Ahh, the traditional Boxing Day game…. I used to love these as a ‘young’ man, sadly I can’t get to them any more as a result of family gatherings on the Brizzle side, though this year they may just have saved me from more torment at least. Thursday sees our band of not so merry men head to pastures new as we make the trip to that seat of learning Oxford, for a first ever league visit to the Kassam Stadium, the current home of Oxford Utd. Who Are You? The U’s have been resident at the Kassam since 2001 after vacating their previous home of the Manor Ground after 76 years. The Manor Ground was a quaint mix of stands and terracing that due to lack of investment and the Taylor report became an unviable home for the then 3rd division outfit and so a move to the Kassam Stadium was made. Their new home was not without its controversy and the history behind their club ownership under Firoz Kassam has been turbulent to say the least. On the stadium itself, it is rather quirky due to the fact that it only has 3 sides to it! There are talks ongoing of yet another new stadium at some point in the not too distant future – wonder which division’s we’ll both be in by then? Oxford are now managed by the very familiar face of Gary Rowett, who took up his role just 4 days ago after the club rather surprisingly dispensed with the services of Des Buckingham, the manager who helped to propel them to their highest tier since 1988. The U’s squad has many familiar faces in it with them having picked up several ex-Bluebirds. Ciaron Brown, Will Vaulks, Mark Harris and Joe Bennett all now wear the yellow shirt. They are joined by the ex-Chelsea youngster Josh McEachran, ex-Derby midfielder Louis Sibley and the very experienced Matt Phillips. Harris and Dane Scarlett (Spurs loanee) currently lead the way in the scoring charts for the U’s with 4 each. Last Time Out & Form Last time we played Oxford in a league game it was a Div 2 (third tier) game in our Centenary season, all the way back on January 15th 2000. The Bluebirds went a goal behind to a spectacular strike in front of the Canton Stand by Oxford’s XXX, only for Kevin Nugent to equalise at the same end with a cheeky finish – the game finishing in a 1-1 draw. Oxford would go on to finish 20th that year with City finishing an agonising 21st just 1 point behind the U’s and suffering relegation as a result. Form wise, as hard as it to believe it, Oxford appear in a an even worse state than us. Over the last 6 games the Yellows have picked up a solitary point in a 1-1 draw at home to Millwall at the end of November. They have also suffered some heavy defeats in this period with a 2-6 humbling at home to Boro, a 1-3 defeat at home to Sheffield Wednesday and last weekend’s 4-0 reverse at Leeds. Despite this though, as we know, current form doesn’t seem to matter a jot when it comes to our opponents. We can therefore only hope that they don’t get any kind of new manager bounce out of Rowett (who always seems to do well against us) and that we can show some of the grit on display during the first hour against Sheffield Utd. In, Out Or No Sign Of Them About The hits just keep on coming for City at the moment. With a squad already struggling with injuries we now learn that Chris Willock has joined the ever growing queue for the treatment table having picked up a hip-flexor issue v the Blades on Saturday. He joins a long list of players on the sidelines that includes Callum O’Dowda, Perry Ng, Joe Ralls, Kion Etete, Michael Reindorf, Isaak Davies and Aaron Ramsey (of course), not to mention Callum Robinson’s on/off issues too. On top of this it now seems that Jamilu Collins may also be getting frozen out with rumours of a move imminent in January as he becomes increasingly disgruntled at the lack of game time he has seen. On a slightly brighter note however, young Ronan Kpakio made his debut off the been on Saturday and looked very bright at right back. At just 17 he obviously can’t be turned to on a regular basis (as we’ve seen with other youngsters, often just the sheer physicality of the league can be an issue) but who knows, another cameo from the bench on Boxing day may not be out of the question. Likewise Cian Ashford who also showed a good turn of pace and a little bit of confidence when he joined the fray on the weekend. Predicted Starting 11 Alnwick Chambers Fish Goutas Rinomhota Bagan Robertson Siopis Robinson El Ghazi Meite The Odds Bods This guy has just steeped out from the backroom briefly to impart some words of wisdom on what we should do against one of his (many) former clubs….. Match Day Melody Sadly, with the way things feel at the moment, this is one of the few tunes that comes to mind on where we seem to be headed. If ever a win was needed, it is now. Despite the gloom though, having taken a look at Oxford’s own journey from the top flight, down to the depths of non-league and back again, I guess in some ways we’ve not had it too bad, but it does feel like………………………… Blooooooooooooooooooooooooobirds!!!
That Josh Macsomething has been around seemingly for ever but is only 31! Our injury list is concerning with 3 games in a week. We couldn’t do much worse by playing a bunch of youngsters We could do with a Kevin Nugent type now!
Thank you again Brizzle. It is worrying that we have up to eleven players out so those 9/4 odds on a draw look tempting. I’ll be putting a 1-1 on the prediction league and leave the gambling to Sparkey.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport...kCopy&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar If we have any players with hangovers after yesterday we may not be able to field a starting 11!!
Cardiff City: Alnwick (C), Rinomhota, Chambers, Goutas, Bagan, O'Dowda, Siopis, Robertson, Willock, Colwill, Méïté. Subs: Horvath, T. Davies, Fish, Daland, Kpakio, El Ghazi, Ashford, Robinson, Kanga.
I love their imagination... Fair play, if it confuses the hell out of us then lord knows what it does for our opponents!!
This is dire. Beyond desperate. Again a goal conceded from losing possession needlessly. Robinson Kpakio & Ashford should be on instead of Meite Bagan & Rhinomota.
It is. The players look like they’ve given up. It’s desperate. If Riza can’t get a team up for this fixture against a team with 1 win in 16 then there’s no real future for him at the club.
I'm sure Ramsey is close to getting his coaching badge Give him the job till the end of the season The wage he's on is keeping two lesser players from arriving and learning
