http://www.ouafc.com/news Oxford University Association Football Club | Latest News en-gb webmaster@ouafc.com http://www.ouafc.com/news/306 For the second time in 5 days, a team bailed on playing John's, who were awarded a 3 - 0 win. Given that John's have scored 27 goals in 6 games so far this term, there are suspicions this may actually be a tactical move on the part of opposition outfits. Sat, 29 Nov 2008 13:57:56 +0000 http://www.ouafc.com/news/306#timestamp:1227967076 Match report http://www.ouafc.com/news/305 St. Peter's emerged from a scrappy and at times heated affair with all the points as they sent Univ to a 5-2 defeat at Marston. Neither side could get a foothold in the game in the opening exchanges. Peter's looked short of energy and seemed to lack focus early on and Univ deservedly went ahead after 15 minutes. In reply Philipp Peter's continued his rich vein of form as he levelled for the home side after good work down the left from Langridge and Lawrence. Peter's were largely solid at the back, with Smith and Judge both excelling, the latter battling on despite a nasty looking ankle twist on what was undoubtedly a late November surface. However, the disjointed and scrappy nature of the game continued through to half-time and, with full-back Adam Bowler lost to a tutorial (such is Oxford football), Peter's knew they had to up their game to overcome a spirited Univ outfit with obvious creative talent in their midfield. The game changed with the introduction of flamboyant striker Rico Lewis who arrived with a tidy new hair-do (if a little late). Lewis had an immediate impact for the home side. Set free down the inside left by Langridge after Guy Watmore had won the ball in the midfield in typically solid fashion, he carried the ball into the area before squaring to Peters who couldn't miss, doubling his tally for the afternoon. Peter's began to look more confident and took hold of the game. However, the wheels threatened to come off when Univ equalised from the spot. Peter's gave away possession cheaply and the Univ left-winger, a handful all day, left Langridge for dead before being taken down unceremoniously by Smith. Tempers flared and captain Langridge was guilty of a Gallas-esque tantrum before Lewis steadied the ship, restoring the home side's lead with a classy finish having latched onto a Philipp Peters pass. Lewis added another after a superb turn which left 2 defenders for dead and an emphatic finish as Peter's effectively settled the contest. Daniel Stone grabbed the goal his recent performances have deserved, poking home after the Univ 'keeper spilleed a corner from Watmore. Not the most polished of performances from the men in green and gold, but after some excellent performances which have gone unrewarded in recent weeks, Peter's will be glad of the points. Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:32:07 +0000 http://www.ouafc.com/news/305#timestamp:1227897127 Match report http://www.ouafc.com/news/304 After a desperate and failed effort to pull in some 1st team footballers it was a makeshift looking Wycliffe side which took the pitch. Field-Marshall Shelley, Loh, Dudley and Nyirongo were all making their Wycliffe debuts. To my utter amazement, by heeding Leady’s advice and keeping a very secure shape, this makeshift unit were quick to look like a team. Wycliffe entirely dominated the first half from start to finish. St. Hugh’s had one shot which sailed into the trees whilst down the other end Wycliffe were tabernacled in the opposition’s half and had about 15 clear cut opportunities. It was one-way traffic. Despite all this pressure the first goal came from a corner. Slade knocked a great ball across from the right and Loh attacked it strongly at the far post, kneeing a volley home from 6 yards. 14 minutes gone. 1-0. Wycliffe continued to push forward and again out lack of finishing and composure in front of goal let us down. We are often guilty of having a shot before we really set our body up right and needless to say, totally off balance and askew, the ball sails high, wide and handsome! Desperate for that second goal which would have given us a good cushion at half time Wycliffe continued to pile on the pressure up front whilst the compactness of our play in midfield and defence was excellent. The goal eluded us again though and it was half time. 1-0. Yes, the lead should have been greater but hey, with our makeshift outfit a lead was very creditable. Storey obviously hasn’t read Bill Shankly recently. The great Liverpool manager of yesteryear famously said, “Never change a winning team.” Storey made not one change, but three! Again to my amazement a team, which