thank to us losing at Northwich Victoria (Yes thats Oxford United losing to NORTHWICH) the title winning margin was a whopping 16 points, a much bigger gap than we had ever hoped to win the league by. I ought to mention at this point that I was at Victoria Road to see the title clinched although I did obviously stand with the ever vocal Aldershot fans rather than the 3000 or so brand new Dagenham supportrers that turned for the first time. Pictures should be available tby Monday 23rd. In what seemed like a deliberate attempt to completely rub our noses in the dagger have finally hit a losing streak going down 3-2 at Cambridge on Easter Monday and then losing their game in hand away at... wait for it... yes Northwich. I would say justice was served but err well despite us hammering Weymouth 4-1 the gap is still 13 points and we still look a bit silly. Never mind.
The reason why I haven't written about the (mis)fortunes of Oxford for a while is that basically haven't had the interest to. Despite some cracking games including a 3-0 win away at Altrincham and a pulsating 2-2 draw at home to those dastardly Daggers it all seemed a little bit pointless when a) catching Dagenham was about as likely Jade Goody becoming a race relations officer and b) it would take an absolute disaster to not make the play-offs. How many times can you write "we won/lost/drew but it doesn't really matter"? Anyway tomorrow we are all off the Clarence Park to watch Oxford play at pretty much the smallest club in the Conference (and thats saying something) St Albans. If we win and Gravesend or Exeter don't then we will have clinched that play-off spot we need and although I've said we will get there anyway, it would be nice to secure it at the earliest possible opportunity.

Bordeaux win the Cup but who loses - Lyon or Football?

My Saturday evening was spent in my sisters room listening to live Internet commentary of the Coupe de la ligue final. To be frank it was light relief after spending the afternoon watching the worst game in the history of football. Oxford's 0-0 draw with Burton was just about the most uninspiring performance I've ever seen in my life, two sides who clearly had no interest in breaking into a sweat and strolling around like it was a pre-season friendly, I could go on... but I won't. The cup final was also a pretty pedestrian affair and with 5 minutes to go seemed certain to go into extra time at 0-0. Unlike Jerome and Co the French commentators do a great job making it at least sound interesting and even though my understanding is limited to names and words like 'corner' it was easy to get really into the whole occasion. The noise was fantastic as you'd expect from the continent, in fact as the players came out of the tunnel I thought the Stadium was going to blow up. Unfortunately for the neutrals (of which there are not many when OL are concerned) the game was not the classic it promised. The media had over-hyped the game as a clash of the two best teams in the country and everyone was hoping for one of those 'feasts of football' that are so often promised. What everyone forgot is that Les Girondins have not built their success on free flowing attacking football but instead on stifling opponents, ruining matches and scoring one goal. This tactic was employed so cynically by Ricardo on Saturday that rather than spend time doing a detailed write up I'll just repeat the sentence: Bordeaux stifled Lyon, ruined the match and scored one goal with their only shot on target. As a football purist (sort of) I can't help agreeing with Gerard Houllier when he says Lyon were robbed and that Bordeaux didn't deserve the win because they were and they didn't but the Oxford fan in me, having been starved of any success ever, say's sod it. At the end of the day the club that walks away with the trophy deserves it simple because they won the match. You can argue about 'un-sporting' tactics forever but on Monday the coupe de la Ligue was paraded around Bordeaux - not Lyon and Houllier should closer to home for the reasons why. Ricardo explained the tactics by saying that there is a reason why Lyon are 21 points ahead of them - which roughly translates as "had we tried to play football they would have battered us" and you can't really argue, Lyon could and should have won this at a canter.
The banner dominating the middle tier of the Bordeaux end carried the slogan "Girondins tonight you are not 11 but 30,000" and they meant it. The noise from the Bordeaux end was constant and got me thinking about the play-off final should Oxford get there. Will the hordes of U's fans and hangers on actually get behind the team and make it a real spectacle? Will they complain if we bring flags and streamers? Will they insist on sitting down? Something about Oxford at Wembley frightens me and I really hope our big day out isn't spoiled by the huge number of very very boring fans we attract.

