Monthly Archives: February 2013

Desolation Row

11 Monday Feb 2013

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Saturday 9th February 2013 ko 15.00

League 2

OXFORD UNITED 0

BRISTOL ROVERS 2 (Brown 56p Richards 90)

Att 7,608 (1,932 away)

Entry S/T

Programme (including Oxford Mail) £3

Today a friend of mine sent me a text message. He’s just bought a book, ” Oxford United Who’s Who,” and remarked just how many poor players the club have employed over recent years. I’m not convinced how many of the current crop will be remembered with any fondness. Before kick-off I spotted Simon Heslop glumly looking out from the press box. He must have thought, “How could I fail to get into this squad?” Indeed Simon, indeed!

With the news that the creative midfielder Peter Leven is out injured for the long-term, and that a string of players were signed without undertaking medicals, there was pessimistic feel about the ground. It proved to be well founded as not only did Oxford look unlikely to score, but in an attempt to counteract the dreadful pitch, the tactic was to thump the ball in the direction of Justin Richards, but James Constable doesn’t deal in knock-downs, and with a 4-3-3 formation looking narrow the first half was non-event.

Oxford’s one player who looks worth a transfer fee is Jake Wright, yet it was his sliding challenge on Ryan Brunt that irrevokably swung the tie in the Gas’s favour. It looked a clean challenge from my seat, but few complained, as the retaken spot-kick easily beat the Oxford United keeper.

So with the clock running down, how do you change things? Put the out-of-favour striker Deane Smalley on? Or put the out of favour centre-half Harry Worley on?  When Worley joined the forward line, it didn’t take a psychic to imagine what Smalley was thinking. I wonder whether another loan out can be found for him, his stay at Oxford United clearly hasn’t worked out.

The tremendous away followimg masked another poor attendance, and that figleaf won’t be there on Tuesday night, when Fleetwood are the visitors. Will there be a short-term replacement for Leven? Will there be a 20 goal a season striker to replace Craddock? Somehow I doubt it.

 

The School of Hard Knocks

10 Sunday Feb 2013

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Friday 8th February 2013

Big Pit, Blaenavon, Torfaen.

Entry FREE

Guide Book £4

Then,

19.30 Welsh League Division One

BRIDGEND TOWN 2 (Bell 12 24)

MONMOUTH TOWN 3 (Evans 22 E Ford 31 Harrhy 62)

Att 53 (h/c)

Entry & Programme £5

If the School of Hard Knocks had a headmaster’s office then it would definitely be in the valleys of South Wales. I’d wanted to visit Bridgend’s current home at the Brewery Field for some time, but from a 5pm start in Oxford, it was just outside of my radius of opportunity. So with a day off, and an enquiring mind, I decided to make a day of it, and visit somewhere else I’d had on my to-do list for some time.

Torfaen is coal-mining country, as I drove from Abergavenny over the foothills of the beautiful Cambrian Hills, I considered my upbringing in Oxford. The only mining that ever took place was the stone quarrying for the colleges, a couple of centuries ago. The Miners’ strike of 1984/5 had little impact on me save for news reports, flying pickets outside of Didcot Power Station, and the acerbic notice of the front gate of the local coal merchant saying that there was no coal, ” Due to the (insert expletive) miners.”

It’s hard to feel any sympathy without empathy, and I have football to thank for understanding the other point of view. Visits to colliery sides shorn of their pit in places like Rainworth, and Clipstone in the Midlands, with the pit wheel outside set half-way down in a concrete grave, taught me that not only did the mines disappear in the 1980’s and 90’s but so did the entire economies of the communities that supported them.

The Big Pit is a case in point, as Blaenavon thirty years ago was a single employer town. As a young boy you went to school until aged 13 then down the mine you went. It was a thoroughly unpleasant occupation, dirty, dangerous, and poorly paid, but it created a sense of belonging, a reason-to-be, the reasons on a smaller scale that I find football so attractive. The pit now is a fascinating glimpse of what was, and whilst Blaenavon does have industrial estates, light industry attempting to provide some of what the pit provided, a town selling itself as a heritage town seemed melancholy to me.