now looked much stronger on paper, utterly fell apart. Our shape was awful, the sun was low and right in our eyes (which sounds like a terrible excuse but was nearly impossible to be facing into which we need to remember in the future) and the wheels were coming off. St. Hugh’s won a corner which they swung in straight onto a totally unmarked head. Alan Hansen would have had a field day crucifying the “absolutely shocking and disgraceful marking in the Wycliffe defence”. But Alan Hansen wasn’t there so we carried on. 1-1. St. Hugh’s were rampant now and Wycliffe couldn’t get the ball. Five minutes later their striker received the ball 30 yards from goal turned Storey inside and out, cut back in and curled the ball, superbly into the corner of the net. 1-2. Wycliffe had gone from being completely dominant to being second to every ball. Leady was as good as ever though and he scored a quite magnificent goal (just as his wife turned up) with a left-footed bending chip from 25 yards which soared over the keeper and dropped into the net. Brilliant. 2-2. We were still in it with 20 minutes to go. All to play for. Sadly though it wasn’t a day of Thanksgiving for poor old Doug (deputising for Dingall in the Wycliffe goal). He dropped two through-balls into the path of the Hugh’s striker who seemed to gratefully accept these two free gifts and readily rolled both chances into an empty net. Christian love and kindness is not dead! 2-3. And almost immediately 2-4. Whilst these were two very costly errors the blame doesn’t only lie with Doug. We were the poorest we’ve been all season in the second half and we have a lot of work to do on shape, finishing, passing and our first touch. We must score more goals as a team and not rely so heavily on Leady’s goals from midfield. As well this there are more Wycliffe names on the injured list than there are written in the book of life. We MUST get fit. We are still second in the league though and must pick ourselves up before next week’s top of the table clash with St. Catz. On a lighter note….. To add injury to insult Gregory limped off with a hamstring injury, Lower retired ill and Slade took the most fearsome blow to his, errrr, “nether-region” that this correspondent has ever seen. At the end of the game, on this Thanksgiving day, Slade (still bent double and wheezing) carefully counted the footballs back into the plastic bag, allegedly he’s still carefully counting the balls in his ‘other’ bag… unfortunately, he’s still not got past one and they’ll not be much thanksgiving in the Slade household until he does! “For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men hammering footballs at one’s gonads!" (Matthew 19:12, Common Room Version) Thanks as always to Fletch, Father Firth, Ruthless, Libby, Mandy and Timbo who supported us very vocally. Wycliffe trudged off with the popular children’s song ringing in their ears. “Lower Lower, Lower Lower Lower Lower, Lower Lower, stamp St. Hugh’s lower.” Fortunately St. Catz fits in the scansion too! Thu, 27 Nov 2008 20:43:05 +0000 http://www.ouafc.com/news/304#timestamp:1227818585 Match report http://www.ouafc.com/news/303 A towering header from captain Tom Wherry less than 2 minutes from time gave Oxford a vital win as they left it late to come from behind and beat Worcester University, maintaining their position at the top of the table. The win was ultimately a deserved one, although Oxford looked set to lose or draw the game after squandering a host of easy chances throughout the game. Maintaining the same line-up from the game against Warwick, the Blues started strongly and a long clearance from Whylly was flicked into de Walden’s path by Kelly, before de Walden was brought down by the Worcester centre-back in a foul that was controversially deemed to be inside the box. Toogood failed to score the penalty, as the ‘keeper guessed correctly and dived at full stretch to deny Oxford the lead, and just ten minutes later it was Worcester who took the lead. Oxford failed to clear their lines from a corner, and after being given too much space on the edge of the box, an opportunistic shot by the Worcester midfielder beat Whylly at his near post, to give Worcester an ideal start. This lead was soon double as their striker found space down the channel, before attempting an audacious shot from the edge of the box. The shot was deflected by left-back Squires, and looped over the helpless Whylly, landing in the back of the net to leave Oxford stunned. This sloppy and unfortunate start proved to be a wake-up call as Oxford began to carve out chance after chance, although the finishing left a lot to be desired. De Walden was unlucky