Crowd Control

In the wake of a recent increase of crowd disturbances in French football stadia the LFP has introduce a number of new measures intended to help route out the idiots. To be honest I'm not sure what they are so worried about as crowd trouble as we know it in England, Holland and Italy is for the most part non existent unless PSG or Marseille come to town. There have of course been other high profile incidents this season that may have forced the FFF and LFP officials into being seen to take some action, namely the missile throwing by Lille fans in the Champions League debacle against Man Utd, but it seems particular attention has been given to the lighting of flares within grounds. Pyrotechnics at French football is so commonplace that to the outsider it could seem that they are perfectly legal but in reality it is an offence which can land the perpetrater a prison sentence of up to two years. Like most things in continental football this rule is so under policed that a scarf around the face is usually enough to save the offender any risk of prosecution and despite warnings on tickets and over the PA before a game it seems that quietly the clubs actually like them. Whilst no one can deny that they contribute to the atmosphere, as seen by the above photo of Beşiktaş fans during a UEFA Cup tie at Bayer Leverkusen, two incidents in particular have led to a general rethink of policy. Earlier this season a young policeman had two fingers blown of by a flare thrown at him by a Marseille fan during the derby with Nice and then just a couple of weeks ago the St Etienne-Lyon derby was held up for half an hour as a lit flare was thrownfirst into the away fans and then sent hurtling back to where it came from. Sactions were promised after both incidents but whilst Marsielle were forced to play a game behind closed doors (hardly a long-term cure) St Etienne and Lyon seem to have been left alone.
Clearly then these things need to be eradicated from the stands (no matter how much I like them) as any object than can be used as a real weapon has no place in a football ground. Throwing an empty plastic bottle is one thing, throwing a lighted flare into a densly populated stand is a whole different matter. On top of the obvious dangers of blinding and burning on impact, a flare landing in the crowd could cause widespread panic and as we saw in the Lille-Man Utd game, many grounds still have riot fencing intact. The combination of fireworks, mass panic, riot fencing and over zealous policing is pretty much as big a nightmare as can be imagined and could well lead to a French Hillsborough.
So here then is the new legislation set up by the LFP for the policing of pyrotechnics in football stadia:

"Smoke-producing and projectiles.
To definitively eradicate the introduction of dangerous objects into the stands, it was decided to reinforce safety measures upon entrance and evacuation of the stadium. For this purpose, an operation will be carried out jointly with the Directorate-General of the National police force (DGPN) and the LFP for:
To train the stadium security authorities effectively
Audit the quality of controls to the entry of the stand
To systematize the evacuation of the stands and the whole of the buildings by the police force before the matches under conditions allowing the full effectiveness of this control.
The Commission of Discipline of the LFP received the directives to apply all the range of the sanctions concerned with its competence in the event of nonrespect of these provisions."

Basically that means that for the first time ever, authorities will conduct full searches on ALL fans entering the stadium - including the so called 'Ultra groups' who are responsible for bringing these things in. It is genuinely surprising that to conduct stringent searches on supporters and to practice evacution procedures in case of crowd trouble is NEW legislation. Surely you would have thought this to be a basic rquirement? Recent events in have Italy no doubt frightened the LFP into action, but one hopes French crowds will not be diluted into the boring 'sit-down shut-up' stadiums that we in England have to endure at extortionate prices.

Picture once again from the King of all ground hopping sites www.groundhopping.de

Bravo Bordeaux!!

Whilst Oxford flounder in a stormy sea of inconsistancy, Bordeaux ride the waves with a renewed vigour like a beautiful antique clipper with the wind billowing in their sails. "Champions League - ho!!! Cries First Mate Darcheville to Lieutenant Micoud, as out of nowhere 3rd place in Le Championnat becomes an surprise possibility. Having in the last four battles confidently disposed of the men from Montbelliard and Valenciennes and fought respectable stalemates at Sedan and Monaco more than matching the Monaguesque Kings finest troops at Stade Louis II, Les Girondins almost by accident sit 3rd in the table. Not that I'm for a moment questioning the ability of Admiral Ricardo's management, its just that even he couldn't really have envisaged that considering the woeful start to the season the soldiers of the Scapulaire would still have an outside shot at the big time with nine games to go. With Ligue 1 as tight as ever (only 4 ponts seperate Bordeaux from 11th Placed Rennes) and given the quality of the chasing pack (Lille, Marseille, St Etienne) finishing third would be quite some achievement, perhaps UEFA Cup football via either 4th place, the Intertoto cups or even winning next weeks Coupe de la Ligue will be the more likely outcome.













Top picture is from the official website www.girondins.com, the other is my own.

Forget it then.

Oxford 0-1 Kidderminster. They deserved it, we were rubbish. Daggers won at St Albans to go 11 points clear with a game in hand and basically clinched the title. Well done to them.
Tomorrow we go to Altrincham to begin the new objective of making sure we stay in the playoffs.

St Etienne vs Lyon = More fun than Oxford

Last week Lyon strolled to a 3-1 away at fierce local rivals St Etienne. This derby is possibly the most passionate in France - arguably eclipsing the PSG/Marseille rivalry. The game was held up for about half an hour after a flare was thrown into the Lyon fans!!






