Even today the pit sends out mixed signals. On one hand it harks back to the days of “Coal is King” with full employment and a strong community backed by the Federation union later swallowed up by the National Union of Mineworkers. On the other hand, there’s a sense that they’re glad to escape the deaths, injuries, and pollution of the mines, with the women having just sufficient education to marry a miner and become a domestic drudge. It would be interesting to see where the valleys find themselves in 50 years’ time, as the re-invention is by no means complete. It goes without saying that the Big Pit is a wonderful, thought-provoking place to visit.

It’s about 50 miles south-west to Bridgend from Blaenavon. The town had no coal seams, but was an important transportation centre for the black diamonds as the confluence of the rivers Garw, Ogmore, and Llynfi made the town rich. The town escaped much of the bombing during the Second World War, perhaps due to a naturally occurring air pocket above it, but like many other towns in the area suffered with the decline in the coal industry.

The football club have unquestionably suffered with their FAW enforced return to the Welsh pyramid. As a Southern League outfit in the English pyramid, they won the Championship in 1980, but have found success hard to come by after their return to exclusively Welsh football in 1983. They vacated Coychurch Road in 2006, their home for many years – to make way for a new supermarket, and have led a peripatetic existence since. They’ve played on a university pitch at Trefforest, and on an outside pitch at Porthcawl, before co-signing a 99 year lease with Bridgend Ravens RUFC for use of the rugby union ground, The Brewery Field.

As a sports venue its steeped in history and atmosphere, a wonderful place for the sports fan to visit. It’s also way too big for Bridgend’s meagre crowds of around 50, and there are moves afoot to merge with Bryntirion who play in the town’s suburbs. There’s money to spend on improving Bryntirion Park so as to create a UEFA compliant ground, mandatory for elevation to the Welsh Premier League. When Bridgend sold Coychurch Road £2,000,000 was held in trust by the local council to provide a permanent home for the club. Since then the club haven’t managed to find anywhere suitable, so an upgraded ground on Llangewydd Road, with a 3G pitch could just work for them.

I smiled when the man at the main entrance had no change, and allowed myself a knowing smile when the programme was its usual poor effort, just 2 sheets of photocopied A4 folded in half, but the welcome was genuine enough, and the game was an entertaining finale to my day.

Monmouth have risen rapidly through the leagues, and most present had them as firm favourites at kick off. They were surprised as former Barry Town forward Josh Bell danced through the visitors’ defence to open the scoring. Ben Evans nodded home from a cross to equalise, before Bell restored the lead, with a beautifully placed curling effort. Evans then turned provider as his long ball found Elliott Ford, who rounded Leighton Rhys in the home goal before tapping home for 2-2.

After the break the teams tightened up significantly but Monmouth deservedly won the game when Nick Harrhy’s wonderful cushioned volley broke Bridgend’s resistance. No great quality but honest endeavour, and that of course had been a running theme during the afternoon’s adventures.

Will Bridgend stay at the Brewery Field? Who knows, but its clear that the Brewery Field is far too big for their needs, or even the club officials capabilities. For the lover of stadiums and their history, the Brewery Field needs to be visited sooner rather than later.

 

The Burnt Stub

10 Sunday Feb 2013

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Thursday 7th February 2013 ko 19.45

Combined Counties League Premier Division

CHESSINGTON & HOOK UNITED 2 (Howton 88 Harding 90p) Tyler missed penalty 58

EPSOM & EWELL 3 (Burns 8 86 Jarman 67)

Att 87

Entry £7

No Programme

Tea £1

If ever a place is dominated by an attraction it’s the Surrey town of Chessington, even Alton, in Staffordshire manages to shelter itself from Alton Towers next door (just a turret pokes its head above the trees!). The World of Adventures sits on the site of The Burnt Stub stately home, a royalist stronghold during the English Civil War, and razed to the ground by the Parliamentarians on their victory. A Neo-Gothic mansion was built on the site by the Vere family, and the grounds were converted to a zoo in 1931 by Reginald Goddard. The site became part of the Tussaud’s Group in 1978 and the mansion incorporated as Hocus Pocus Hall. I used the entrance to turn round, and made a beeline for Chalky Lane, the ground hiding behind the trees from its big brash sibling.