not to score after a pinpoint cross from Squires was saved well, and Toogood was unfortunately unable to adjust his feet in time to steer the rebound into the net from close range. A worse miss was to occur just moments later after good work from Toogood resulted in the ball being squared to de Walden, who with the whole goal at his mercy conspired to send the ball looping up over the bar. Weston was extremely unlucky not to reduce the deficit a few minutes after this, as his 25 yard pile-driver cannoned back off the bar as the ‘keeper stood motionless. Oxford did however manage to pull one goal back before half-time through McCrickerd. A poor free-kick from Kelly was only able to find the defensive wall but the rebound fell to the feet of McCrickerd, who with the sweetest of sweet strikes smashed the ball into the open net with his weaker left foot, giving Oxford something to build on in the second half. It was Worcester however who threatened at the start of the second-half, with defenders Wherry and Hodgson being kept busy by the two Worcester strikers who were linking up well between themselves. As the half wore on however Oxford began to create more chances, but as was the case in the first half they seemed reluctant to convert these chances, Kelly somehow blazing over from 3 yards after a Farr cross had found him free at the back post. A skillful run from McCrickerd led to another left-footed screamer, which could only find the post. The rebound fell to Kelly completely unmarked 6 yards out, but once again he managed to hit it over the bar. In fairness, it was the first time he had ever used his right foot, so maybe it was to be expected. The introduction of Zagajewski, Hall and Desai gave Oxford fresh legs, and it was barely a minute after their introduction that Oxford drew level. Neat play between Desai, Kelly and Toogood forged open a chance for Knight, and his shot was correctly adjudged to have been blocked using an arm, giving Oxford a second penalty of the game. After missing the first, Toogood passed responsibility onto Fresher Zagajewski, who duly sent the ‘keeper the wrong way, and it seemed only a matter of time before Oxford would go on to win the game. It seemed they had done just after good work from McCrickerd and Zagajewski down the right set Toogood up in the box, but his shot once again found the crossbar. The third and winning goal did arrive however with just minutes to spare, and brought mass delirium to the Oxford players, who sensed the importance of the three points gained. A corner from the right found the head of Wherry to give Oxford their first goal from a corner all year, as his powerful header left the ‘keeper with little chance, and evoked memories of a similar goal in the Centaurs Varsity match two years ago. With just three games to go, Oxford have the title within their grasp for a second year running, but more clinical finishing will be required if this goal is to be achieved. Thu, 27 Nov 2008 14:37:54 +0000 http://www.ouafc.com/news/303#timestamp:1227796674 Match report http://www.ouafc.com/news/302 John's maintained their unbeaten start to the season with an ultimately convincing 5 - 2 win over Division 1 Brasenose to set up a Cuppers quarter final with LMH. John's were 2 - 0 up within half an hour. Evans-Young grabbed both the goals in predatory fashion - bundling in a sublime Forbes cross at the back post, and pouncing on a rebound after Zagajewski saw his shot well saved by 'Nose keeper Hoyle. Brasenose got a lifeline before half time through their captain Colum Elliott Kelly. Awarded a free kick 25 yards out, he brilliantly curled the ball round the wall and into the corner of the net. 2 - 1 at half time, then, and the next goal was crucial: Brasenose got it on 65 minutes. James Leviseur found himself with the ball at the corner of the six yard box, chipped the ball towards the back post - and lobbed John's keeper Berend who could only watch in horror as the ball landed in his goal. Only Leviseur knows whether this was intended or not, but either way Brasenose were back on level terms. This was not the case for long, though, as John's superb attack won the game with a 3 goal burst in the 10 minutes after that equaliser. Earle got the first, burying a header from an excellent Crawford corner. Evans-Young completed his hat-trick soon after, finishing from the edge of the area. And the nail in the coffin was an unfortunate headed own goal from a dangerous Earle long throw. Match over, and John's duly saw out the win with ease. Brasenose will now focus on launching a charge towards the Division 1 promotion places, while John's will continue fighting on two fronts