St Etienne's ground in known as the Cauldren for reasons which I'm told speak for themselves if you see a game there. The supporters group 'Magic Fans 91' are some of the best in Europe and have a long standing friendship with the Ultramarines 86 of Bordeaux.

The pictures are taken from www.groundhopping.de which is simply the best football ground website on the internet.

Oxford United 0-2 Forest Green

Did that really happen?? Yes it did. We were beaten two nil at home by a part time team from a village. Daggers are still 8 points clear but now have a game in hand. We play Kiddy at home tomorrow and Dagenham play... actually sod it it doesn't matter, I don't want to talk about it...

Une saison contradictoire

What is going on at Bordeaux? For a start my 'easy money' 11/1 bet on them to win the league now looks like £5 down the Paddypower drain as they are currently in 6th place and a whopping 21 points behind runaway (again) leaders Lyon. Despite some impressive victories over the likes of Marseille at home and PSG at the Parc de Princes not to mention being the only club to win at Gerland the home of the mighty OL, they have struggled to find any real consitancy and have suffered some woeful results both home and away. The objective every season has got to be to play in a European tournament and since Les Girondins are hanging around the Inter-toto spot and still well in touch with the UEFA spots you can't be too harsh. Frustratingly whilst last year they were drawing games that they should have won, this season they are being beaten regularly in games where a draw would have been acceptable. Hopefully they will sort themselves out and put a winning run together to consolidate their place in the top half as the league is once again so tight that a run of three defeats could see you fighting the drop whereas three wins will probably put you second!
Unfortunately the European dream is well and truely over this year after being dumped out of the UEFA Cup by a 120th minute Osasuna goal. In truth Bordeaux never really looked like getting much out of this Basque 'derby' of sorts and the pitifully low attendance at the Parc Lescure leg summed up the genral feeling around the club. Now that the European distractions are out of the way perhaps they can concentrate on sorting out the faltering domestic season and ensure another crack at Europe next September.
At the end of the month it is the eagerly awaited Coupe de la Ligue final at the Stade de France against Lyon. I had come very close to getting tickets for this from www.francebillet.net but by the time I had ran a hotel and Eurostar search they had gone off general sale!! As Wayne and Garth would say "Denied!!!" Before the big final though there are three league games to contend with starting with Sochaux at home this coming saturday in a repeat of the fixture I managed to get to last year. Although Sochaux are much improved this year a win is both expected and imperitive.

The times they are a changin'

Having gone for what seemed like about 30 years without a win we have now won four in a row, going to show how quickly things can change in football. Unfortunately Dagenham have been on a similar run but we have now managed to reduce the 10 point gap to a more respectable 8.We've been to some dodgy places this season but as far as names go 'The Lamb Ground' in Tamworth is just weird. A small, tidy but unremarkable ground, the Lamb would not be out of place in Conference South and indeed probably will be next year as they sit firmly rooted to the bottom. I hope this doesn't seem like I am running Tamworth down as I'm not, I have a mutual respect for any football club from grass roots through to the Man Utd's and Madrid's of this world but the town, ground and crowd are nothing really to write home about. Not for the first time this season we packed out the away end selling our allocation of 850 a few days before the game and gave the team good vocal support from start to finish.
To walk a way with a 3-1 victory was satisfying as despite still not being right ourselves, Tamworth were awful and it is about time we started putting away teams at the bottom more convincingly. A good trip all round was made even better by a superb pre-match burger in a pub before and then taking only an hour and a half to get home. A fully successful day out!!A week later we played hosts to Stevenage Borough who are one of the strongest teams in this league and on a good run of form. It was generally accepted that this would be one of our most difficult game to date but for some reason Stevenage just didn't seem to turn up. Having ran us ragged with only nine men back at their place I was worried that they could pull off a result at Minchery but on the day they were uncharacteristically rubbish and we were uncharacteristically superb!! Although 2-0 doesn't exactly look like a thrashing we totally dominated the game and won at a canter.
For 44 minutes it seemed that despite battering Stevenage it was going to be another frustrating afternoon but when Matt Day headed home on the stroke of half time I and probably everyone else in the ground couldn't help thinking that was game over. The excellent Eddie Anaclet sealed the game with a deflected shot in the second half to wrap a thoroughly deserved victory, our third on the trot.As if to make a mockery of our woeful 11 game winless streak the boys in yellow and blue (yes I've decided I like them again) made the long mid-week trip to Merseyside to record an incredible 1-0 away win at Anfield. Having stunning the five times European Cup winners with a glorious strike from Danny Rose the travelling fans completely outsung the Kop for 90 minutes... Ok only joking it was Southport, but it was a great win and it was made even sweeter by Dagenham conceding a late equaliser at home to Stafford Rangers. Going 11 games without a win probably has killed off our season despite this revival but the fact is that watching Oxford is now exciting again. The fact that there is just a small chance that we can still do this has changed everyone’s outlook on the season and with Daggers still having to come to Minchery... Who knows...