There’s something of a ranch feel to the ground. Maybe its the gibbeted entry sign, or the players’ walkway from changing room to the pitch evoking the riders’ entrance at a rodeo, but all the essentials of life are here, but perhaps not in traditional form. There was no programme, as the game has been hastily re-arranged from Tuesday’s waterlogged postponement, and they hadn’t printed for that, as they’d seen the state of the pitch, and saved themselves the printing costs!

One glance at the table predicted an away win. Not many clubs can keep up with Guernsey’s rise, fuelled by the off-shore profits of online gambling, but the E’s are giving in a real go. They have no ground of their own, sharing at the moment at Chipstead, they’ve played Isthmian League football, and are keen to return. They’d won 9 on the bounce, and any team that can lay claim to having found future Scotland international Matt Elliott, needs to be taken seriously. The fly in the ointment was the last club to have beaten them… Chessington & Hook. Enid Blyton may have lived here, but this story was a good deal better thought out than one of her hackneyed yarns.

On a heavy but just about playable pitch, it was the visitors who made the early breakthrough, as Sam Currie’s cross hit the crossbar, and Robbie Burns reacted first to tap home. For the rest of the half it was more or less continuous Epsom pressure and only profligate finishing and good defending kept the score down.

The second half saw a change on formation for Chessington and it paid dividends, or rather it should! Nathan Ayling’s clumsy challenge on Dan Harding was an obvious penalty, but Tom Tyler’s spot kick failed to even draw a save from Epsom keeper Joe White. They were made to pay as a counter-attack found Mark Jarman clean through and he made the most of the opportunity, sliding the ball past Daniel Burnett.

Two soon became three as the move of the game saw Currie’s cross from the right, find Burns, whose pinpoint glancing header found the left hand corner of the net. That looked to be it but when Tony Howton’s 25 yard free kick squirmed its way past everyone for 3-1 Chessington saw and opportunity. Dan Harding made it 3-2 from the penalty spot after Luke Edwards was felled, and only the offside flag prevented Paul Gough from equalising! The win takes Epsom top of the table, although Guernsey have multiple games in hand, the legacy of a fine FA Vase run, that’s still ongoing.

Breathless stuff on a filthy night, and a game that 48 hours no-one had expected would take place. A bonus in every way possible, but there was to be no lashings of ginger beer to celebrate!

Omnibus donis quae de tua beneficentia accepturi simus

09 Saturday Feb 2013

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Thursday 7th February 2012 ko 14.00

Oxford University Junior Common Room League First Division

MERTON MANSFIELD 0

BRASENOSE 2 (Gilbert 9 Saunders 47)

Att 4

Entry FREE

Nothing for Sale

One of the delights of living in Oxford is that there’s the colleges and their environs to explore. With Mansfield College being small, only around 210 students, it pairs up with its larger, older neighbour for undergraduate sport. But here’s the quirk, Merton College Sports Ground is actually in the grounds of St Catherine’s College, just off Manor Road. St Cat’s ground is the other side of the River Cherwell, a short walk over a footbridge owned (and usually locked) by Magdalen, but a 10 minute drive. You wonder why the two colleges don’t simply swap grounds!