for league and Cuppers glory. Tue, 25 Nov 2008 23:40:25 +0000 http://www.ouafc.com/news/302#timestamp:1227656425 Match report http://www.ouafc.com/news/301 St. Peter's brought Somerville's 100% start to the season to an end with a spirited away performance. Peter's started the better in difficult conditions and captain Tom Langridge put the visitors deservedly ahead on the half hour, heading in at the back post from a Philipp Peter's inswinger. The away side were up against it in the second half with influential midfielder Guy Watmore suffering from tonsilitus and no substitutes available. The virus-stricken mancunian played on and his second half performance opitomised the spirit and determination shown throughout by the team in yellow. Battling against the wind in the second half St. Peter's were under the cosh for long periods but defended manfully, with Smith and Tomlins solid at the back throughout. On the rare occasions they were caught out, 'keeper Joe Ogborn kept the home side at bay with a string of fine saves. They could have doubled their lead and effectively settled the contest 10 minutes from time when Philipp Peter's ran onto a flick-on from the tireless Daniel Stone, but having having rounded the 'keeper he shot wide running off balance and away from goal. Peter's were cruelly denied all three points when Somerville equalised from a superb deep cross 3 minutes from time. There was still time for a half-chance at either end before the referee called time on an absorbing encounter. The late equaliser preserves Someville's unbeaten record in the league and maintains their position as favourites for promotion. Having pushed a strong Somerville side all the way despite key absentees, St. Peter's will go into Friday's home clash with Univ full of confidence. Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:19:34 +0000 http://www.ouafc.com/news/301#timestamp:1227633574 Match report http://www.ouafc.com/news/300 A spirited display from Queen’s in this David v Goliath clash kept the score-line to 1-0 in a game which could have easily been taken past 90 minutes. Although Worcester monopolised possession for the majority of the game, few clear cut chances were created, and Blues strikers Toogood and de Walden were well marshalled by Queen’s centre-backs Olds and Bottomley. The goal itself was a sloppy one to concede, a corner was initially dealt with by Kelly, but his header could only find the feet of Worcester winger Oli Gee, who was given far too much space and time, before drilling a shot past Billingham at the near post. Although Queen’s rarely threatened through open play, and indeed were content to defend heroically, they did look dangerous through set-pieces, and they were unfortunate not to draw level when Olds, Ferguson and Enoch were all left ruing their indecision as Kelly’s free-kick somehow managed to evade everyone. Worcester meanwhile were struggling to create chances as well, and despite the best efforts of Weston in midfield who was regularly switching the play from wing to wing, the final ball was never quite good enough. During the second-half however Worcester began to carve out more chances, de Walden regularly connecting to crosses and corners, but also regularly not finding the target, as the Queen’s defence began to tire. Worcester were unfortunate not to double their lead when a slip from the Queen’s defence enable Toogood the opportunity to shoot from 20 yards, and his shot was fumbled by Billingham onto the post, before the ‘keeper gratefully snatched the ball. However Queen’s continued to fight, and roared on by a hostile home crowd, they began to look as if they might do the unthinkable and actually score. A series of Rory Delap throw-ins brought a few half chances, Ferguson seeing his volley blocked for a corner, and Bottomley unfortunate not to connect with a Kelly corner. Worcester were beginning to worry, and were extremely grateful to ‘keeper Robinson, when a mazy run from Edmiston, in which he skipped passed numerous defenders (or possibly just two) culminated in a powerful left-footed shot across the goal. Robinson was equal to it, and brought back memories of the glory years, as he tipped the ball round the post with an outstretched left hand to keep Worcester ahead. Queen’s had one final chance, after a dubious free-kick was awarded 35 yards from goal. The free-kick looked destined for Enoch’s head, but centre-back Sinnett was on-hand to flick it out for a corner, and with that being the final touch of the game, gave Worcester a victory was probably deserved. Sat, 22 Nov 2008 12:58:50 +0000 http://www.ouafc.com/news/300#timestamp:1227358730 Match report