Gravesend and Cleansheet

For the first time since November 25th Oxford won a league game (well non-league but you know what I mean...) keeping our first clean sheet since since the Lewes 'game' back on January 9th. We've had a bizarre run of mostly draws and have just about kept our head above water but Saturday was truely the most important game of the season so far. Had we lost we would have gone below Gravesend and York to 4th and with the mid-week games in hand could have dropped even further to 8th! As it was we put in a solid if unspectacular performance to beat a very good Gravesend side who were the team that had originally put an ends to our 18 match unbeaten run - you like to think this could represent some sort of closure on being shit!! Of course Dagenham went and won away at Burton somewhat disappointingly keeping the gap at 7 points, but week after week they continue to prove that they are a quality side and if they win this league they will more than deserve it. For us however, 3 points are finally in the bag and despite not really playing that well we held on (against 10 men...) to spark of scenes of relief and celebration akin to a last day of the season relegation escape!! Daggers must play their game in hand on Tuesday up at Kiddy and if they can pull of a win there then perhaps it is still all over, but anything else and we are right back in it.

If ever there was a case for Terracing...

The next person that tells me terracing has no place in the modern game needs to get themselves down to Aldershot for a game as quickly as possible. Saturday was incredible, ok the game finished 1-1 again with us conceding an 86th minute equaliser, but this game was always going to be about the atmosphere in the stands rather than the football. There is something about a covered terrace behind the goal that brings out best (some may say worse) in the British football fan, tradtionally it was here that most vociferous fans would gather and shout, scream and generally behave disgracefully. Every club had their own 'Home end', famous old terraces that would be the heartbeat behind the matchday atmosphere for example Man Utd's Stretford end, Chelsea's Shed End, the world famous Kop and of course our own London Road. Unfortunately during the late 70's and 80's boisterous behaviour and the occasional punch up had evolved into regular serious violence. Frequent mass riots, incompetent policing and grounds resembling death traps had basically made English football a place where personal safety could not be garunteed, something had to give. In 1989 at Hillsborough it did and the fallout would change football for ever.
I have no intention of going into the details of the Hillsborough tragedy but its clear that the blame was placed almost exclusively on terracing. It has become obvious in subsequent years that there were many more factors that led to deaths of 96 Liverpool fans such as horrendous over crowding, riot fencing and a general slow reaction to the situation. Whilst a crush like this simply wouldn't happen in a seated stand it does not mean that it was the terrace that caused it. A modern terrace with properly errected crush barriers, no standing areas and a strict cappacity is a safe place to watch football. In the german Bundesliga every weekend thousands of football fans stand on huge terraces up and down the country whilst in England we are forced to sit and watch football like some kind of trip to the cinema. To say the atmosphere suffers as a result is a huge understatement.
At Aldershot it was like meeting up with an old friend. The home fans are magnificent and made much more noise than us which is how it should be (new stadia usually over police home fans letting away fans do as they wish and make all the noise) and for myself and many others it felt like football used to. For the sake of English football I hope the authorities realise that terracing was not the cause of all ill in the 80's and that they see fit to allow standing areas back into league football as soon as possible.

A Tale of Two Cities

It seems that every time us and Cambridge meet the press gets hold of it and attempts to turn it into some sort of derby clash. They see the boat race and assume that not only is everyone from the varsity cities a posh sort but also that they care about the University rivalry. For what it's worth does usually have a bit of extra spice to it, but that is more down to a long standing history of crowd trouble between the fans - not because the light blues boat sank in so-and-so year or because Oxford lost the Rugger at Twicker's what-ho!! When Oxford meet Cambridge there is a bitter derby fought between two cities but it is not the battle the press latch onto; it is instead the old battle of town v gown rather than any varsity rivalry which causes the greatest local unease. As the clubs do their best to attract students the regular fans go to great lengths to distance themselves from any varsity references and go out of their ways to make any potential student spectators as unwelcome as possible.To me it still seems that there is an incredible amount of social snobbery on both sides and it must be said that it is the town side that has the greatest chip on it's shoulder. It should always be remembered that if you took the University out of Oxford with all the wealth it brings to both the City centre and surrounding areas, you would be left with a run down semi industrial mess. Love or loath the University it makes Oxford the vibrant beautiful city it is and you can enjoy all the positives of the city without ever coming into direct contact with the university establishment if you so wish.As for the gown side, it is always argued that they do not seem to want to integrate into local life, that they feel they are somehow above the local residents like some sort of überpopulation living in a sheltered world of there own. Well yes they do, but if you take a wander through Cowley Centre on a Saturday you can't help feeling they might be on to something.
The modern football fan is far more varied than ten years ago, he is just as likely to be a she and can come from any social background. A windy Kassam Stadium on a Tuesday night watching yet another rubbish Conference game is hardly inviting to anyone - let alone an Oxbridge Student that "Doesn’t really follow football…". It seems some old wounds never heal and perhaps it's better to leave each to his own. Trying to force together two opposing factions who simply don't have any intention of mixing yet can co-exist quite happily is essentially a pointless exercise.
What game? Oh yeah 1-1, an equaliser from Eddie Anaclet on the hour(ish) mark saved the day. We were better but clearly there is quite some way to go. We should be burying teams like Cambridge without to much trouble.