The Junior Common Room refers to undergraduates, those studying for Batchelors degrees, so players tend to be 18-21, although there are some mature students. Therew’s also a smaller MCR (Middle Common Room) League for post-graduate players, played on Saturday mornings. Fixtures can be found at http://www.ouafc.com/

Both are situated on floodplain, so there’s little chance of any development, but I have a feeling that if I published this without any pictures, you’d paint the picture of cloisters, quadrangles and coloured scarves from an episode of Inspector Morse. Of course there are hints of this, Magdalen College tower is visible in the background, but the backdrop is more Bauhaus then Baroque, with Danish architect Arne Jacobsen’s vision in steel and concrete to the fore. Interesting no building is greater than 3 storeys, technically we are on marshland, and the bell tower isn’t attached to a church! Nevertheless there were no lack of bicycles, even if the vast majority of their owners eschewed the delights of a second tier collegiate football match.

We were joined for a little while by my mate Simon who I haven’t seen for years. He spotted where I was from a Facebook post, and came over for a chat interrupting his duties as Head Gardener. It was good to catch up, however briefly.

On the pitch Brasenose overtook their hosts in the table and deservedly so. Charles Gilbert pounced on a dawdling defence to fire home low down, before turning provider, his shot hitting the post for Luke Saunders to follow up and fire home. Save for a brief home rally, the hosts offered little in resistance, and what they did create Brasenose keeper Pelham Barron dealt with easily.

It’s been a couple of years since my last JCR game, perhaps I should do a few more, when finding a game is this straightforward.

 

Surrender to the will of the wind

09 Saturday Feb 2013

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Wednesday 6th February 2013 ko 19.30

Oxfordshire Senior Cup Quarter-Final

OXFORD UNITED 1 (Smalley 69p)

CHINNOR 0

Att 151

Entry £5

Programme 50p

When you follow a League club, County Cup competitions tend to pass you by. That’s particularly the case in Oxfordshire, where there’s only one League Club, and some of the larger Non-League clubs are in the Berks and Bucks FA, as in this part of the world, football still follows pre-1974 county boundaries. Theoretically the ties still take precedence over league fixtures but the larger clubs have long since negotiated to play reserve teams, and away from any fixture clash. Continue reading →

Who pays the Ferryman?

06 Wednesday Feb 2013

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Tuesday 5th February 2013 ko 19.45

Russell Cotes Cup Quarter-Final

LYMINGTON TOWN 2 (Vokes 75 James 87)

FAREHAM TOWN 0

Att 23

Entry £3

Programme £1

Situated on the edge of the New Forest, the pretty town of Lymington is primarily a port. It’s the only place I’ve ever encountered where the docks (for the Isle of Wight ferry) can be accessed if you turn either right or left! That said, the town is more famous for smaller boats, yachts, and the boutiques and coffee shops suggest more Howard’s Way than, Brittany Ferry.

The name Lymington is derived from the Old English word tun means a farm or hamlet whilst limen is derived from the Ancient British word lemanos meaning elm-tree. It’s a a fair allegory to its arboreal location. From the early nineteenth century it had a thriving shipbuilding industry, particularly associated with Thomas Inman the builder of the schooner Alarm. Much of the town centre is Victorian and Georgian, with narrow cobbled streets, giving an air of quaintness. The wealth of the town at the time is represented in its architecture.

For a watcher of the non-league game, a well-to-do town is often a sign of a club who finds it difficult to get the necessary ground grading to progress, and the Lymington Sports Ground is a case in point. Shared with both tennis and cricket, the latter makes it difficult to fully enclose the ground, and it looks like a public footpath runs around the pitch. In most cases this and the fact that the changing rooms are a little too small to pass muster, are overlooked but the ground-graders have called a meeting, and the club are nervous…

The ground is dominated by the main stand, a benched affair with park seats at its centre. Its spick, span and obviously does the job, but then agaisn ground-graders don’t like benches, preferring the easily counted plastic flip-up seats commonplace in the fully professional game. I liked the pavilion-style clubhouse with tea served in a mug, no ecologically unfriendly paper cups here. The only downside was the R & B music blasting out from the television in the corner, even the young girl who presumably the barman was trying to impress had retreated to her ipod!

