Posted by ChrisB on July 21, 2007, 6:12 pm, in reply to "Milton Utd 1 City 2" HALF-TIME: Milton United 0-1 City A very different City XI took the field after the break and it saw Jermaine McSporran in City colours for the first time in nearly a decade lining up with Mark Jones, Alex Stewart, Liam Malone, Mark Janes, George Redknapp, Jon Gardner and Mark Avery among others. City took the game to their opponents more now and Jones, Janes and McSporran were making plenty of openings. A fine save by the home keeper kept out McSporran’s sharp volley from a Jones cross; and the keeper did very well to push away a Stewart header that was bound for the bottom corner five minutes later. FULL-TIME: Milton United 1-2 Oxford City *Available from the hooped-hut at the give-away price of only £12.50!!
So as the sun beamed down (quickly followed by torrential rain) Milton United hosted City in the first match of the ‘friendly’ season.
City had plenty of new names on show and the team that came out rather tentatively into monsoon-like rain after half-time bore little resemblance to the eleven who had sought shelter fifteen minutes earlier!
The hosts caused a couple of early scares in the City defence but did not get their final shots on target and slowly City began to get the upper hand. Considering few of the City team had played together in earnest before today they settled into a good rhythm quite quickly. Mark Bell and Steve Davis were playing well and debutant James Faulkner put in some strong runs at the front and kept the Milton keeper on his toes.
The only goal of the half came after 34 minutes when a corner was cleared to Molton on the edge of the area and although he fluffed his first shot the ball ran nicely for him and he fired home past an unsighted keeper into the corner of the net.
After 80 minutes Milton made the most of one of few chances to come their way in the second half when a Milton forward (apologies for the lack of a name!) popped up on the right of the City box and placed his shot neatly wide of the keeper’s left hand.
Four minutes later City won a corner on the Milton left and, in one of those ‘what-happened-next’ moments, Jon Gardner kicked the flag as well as the ball as he took the kick, looked concerned as the ball rolled three yards, and then relieved as Mark Jones reacted quickest of those on hand to play the ball back enabling him to put in a good cross that Mark Avery drove in at the far post.
So the management will have seen plenty of players during the afternoon and will have a lot to think about over the remaining friendlies during the next three weeks. Hard for the supporters to get really involved while watching friendlies but most of those beneath the smart new blue-and-white umbrellas* (and some rather older and more moth-eaten) felt that there was some good football played for so early in the year and there was plenty to build on.
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