I Hate Football

Last weekend was one of those rare occasions where absolutely nothing went right. With the mighty U's(...) not playing on Saturday I did something I haven't done since May 2005 and hauled my football ass over to Court Place Farm to watch our Southern League neighbours Oxford City take on newly promoted Andover. It was awful. Despite Andover playing about an hour with 10 men they tore City apart and eventually ran out 4-0 winners. The standard of football was woeful and although the crowd of just over 200 was City's third best of the season the sheer silence with which they watch a game meant there might as well have been none. I have been well and truly reminded why I stopped going to watch them. Just to round off a completely pointless day Dagenham whooped Exeter 4-1 sending them 9 points clear at the top of the conference making Monday's game against Rushden something of a cup final for Oxford. In case I was hoping for solace from farther afield Banbury lost 3-1 at Tiverton and Bordeaux crashed to an extremely disappointing home defeat against Lille. That's 4 results I was looking out for and each one went completely wrong. Surely the U's wouldn't let me down Monday though... Yeah right!!
What happened on Monday night will live long in my memory as one of the most disappointing nights I've ever experienced as an Oxford United fan. It's not just about the result because lets be fair Rushden deserved it; they worked hard for each other, moved the ball well and created numerous chances. It was the sheer ineptitude of Oxford performance that really hurt, It's like all of a sudden no one wants to play anymore. The way they struggled around the pitch creating nothing at all live in front of the sky TV cameras was frankly embarrassing. All though I hate to say it I felt ashamed of that team and that performance last night and having stood through the shit that's been served up for the last seven years or so I think we had every right to express our disgust at the end. I am sick of watching various useless teams run rings around us whilst we stand there in silence listening a handful of away fans cheer and celebrate in the North stand. Absolutely SICK of it.

I will be there no matter what but then I have the disposable income to be. Many do not and will be soon be wondering why they are spending their hard earned cash to watch crap football played by people who don't give a toss. If something is not done soon the club will see attendance’s fall very quickly and without that revenue we can forget being a league team again for a very long time.
Not Happy

Bordelais Allez!!!

It's been a long time since I wrote anything about Bordeaux but despite not having as strong a league campaign as last year, this season is well worth following. After picking up a string of wins before the winter break (defeat at home to Rennes aside) Les Girondins have had a mostly successful January winning Coupe de France ties against Bastia and Chamois Niort and securing their place in the coupe de la Ligue Final. The showdown with Lyon on March 31st will be Bordeaux's first appearance in any cup final since 2002 when they won the CDL beating Lorient at the Stade de France.Whilst on the subject of Lorient, they are so far the only team to visit Parc Lescure for a league game in 2007 so far and somehow managed to come away with a 1-1 draw. On Wednesday however Les Girondins not only got back on track put pulled off the result of the season with a win away at CDL opponents Lyon. This was Lyon's first defeat at Gerland all season, but despite the shock still enjoy a 14 point lead over second placed Marseille. Whether or not this result will have any bearing on the CDL is debatable but at least Bordeaux have proved to themselves that they are capable on their day of taking on the Lyon winning machine and coming out on top.This Saturday high flying Lille visit Parc Lescure in what should be a tight game which if Les Marines et Blancs can win will leapfrog them ahead of Lille and could potentially put them on the same points as Marseille and Lens in second and 3rd. Bordeaux lost 3-0 at the Metropole earlier in the season and will be hoping to avenge that defeat with a similar scoreline. New Argentinean signing form Spartak Moscow Fernando Cavenaghi does not go into this weeks team but will be hoping to make his debut a week later away to Nice in what is always a fiery encounter.

Well something's not Woking!!