The Russell Cotes Cup was described by one official is “Just be in Hampshire and pay £30 and you’re in.” It’s for senior clubs in the county but holds no senior status, existing as a fund-raising competition for the Hampshire FA’s benevolent coffers. Clubs don’t always take it too seriously, although tonight’s side did, and for those interested in such fripperies, programme production is not mandatory.

And for all the world it looked like a nil-nil, and extra-time game. No lack of action, or goal-mouth incident, but poor finishing and a howling wind put paid to chance after chance. Peter Hurford’s header over the bar from a corner could well be miss of the season, it looked a good deal easier to simply bury the header. Eventually the deadlock was broken by Matt Vokes for Lymington. His elder brother by the way is Sam Vokes, currently playing for Burnley, and representing Wales.

The coup de grace was applied by Sam James, whose neat turn wrong-footed the Fareham defence completely, although I was more than happy to avoid extra-time on a cold evening!

Shaving the Mendips

03 Sunday Feb 2013

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Saturday 2nd February 2013 ko 15.00

Western League First Division

WELTON ROVERS 0 Dando sent off (handball on line) 78

BRADFORD TOWN 4 (Ridout 18, 23 78p 84)

Att 76

Entry £5

Programme £1

Sometimes its the little things that go wrong are what conspire to really make your day. With three of my friends heading to watch Cheddar I suggested we meet at Weston-super-Mare for lunch before we all headed off in different directions for the afternoon. As it transpired I was the only one who made in to Weston, but it did mean I approached the West Clewes Recreation Ground from the east, rather than the north had I not made my diversion.

I stumbled upon Burrington Gorge, at the northern edge of the Mendip Hills, in North Somerset. According to legend Augustus Montague Toplady was inspired to write the hymn Rock of Ages while sheltering under a rock in the combe, during a thunderstorm in the late 18th century. Nearby Aveline’s Hole is the earliest scientifically dated cemetery in Britain, the bones are roughly 10,400 years old.  Not bad for a 5 minute stop!

From there it wasn’t far to the small town of Midsomer Norton, around 10 miles south-west of Bath (Welton is a small village nearby). It’s quiet, almost sleepy with the football ground in the centre of the town, on the main road through. In fact if it wasn’t for the huge conical spoil heap in the background, called the Old Mills Batch, you wouldn’t know this used to be the centre of the Somerset coal industry, the last mine closing in Norton Hill in 1966. The locals are rather proud of their spoil heap, it sets the town apart, and is a nod to their heritage.

The town was immortalised in Flanders & Swann’s Slow Train, a song about small railway stations closing under Dr Beeching,

“No more will I go to Blandford Forum and Mortehoe, on the slow train from Midsomer Norton and Munby Road, No churns, no porter, no cat on a seat, at Chorlton-cum-Hardy or Chester-le-Street, We won’t be meeting you, on the slow train..”

In more recent years part of the town name was borrowed for the tv series “Midsomer Murders,” despite the show being set in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.

West Clewes are much to attract the casual football watcher, other than the notably friendly supporters. They’ve styled themselves the “Green Army” after Paul Whitehouse’s advert for Aviva Insurance, and they have two-thirds of a wonderful wooden stand built just before the Second World War. The other third was lost in an arson attack recently, and therein lies the club’s problem. The ground, including the car park is a public space. The club can take a gate, but away from matchdays there’s little to stop people walking in and vandalising the stand. So at the end of the season the stand will go, to be replaced by a prefabricated affair, with roller-shutters at the front, and the entrance will be remodelled with a set of turnstiles. It will fulfill everything the club needs, but a quirky piece of history will be lost. I was pleased to have visited while the original edifice is still in place.

The game turned out to be a personal triumph for Bradford-upon-Avon striker Paul Ridout, who scored all four goals, as Bradford added to their 6-0 win at home to Welton earlier in the season. He could have had two more, with two further efforts cleared off the line, one by the hand of defender Greg Dando, who at least had the good grace not to argue his mandatory red card! Yet for all of that the scoreline was harsh on the hosts who had much of the possession and territory, but lacked someone, anyone, who could make all that possession count for something.

