As your intrepid reporter saw it: - In all honesty we were lucky to get the win. Oxford had a clear one on one where their player didn't manage to lift the ball over Heaton and had a couple of reasonable penalty shouts turned down. They were always threatening with quick, direct attacks. Against that Ibby hit the bar with a terrific 20 yarder and it appeared we had scrambled the ball over the line from a set play but it was not given. Of the youngsters, Evans had a torrid first half but calmed down, played it simpler and improved through the game. I think Ibby has a great future, he has the skills, awareness and positional sense but lacks a bit in pace and strength. This will come. I was very impressed with Ralls, who as a first year trainee can only be 17/18. More defensive than Ibby but very composed, found space, tackled well and played simple short passes. Became a midfield anchor as Ibby pushed up more. Jarvis scored and deserved it for his running but lacks real pace and his ball control is not great. A willing runner chasing everything down but I'm not sure he has what is needed. Got his goal right at the end from a long clearance which went over their sub cb as Duberry had pushed upfront, Jarvis nicked in between the cb and keeper and nodded over the keeper into an empty net. Taiwo and Gestede went off with hamstring problems, Rudy more precautionary I think. Conway took a couple of knocks, hope he is okay for Sunday. 120 minutes was good for both Quinny and Gyepes who both looked rusty first half but improved. Whitts came on for Taiwo and was.......Whitts. Good goal, had a few sighters which were charged down but hit his goal low and hard into the bottom left corner. Parkin? Doh!!!! Should have scored with a first half header. Just not up to it I'm afraid. Gestede won a lot in the air and looked useful until stretched for an over hit pass and walked off, didn't appear in too much bother. Nayls and Tayls okay. Thankfully they didn't have a nippy winger to press Nayls. Bit worried about Conway, not a winger to take on his man like Burke and up against a Div. 2 full back who he didn't beat all night. Needs to up his game, not a bad crosser though. Bit of a scrambled goal and may yet turn out to be an og. I estimate about 7/800 made the trip and completely outsang the home fans although the constant references to Duberry being a grass wore a bit thin. Odd ground with no stand at one end. 2 balls hit out of the ground and Oxford's nearest thing to rioters sent in the snatch squad and ran off with the balls. They must lose hell of a lot of balls. One very funny moment late on second half when their lads who were manning the food and drink stalls pushed their trolleys with unsold goods along the track in front of us, all the City fans chanted "Looters, looters" much to the lads' embarrassment. Ah well, perhaps you had to be there. Overall, vulnerable at the back but improved as the game went on, a bit disjointed in midfield and with link play upfront but all to be expected with 9 changes from the side which started v. the Spammers. Great to see the youngsters have good game time. The whole squad and Malky came over to acknowledge the fans at the end. Little sign of police in ground, only 2 travelling S. Wales guys who behaved themselves but outside must have been 30/40 sour looking cops watching our coaches for any sign of trouble. Total overkill again.
Sorry Sussex, forgot about him. Average at best, distribution iffy, couldn't be faulted for their goal as I think it took a deflection off Gyepes and he had come out and stopped their first shot. Also, stopped the later effort when their centre forward was clean through. If he had lifted the shot 2 feet higher we would have been 2 - 1 down. I think Heaton suffered through the indecision of our 2 centre backs but he didn't inspire much confidence either. His usual problem of not commanding his box. He would be better with our normal defence in front of him.
Thanks, sounds like last years norm, wonder if Malky is considering another keeper coming in, nothing worse for defenders than to have an indecisive keeper behind them
a win is a win and thats all that matters.. that is 2 games played that you could have lost, you cant ask for anything more....
The youngsters would have realised it was a game that 'mattered'' i.e. a proper competitive first team game and that must have made them nervous, so I think they did very well. Also competitive game time has got to be good for them. Depending on the second round draw MM might give some of the better ones another run out. Starting to look like the arse. lol
Thanks for the report, hopefully we can build on this... Any more info on Rudy? Im really interested in him, I have a strange kinda feeling he could be one hell of a hidden gem, but I won't get too excited. Fingers crossed
You have the same opinion of Craig Conway as I do. That he can't beat a Div 2 full back, and never loooked like doing so, in over an hour and a half is depressing. Nearly always cuts inside as he doesn't have the pace, or guile, to beat his man. However, as you say, his delivery of crosses and corners is top notch.