Another game, another poor result. Worringly we are slowly beginning to turn what had been a run of disappointing draws into something much more serious and by losing at Woking on Tuesday now find ourselves a daunting six points behind Daggenham. Having sort of got back on track at Grays it was hoped we could carry this over and put in a good performance in the Surrey town that inspired Weller's 'Town called Malice' but alas we didn't. Instead we went 1-0 in the 13th minute, allowed Woking's time wasting tactics to disrupt the games flow and wasted the handful of chances that came our way.
Not much else to say, if we don't beat Rushden on Monday then we can forget the title.

Grays

Believe it or not the conference has awoken a long lost interest in Geography from somewhere deep within. Last year we went to a handful of games up north in towns that are instantly dismissed as shitholes by people who haven't actually been there. I enjoyed every one of the northern towns last season and found them to be pleasant well kept places that do not deserve their bad press.
This year our away games seem to be mostly centred around the south east which is great from a travel cost point of view but so far every one of these towns has been a deprived concrete mess falling well below the standards of the much maligned North. I started to wonder after Saturday’s game at Grays why the wealthy South East was in fact a collection of run down depressed towns.
There seems to be a general prejudice in England towards the North. It is seen by many of us southerners (particularly in the South East) as some sort of decaying wasteland where everyone wears a flat cap, eats gristle and speaks like Fred Dinbah. Crazy accent aside this is a grossly unfair stereotype and hides an underlying insecurity in the south about the state of our own back yard. The South East of England is the most prosperous corner of the Country thanks almost entirely to two millennia of international trade in London. There are other 'flagship' towns thrust into public limelight for their beauty and historical significance like Oxford and Canterbury, or as shining examples of modern, clean, safe economic success such as Reading.
Whilst London and other successful towns continue to grow in size and create more and more jobs, so do the economic migration rates leaving surrounding smaller settlements almost devoid of both skilled workers and quality employers. As young professionals within the towns move out, people from further afield look to move in so as to be within easy commuting distance of London without to pay the capital's extortionate property prices. As more of these types of migrants look to move into the towns, new estates have to be built to house them driving up house prices and eventually creating a commuter town with miles of housing estates but facilities befitting a town half the size.This Chain of events has left much of the South East's smaller towns a washed up collection of concrete shells devoid of any plus point other than 'it's close to London'. Although naturally this happens all over the country to some degree, it is most damaging in the South East where the sheer size of the capital and the opportunities within exaggerates the pull factors far beyond those of any other Town in Britain.
What else are you meant to be thinking about during a 2-2 draw in Grays??

Keep the Yellow flag flying high!!

Next Monday’s game against Rushden should be notable for two reasons, firstly it is the first league match to be televised at the Kassam. More importantly however the above yellow flag will be unfurled for the first in what is a deliberate attempt to make the Kassam Stadium more yellow. Why people insist on bringing St George's flags with 'OUFC' written in the corners is beyond me. People complain that the ground is too blue and has no yellow yet they fill up the stand with red and white flags, St George’s or not - don't Swindon play in those colours...!?!? When the subject is brought up there is usually some grunt of a reply about loving club and country, but as far as I am concerned flags should be in club colours otherwise they just look daft. Rant over. Well done to the brave soul who purchased the material and spent Friday night and Sunday making it.

Cups and downs...

For reasons which I'm not entirely sure I understand, I didn't go to any football this weekend despite both Oxford and Banbury being at home. I had decided after the boredom of Tuesday that I did not need to pay another £12 plus bus fare to watch FA Trophy football for the second time in a week and would instead go to Banbury. When the time came to leave however, I could no longer be bothered to leave the house and spend around £15 travelling to and watching a mid-table Southern League game so I retired upstairs with a toasted cheese sandwich and attempted to listen to the game on Radio Oxford. Despite drifting in and out of sleep for most of the second half it sounded like a good match, we seem to be scoring again but worryingly conceded two goals at home. The final score of 2-2 was a little disappointing and needless to say I was not making plans for the midweek replay at the Shay. A few miles to the north Banbury drew 1-1 with Merthyr Tydfil it what was by all accounts a thoroughly missable game.On Tuesday Oxford went up to the Shay and put in a good performance but ultimately went down 2-1. Whilst going out of the FA Trophy is no great drama it is yet another defeat to bounce back from and more alarmingly it took the shock of going 2-0 down to finally wake them up and start playing. Although the second half performance was excellent we cannot plan a season on good last half hours otherwise we will be in this league for many years to come.Whilst Oxford were getting to grips with the Shay Banbury played host to struggling Chippenham. It seems they've finally hit a bit of home form and comprehensively thumped the carrot crunchers from Wiltshire 5-0, with four of those goals coming in the first half. The fifth goal scored towards the Town end by hat-trick hero Johnny Gardener was a beautiful curling shot from the edge of the area that (despite the cliché) would have been a goal of the month contender had it been in the Premiership. A poor crowd of 248 was disappointing but if Banbury continue to pick up results then the crowds will surely come back.

