The Other Half

22 Monday Dec 2014

Tags

Academy Stadium, Bersant Celina, City Football Academy, Etihad Stadium, FA Youth Cup, Freddie Grant, Javairo Dilrosun, Manchester City, Marcus Wood, Miles Welch Hayes, Muctaru Conte, Oxford, oxford united.

Thursday 18th December 2014 ko 19.00

FA Youth Cup 3rd Round

MANCHESTER CITY 2 (Wood 26 Celina 90)

OXFORD UNITED 0

Att 476 at Academy Stadium, City Football Academy, Ethihad Complex, Manchester

Entry FREE

Teamsheet FREE

When Oxford’s United’s Youth team beat local rivals swindon town in the last round the assumption was that the away game would be played where Manchester City play most of their non-first XI games, Hyde FC’s Ewen Fields. That in itself would have been interesting, the club were Hyde UNITED when I went, and the stadium was predominantly red, both of which changed when City pumped in some of the oil billions. Now City have gone I wonder if the United and red will return? Continue reading →

Priorities

20 Thursday Nov 2014

Posted by laurencereade in O

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

AJ George, Callum McCormack, FA Youth Cup, Jordan Graham, Muctaru Conte, Oxford, oxford united., Swindon, swindon town, Tommy Oulridge

Tuesday 18th November 2014 ko 19.30

FA Youth Cup 2nd Round

OXFORD UNITED 3 (Graham 14 45 George 20p)

swindon town 2 (McCormack 83 Oulridge 85)

Att 727

Entry £5

Programme 50p

If, perchance you are an Oxford United fan there is a prescribed order when it comes to local rivals. In strict order it goes like this,

Swindon Town
Swindon Town Reserves
Swindon Town Youth team
Swindon Town Ladies,

and so on…

Continue reading →

Hipster

01 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by laurencereade in D

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Barney Martin, Cain McCormack, Didcot Town, Duran Martin, FA Youth Cup, Josh Ashby, Kieran Beesley, Matthew Woodley, McCormack, oxford united., Southend United

Wednesday 30th October 2013 ko 19.45

FA Youth Cup 1st Round

DIDCOT TOWN 0

OXFORD UNITED 3 (Ashby 26 56p McCormack 67)

Att 291

Entry £4

No Programme

Team Sheet FREE

Regular readers of these articles will be aware that the Loop Meadow Stadium is one of my semi-regular haunts. There are no lack of local clubs I could frequent, but Didcot are a friendly bunch, and they seem to be a club that stages a game well. The game was intriguing too, with the club’s respective youth teams facing off for the right to play the winners of Maidstone vs Southend United.

What I hadn’t expected was the size of the crowd, or the demographic of them. Continue reading →

Trot On

09 Friday Dec 2011

Posted by laurencereade in O

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Bolton Wanderers, Caton, FA Youth Cup, Football, groundhopping, Iliev, Kassam, Marsh, oxford united.

Wednesday 6th December 2011 ko 7.45pm

FA Youth Cup 3rd Round

OXFORD UNITED 1 (Marsh 58)

BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Caton 4 Iliev 90)

Att 451

Entry £3 (as a season ticket holder, £6 otherwise)

Programme 50p

Its been many years since OUFC’s youth team had made the 3rd round of this competition, and since only the Lower Tier of the South Stand was open it was interesting to see the game from another perspective. And at those prices, what a bargain!

We drove to the East car park, and Dad wondered as we turned whether we’d get a spot. 10 seconds later, I counted 7 cars……

Those who decided against this one, missed a real cracker, possibly the best game I’ve seen all season. Highly skilled and highly committed, I actually forgot that there was Champions League football going on at the same time. Also watching were several members of the OUFC first X1 squad which is good to see.

The vistors took an early lead through man-of-the-match James Caton converting a cross from the right at the back post. For most of the first half OUFC looked slightly overawed, and it was noticable that after the break that Bolton’s confidence waned as their hosts gave them less respect. When Tyrone Marsh’s looping header beat the excellent Lewis Fielding in the Trotters’ goal, away heads dropped and it took some stern words from manager (and ex OUFC left back) Jimmy Phillips to get Bolton fired up again.

The talk worked and despite the valient efforts of tiring legs Bulgarian forward Georg Iliev managed to twist in the box to shoot past Dan Lincoln. Heartbreak for OUFC whose endeavours deserved a shot at extra time.