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.