In Profile: TSV 1860 München

It is impossible to talk about German football without immediately thinking of the beautiful city of Munich and it's legendary club Bayern, however until the late 60's it was the now little mentioned TSV 1860 which was the city's flagship club. Beginning life in 1848 as a gymnastic association the club was not formally recognised until 1860, having been banned by local authorities who believed sports clubs to be promoting 'Republican activities'. Despite the name it was not until1899 that the football team would be formed and another three years until it would play regularly.In 1911 the famous Lion from which the club gets it's nickname 'Die Löwen' was added to the crest. In the same year the team moved to a plot of land in Grünwalder Straße which by 1926 had grown into a 40,000 capacity stadium and where 1860 would continue to play until the 1990's. The inter-war years were solid if unspectacular for 1860 who were by now competing in Germany's upper leagues, with two appearances ( and defeats) in the German National Championship being the highlights. It was not until 1942 when with football going ahead despite the war, they lifted their first silverware beating Shalke 04 in the German Cup final.After the war 1860 continued to play as a top flight Oberliga Sud side (although briefly suffering relegation between 1953 and 1956) and slowly began to establish themselves as one of the top sides in Germany.The 60's were to the Lion's most successful era, in 1963 they won the Oberliga Sud gaining promotion to the newly formed Bundesliga, and a year later winning the German Cup for the second time. The next two seasons were to be the climax of 1860 rise when in 1965 they finished runners to West Ham in the UEFA Cup before going on to win the Bundesliga for the first and only time in 1966. Success however can be cruelly short-lived and three seasons after being crowned Champions 1860 were relegated whilst city rivals Bayern were beginning to lay the foundations of what would go on to be Germany's most successful club. For the next 20 years 1860 would languish in relative obscurity until a brief two season return to the Bundesliga in 1980 led to relegation and bankruptcy with the club being demoted two divisions in 1982 to the Amateur Oberliga Bayern. 1860 would spend the next decade in the wilderness of the regional leagues.In the early nineties the club was rebuilt thanks mainly to the hard work of President Karl-Heinz Wildmoser. Having recently moved in to the Olympic Stadium to ground share with Bayern, the Lions earned successive promotions in 1994 and 1995 to reclaim their place in the Bundesliga. By mixing shrewd signings of proven veterans like Thomas Häßler, Jens Jeremies and Peter Nowak with a strong youth set up, 1860 were able to establish themselves as a solid mid table side which hit a peak by qualifying for the 1996 UEFA cup. There would be one final jaunt into Europe when in 2000 1860 finished 4th in the Bundesliga (doing the double over city rivals Bayern) gaining entry to the Champions League qualifying rounds. Although they were knocked out before the group phase they were able to enter the UEFA Cup reaching the 3rd round before losing to Italian side AC Parma.Sadly in 2004 1860 crashed out of the Bundesliga and did not make the immediate return that many fans were expecting despite moving into to the newly built Allianz Arena which they will again share with Bayern. They are currently sitting in 6th place in Bundesliga 2 (as of the 2006/2007 Winter break) 10 points off leaders Karlsruher SC, but are mounting a strong challenge for the play-off places.

It may be tinpot but a win is a win...

A first half penalty from Rob Duffy was enough to send Oxford stumbling into the second round of the FA Trophy at Minchery Farm last night. We are so short of confidence that any win will be gladly received but last night was nothing short of terrible and the penalty was in the end the only shot on target we had. To not be able test a 16 year old youth team non-league 'keeper isn't exactly promising for the weeks to come and although we pretty much controled the match, just shading a Conference South with an injury list worse than the Somme was a poor showing.
Still... We've won a game at last and on Saturday Halifax come down for round 2 in what will be a much tougher game. Hopefully the better class of opponent will force us to raise our game to something approaching acceptable. I may just go and watch Banbury play Merthyr Tydfil instead as I'm not really up for watching another FA Trophy game in front of no fans for a tenner. Hopefully we will win through as I really do want to do well in this competition.

A Wet Weekend...

