Posted by Outsider on October 13, 2007, 7:53 pm, in reply to "City 2-3 Farnborough: A View From The Terraces" Crowd wasn't overly impressive considering that there must have been 200 Farnborough there and Oxford Utd weren't playing.
As a neutral I think that your report is understandably City biased in that although the Farnborough second goal looked very dodgy I don't think you can argue with either of the offside decisions for the disallowed Oxford goals - McSporran was clearly offside on both occasions.
Considering the calibre of players City have I was disappointed with their performance - Gardener didn't look interested and the young lad from Wycombe was very quick but not a team player (reminded me of Jermaine Roach at Windsor)- the only one who really impressed for me was McSporran.
Farnborough took their foot off the gas in the second half and had a well dodgy goalkeeper who gave you two goals.
Despite all these negative comments I enjoyed my afternoon at Court Place - it's a very impressive set up (except the car park)& with these facilities and the squad you have you really should be pushing for promotion.
--Previous Message--
: With England hosting Estonia at Wembley this
: afternoon City welcomed Farnborough to Court
: Place Farm for the first time in seven years
: at the early hour of one o’clock: a move
: that certainly boosted the sales of the
: famed bacon rolls to cater for all those
: missing their lunches!
: There was a minute’s silence, impeccably
: observed by the good-sized crowd, before the
: start for a City stalwart of the ‘60s, Tony
: Bradbury; and the applause at its end marked
: the beginning of an eagerly awaited game
: between two of the division’s unbeaten
: teams.
: The first five minutes saw good home
: pressure with three corners coming in quick
: succession; a free-kick from Jon Gardner
: that wasn’t far away from Andy Gunn’s head;
: and a good run into the box by Ikechi Anya
: that was only stopped by a perfectly-timed
: tackle from Luke Evans. Farnborough also
: showed early on why they are many people’s
: favourites for promotion. Ex-City enigma
: Ray Spence broke well and put in a centre
: from the City left, and Steve Smith, making
: his home debut, had to be quick off his line
: to save at the feet of high-scoring Neville
: Roach; and a long throw from Steve Dell gave
: Spence a chance on the edge of the area but
: he shot wide.
: A flowing move from midfield involving Pond,
: Faulkner and Anya saw Gardner just fail to
: control a bouncing ball when in a good
: position, just before Anya drew a foul and
: Gardner delivered an accurate kick that
: Jermaine McSporran flicked home with the
: Farnborough defence watching Gunn and
: Cattell. Unfortunately the assistant
: referee’s flag was raised for an offside
: decision against (presumably) another player
: and the celebrations came to an abrupt halt.
: At the clubhouse end Spence’s shot was saved
: by Smith, though a late flag would have
: ruled a goal out anyway, and then Spence
: became provider as his run and curling cross
: on the Farnborough right was neatly headed
: home by Roach at the near-post on 23
: minutes.
: Eight minutes later and the afternoon got
: worse for the City as Roach shot home from
: close in past Smith’s left hand from a
: position that everyone, except,
: unfortunately, the assistant referee, felt
: was a good yard offside!
: Gardner came close to narrowing the gap with
: five minutes left when a dipping free-kick
: from the edge of the box was deflected just
: wide, but City seemed to have lost their
: shape a little and the visitors made a
: number of promising openings in the last ten
: minutes of the half, with Spence involved in
: much of the action. A succession of
: first-time passes saw him through the City
: defence, but just offside, and a teasing
: cross from him produced a diving header from
: Nic Ciardini that only just cleared the bar.
:
: HALF-TIME: City 0-2 Farnborough
:
: City started the second period strongly and
: almost immediately Gardner produced a great
: chance for himself when he robbed a
: dithering defender in the box, but shot well
: wide. And the same player produced two more
: good chances for the Blues in the next
: fifteen minutes. A corner only just failed
: to reach the lunging Stuart Cattell, and a
: couple of minutes later another well struck
: cross somehow evaded James Faulkner when a
: goal looked certain. With City pressing
: hard Spence and Roach had a little more room
: and with a quarter of an hour gone in the
: half only a terrific tackle from James
: Saulsbury stopped Spence as he bore down on
: Smith.
: Just as it looked as though Farnborough had
: weathered the storm, a long ball out of
: defence on the City left was picked up by
: Faulkner and McSporran made up yards on
: the defenders to be first to the ball and
: finish neatly as Faulkner’s low cross was
: pushed out by Lyall Beazley in the visitor’s
: goal.
: Both sides reacted positively to the goal as
: Gardner hit a shot that Beazley gathered at
: the second attempt; Ciardini dispossessed
: McSporran and shot wide; and Mark Gamble
: fired a shot/cross through a busy six-yard
: box with no-one able to get a meaningful
: touch.
: With fifteen minutes left James Faulkner was
: again in a good position, on the City right
: this time, to chase down a pass over the
: top, and his cross along the goal-line was
: scrambled away by the defence. Darren Pond,
: just inside the Farnborough half, shaped to
: return the ball to the danger zone, but his
: pass cannoned off a defender and into the
: path of Ray Spence who, with Pond
: momentarily out of position, took the ball
: on and finished with a well-judged shot
: across Smith.
: A double substitution for City followed and
: in the next attack McSporran went past
: Beazley and the keeper brought him down just
: inside the area. A yellow card for Beazley
: and, with almost his first touch of the ball
: since coming on, Alex Stewart hit the
: spot-kick hard and accurately into the
: bottom corner of the net.
: Just under ten minutes left and the home
: side pushed hard for the equaliser against a
: defence reinforced by the arrival of Sean
: Thurgood at the expense of striker Neville
: Roach. And it looked as though City had
: grabbed a point from the match when a Jones
: free-kick was fumbled by Beazley straight to
: McSporran who rolled the ball home – but up
: went that flag again!!
:
: FULL-TIME: Oxford City 2-3 Farnborough
:
: City : Smith, Saulsbury, Weirich, Gunn,
: Pond (Williams 80) , Cattell, Gardner
: (Jones 71) , Redknap, Faulkner (Stewart 80)
: , Anya, McSporran.
: Farnborough : Beazley, Dell, Bailey,
: Woozley, Evans, Rumbold, Howes (Gamble 39)
: , Ciardini, Roach (Thurgood 73), Harkness,
: Spence.
:
: So Farnborough maintain their unbeaten
: record, and City lose theirs. But a good
: game, nonetheless, between two well-matched
: sides who, I would think, should both be in
: the upper reaches of the table in April.
: The only disappointment to me really was
: that so much hung on two different assistant
: referees’ varying interpretations of the
: off-side rule - or is that just sour grapes?
: The return match in February should be
: well-worth watching.
:
:
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