On a cold afternoon, I drove away pleased I’d seen a friendly club, at an interesting ground. Get there before the “Improvements” start.

3.59.4

03 Sunday Feb 2013

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Friday 1st February 2012 ko 19.00

BUCS League Midlands Division 2A/ Varsity Challenge

OXFORD UNIVERSITY 5 (Grimer 3 Jamison 14 Beck-Friis 26 Austin 31 Healy 86)

OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY 2 (Mirro 45 Dancer 69p)

Att 600

At Iffley Road Stadium

Entry £5

No Programme

Last year I ended up viewing this game from a grass bank from grass bank at the far side, due to a all-ticket strict policy.

https://laurencereade.wordpress.com/2012/02/19/cat-mouse-and-roger/

From my rather distant vantage point, it looked like a cracking atmosphere, so this year I decided to try at watch the game through more conventional means, I do have a couple of contacts within the University after all! Oxford University captain Alex Biggs put a ticket on the gate for me, and so I was able to witness the worried Oxford United stewards at first hand.

The Iffley Road stadium is famous for being where, on 6th May 1954, Sir Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four minute mile, watched amongst many others, by the world’s least sports-orientated person, my mother! Since then the stadium has become something of a victim of the Taylor report, the owners Oxford University opting to reduce the capacity of the stand to 499, to avoid the costs involved with a capacity of the greater figure.

Normally 499 is easily sufficient, but not for a fixture like this. Despite being only being its third year, this match has caught the imaginations of both the University and the former Polytechnic from up the hill in Headington. For this year sections in front of the stand were taped off, allowing an extra 200 to view the game, although students being students, a fair percentage turned up after kick-off!

The stewards encouraged the two sets of fans to occupy different ends of the stands, and the “Segregation” made for a cracking atmosphere, with some of the best banter I’ve encountered at a game. Both sides seemed happy to play on their stereotypes, the “Working Class” Brookes students singing,”Does your butler know you’re here?” and “You pay our benefits,” and the “Toff,” University students singing “You do your essays with a crayon!”

What was never in doubt was the result. When Ed Grimer beat a poorly sprung offside trap to open the scoring, it proved to be the catalyst to some poor Brookes defending as a corner was swung in from the right. The defence simply watched as Mark Jamison thumped the ball home from the back of the box unopposed. It soon got worse for the visitors as a mix-up between keeper Sam Cole and centre half Joe Sturia, allowed Peder Beck-Friis to tap home. When a though ball bisected a square Brookes defence to find Julian Austin who had the simplest of tasks to roll the ball home, a rout looked on the cards, but Hakin Mirro’s superb header from a free kick on the left, gave Brookes heart, just before half time.

In was inevitable that the game would tighten up after the break but at 4-1 the University looked comfortable, but that changed when Brookes were handed a rather soft penalty, for a shirt-pull. Captain Tom Dancer despatched the spot-kick and for 20 minutes, an unlikely comeback looked possible. That ended when Alex Biggs corner was headed home by substitute Adam Healy.

The final bit of “Entertainment” was the appearance of a Brookes streaker, apparently the same one as last year. He was easily able to evade the stewards before making his escape from the far side. The stewards weren’t beaten though, they simply confiscated his clothes, and handed them to the police, who arrested him outside the ground. I would imagine he wouldn’t have been difficult to indentify!

That makes it three wins out of three for the University, and seldom have I enjoyed a game as much as this, both in terms of the action, and the atmosphere created. I just wish it was a little easier to get a ticket!

The Max Factor

01 Friday Feb 2013

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Tuesday 29th January 2013 ko 19.45

League 2

OXFORD UNITED 1 (Constable 50)

BURTON ALBION 1 (Maghoma 71)

Att 4,906 (65 away)

Entry S/T

Programme £3 (including Oxford Mail)

On Tuesday morning this fixture looked like a routine, if rather dull fourth division division encounter, and I found it rather difficult to raise any enthusiasm for it. The advantage of writing this on Friday is that this fixture can be put into full perspective with what followed.