What do you say about a 0-0 draw with no genuine positives? Well basically not a lot. By some freak fixture listing we were give 3 home games out of 4 over Christmas yet despite lots of huffing and puffing and dagnabit even some proper fightin' talk, we picked up only 3 points. Saturday's draw against Morecambe was yet another frustrating result and despite the fact Morecambe are a good side it was a win we badly needed and expected. Dagenham did well to defeat Woking 3-2 meaning that we stay second with the gap between us and the Daggers now 3 points.One minor good point from Saturday was that the new loan signings look pretty good. Georges Santos is a superb defender clearly better than this level and mid-fielder Danny Rose also had a good game once he'd got used to the messy business that is Conference football. Being Man Utd's reserve team captain it's fair to assume that he is a player of some quality and will improve the more he plays.Tonight we play Lewes of the Conference South in a FA Trophy 1st round replay. Although we cannot field our new signings Lewes do not have a keeper so I guess we are at some quite significant advantage...
Anything less than a win will not be acceptable.

Review in Photo's - Summer

In trying to cope with the boredom of the close season (World Cup = good but no substitute for live football) we took a day off work and went down to London for the first Tuesday of Wimbledon.


































Two months after being relegated, Chairman Nick Merry offered fans the chance to come along to a family fun day. Everyone was allowed on the pitch and Jim Smith was on hand to sign autographs!!













Banbury had a couple of decent pre-season games against Cheltenham and Coventry. I took some pics of the Cheltenham game but not of Coventry which was a shame as over 1000 turned up!! They also beat an Oxford XI 3-0 but the less said about that the better...
















Our Show-piece friendly was a sell out against a very strong Man Utd XI. Although we lost 4-1, it was a great performance. This was Ronaldo's first game in England since his World Cup 'antics', something not lost on the national press who gave us blanket coverage then complained when we booed him?!?!













One of the most eagerly anticipated fixtures of the year- Weymouth away, was given an extra boost by being the August bank holiday fixture. A 1-1 draw was the first points we dropped but the last minute equaliser made the day.

Christmas/New Years Football

Firstly let me start by saying that I will not be uploading photo's of Boxing Day's record crowd of 11,065 as like a prat I forgot my camera. Shame really as the game was so boring I could have happily spent most of it snapping away rather than shouting at Eddie 'shoot? what is shoot?' Anaclet and the numerous mortally wounded Woking players rolling around hoping to run the clock down. In the end despite 6 minutes injury time and a giant flag (!)the U's just couldn't find a way past a resolute (and time wasting) Woking side and the game finished a disappointing 0-0, fortunately Dagenham were held at home by Grays so the 2 point cushion at the top of the table remained intact.Four days later Oxford entertained Crawley for our second Christmas home game and once again this one was hugely frustrating. The East Stand was in surprisingly good voice early on but Oxford were lethargic and looked largely uninterested, failing to put any real pressure on the Crawley keeper. On the stroke of half time (4 minutes into what was meant to be 2 minutes added time...) thing got even worse as Tony Scully rounded Billy Turley and finished from a tight angle to give the Essex team a 1-0 half time lead. Oh Dear. The second half saw a much more attacking Oxford side with Yemi once again the stand out player and with 11 minutes to go Rob Duffy equalised to spare our blushes but not as it turned out our top spot. Only a few minutes before Duffy's goal news filtered through that the Daggers had gone 1-0 up and they held that lead to go top of the Conference on goal difference to cap of a week that has been pretty depressing for us.An interesting New Year's resolution for the men in Yellow could have been to stop the rot and go to Exeter and get back to winning ways. However the amount of injuries picked up from the Crawley game meant the travelling squad resembled something akin to post-Bubonic plague Europe. When only fit striker Steve Basham limped off early on it clearly wasn't going to be our day (again), and despite playing with a new found vigour the U's went down 2-1 with ex Plymouth player Rufus Brevitt scoring an own goal much to the amusement of the home fans.Aside from Oxford I only managed to get to one other game which was Banbury v Wealdstone. Banbury won 3-1 in what was their first home league win since August 19th!! I had also hoped to go along to the New Year's day game against Halesowen but left it having got back from an all night do in Birmingham only a few hours earlier I gave it a miss...







Raving in Birmingham...

Review in Photo's - MAY

Here is the first part of a summery of things I did whilst I was not updating 'Fans Life'. All the pictures and many more can be found at: . Photo Home Page

Penulatimate game 05/06. Oxford battle to a 1-1 draw at Wrexham but slip into the relegation place for the first time in their history.



























A last minute 3-2 home defeat to Orient sends Oxford down to the non-leagues. Not a dry eye in the house...














A week after getting relegated I went to Bordeaux to unwind and hopefully get a ticket for the final home game against Marseille. Didn't get a ticket but never mind, just getting away was good enough.
















































Whilst in the Wine capital of the world I went on a journey to the Pyranees to the small town of Lourdes to lay some ghosts to rest. In 1999 our sixth went with Birmingham diocese as a volunteer group. various things happened on the trip that didn't end particularly well. This was a good chance to grab some closure.


























If I'm honest then I'm not a particularly Religious person but the place does have something about it.