My mood changed on the way to Grenoble Road, when the news broke that Max Crocombe was to get his first start in goal for Oxford. New Zealander Max is a first year professional, but with Ryan Clarke, and Wayne Brown above him in the pecking order in was hard to see how he was going to get a game, a problem exacerbated by there being no reserve team this season. Back in November I’d taken my friend Kellie to watch United’s FA Cup at Barnet, and after the game we’d lingered to take a few pictures of Underhill. Kellie had a chat with Max, not really knowing who he was, and we were both struck by what a thoroughly decent young man he is. But with Clarke out for the season, and Brown in poor form, the young lad got his chance.

He let no-one down either, nice lad or not. He even coped with the early loss of Michael Duberry to a hamstring strain early on, and I think all present bar the pitiful away following would have been pleased to see a home win courtesy of James Constable’s header at a corner, and Max collect a clean sheet. It wasn’t to be as Jacques Maghoma lost his marker, Michael Raynes, and fired home past Crocombe who was in no sense at fault. Even so there was a feel-good feeling around the ground at the final whistle, but that was shattered over the course of the next few days.

The first piece of bad news was shirt sponsor Bridle Insurance announcing that they will not renew the arrangement when it expires in the summer. Hardly a surprise when the firm now owns Eastleigh FC, but its a income stream that will need replacing. Another worry was that the club lost £450,000 during the last trading year, one would assume due to falling attendances. Clearly players wages and a high stadium rent are contributing factors, and ones that little can be done about, at least in the short term. The club is tied to its lease with Mr Kassam, and with him unwilling to sell, that’s a fixed cost that won’t go away. As for players’ wages, thats’s up to owner/chairman Ian Lenagan to set a sustainable budget and recruit and retain a manager that can work within it. Its questionable at best whether any of this is happening now, and certainly losses of this magnitude are not sustainable.

All this rather paled into insignificance with the signing of Luke McCormick last night on a contract for the rest of the season. I’ll leave the debate as to whether another keeper is necessary to another time, save to point out that Crocombe is set to represent his country at the under-20 World Cup in March. McCormick is a former Plymouth Argyle keeper, and his credentials are beyond reproach, but for one terrible detail.

In 2008 he was convicted of causing the death of children aged 8 and 10 by crashing his car into a vehicle driven by their father on the M6, whilst over twice the drink-drive limit. The father is still suffering from the injuries he received in the crash, and McCormick served 3 years and 7 months of a 7 years, 4 months prison sentence, being released in June 2012. So will no doubt say that McCormick has served his debt to society, and everyone deserves their their chance of redemption.

Oxford United have a precedent with midlfielder Adam Chapman who served just over a year of a 30 month sentence for causing death by dangerous driving, he was sending texts on his Blackberry. Chapman was successfully re-integrated into the team on his release, which is in marked contrast with McCormick who will be entering a new club with new players. Chapman was notable for showing remorse, and contact was made with the family of the gentleman he killed, so as not to cause any offence from his public job. None of this has taken place with McCormick, and you wonder why Oxford United would feel the need to taken on a player with so much baggage. Is it really simply a case of acquiring a good player at a knock-down wage?

On another level, the club likes to stress how it is a “Family Club,” and won the “League 2 Family Award” last season to prove the point. How does the signing of McCormick sit with that? Would his presence be a barrier to a company thinking of becoming shirt sponsor? He hardly fits the image a prospective sponsor would look for.

The shame of all of this is that Luke McCormick may well be a fine goalkeeper, although 10 games for Truro City in the Conference South since his release is hardly a ringing endorsement. I can imagine his presence being a massive distraction with everyone concerning themselves with him and not matters in hand. I can only conclude that he’s the wrong player in the wrong club, at the wrong time. The question now is whether his performances will make up for the inevitable circus that will surround him. I wonder also how Max Crocombe will deal with all of this, as unlike McCormick, he’s done nothing wrong.