http://www.ouafc.com/news/299 With LMH having won 5 of their six matches this season, including a 2-0 win over Lincoln in the league, they certainly entered into this cuppers clash as favourites. LMH captain Simon Lewis was unavailable after getting injured during an epic battle with Balliol earlier in the week, and so with Dom Rae absent attending a careers function, LMH took on an even more Chunderous nature than usual. Welcoming Joe Wellington and Jim Allchin into the side meant that the front six all heralded from that talismanic tower block named after the fine Lucy Sutherland. The LMH side sounded chirpy at kick off, but their football was woeful. An extremely poor 20 minuted of football ensued, with neither side managing to string more that one pass together. Lincloln started to come into the game with some good distribution throughout from Matt Flood and Alex Biggs. The game was meandering along without note, and desperately needed a goal. A long boot from goalkeeper Joe De Capite proved to be just the ticket, and after it was predictibly flicked on off the the swede of Tom Wherry, fellow pickler Rob Eckersley was on hand to decisively scuff the ball into the net. This prompted abnormally muted celebrations from the LMH players, who didn't appear to be feeling football or crazy, or indeed, chocolate mad. The goal at least sparked some life into the LMH front players, who realised that goals were on offer. More productive play followed, some improved passing creating a few half chances. Barman Jim Allchin was having some luck down the left, and delivered an excellent ball in to Ryan McCrickerd who used all his skills to trap the ball, fall over and started hugging the leg of a bemused Lincoln defender, prompting visions of said player holding on to his Mother's leg to prevent her from leaving him alone at preschool. The second goal came with a move of high quality which wouldn't have been out of place on the green pastures of Iffley, but a boggy Marston would have to do. Wherry picked up the ball on the half-way line and played in Allchin down the left channel, who dribbled towards the bi-line before producing an accurate centre towards the onrushing McCrickerd who finished with aplomb. The Blues midfielder added to his mid-week goal with a well timed half volley using the relatively unknown prod technique to the delight of Sutherland's in house worms adviser, Joe Wellington. When half time came LMH were looking very comfortable. The second period turned out to be something of a non-event. The LMH back line were looking supremely confident, Matt Henshall was dominant in the air, and Will Partridge cleared excellently at the sign of any danger. In addition, a man of the match display by Joe Wellington, who won header after header, challenge after challenge and was the bargiest of all of all bargers allowed the more creative LMH players freedom to enjoy themselves. Enjoy themselves they did, but productive it was not. The Lady Margaret Hall attackers had plenty of the ball, and looked to enjoy themselves. After Eckersley's ingenious control using just his Adam's Apple, other players experiments with back headers (Wherry), long barriers (Allchin) and human bollarding (McCrickerd) seemed to be more popular than actually trying to get the ball in the back of the net. Eventually a third did follow, McCrickerd went on a mazy, direct run passing several Lincoln defenders as thought they weren't there. He finished from just inside the box, curling the ball accurately into the right side netting. The match all but over as a contest, LMH enjoyed time on the ball but couldn't add to the scoresheet. A successful tie for the home side, they were overall just very happy to see themselves progress to the quarter finals, especially without club top-scorer Ben 'flasher' Smith who said afterwards in the bar “Did you see the spurs match last weekend?”. Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:44:12 +0000 http://www.ouafc.com/news/299#timestamp:1227311052 Match report http://www.ouafc.com/news/298 A splendid overall performance from the home team secures them access to Cuppers quarter-finals. But the score isn't entirely truthful of the way the match developed. Wadham was clearly the better team in the first half in fact, with Centaurs captain Ben Quigley dominating in centre midfield and Versailles' flair on the wing being a constant threat to the Hall's defence. The maroon and gold back four held surprisingly well though, with a fantastic performance from both fullbacks Herbert and Gilbert and great reliability guaranteed by the legendary Lefanu-Waldron central axis. Disadvantaged by the very strong wind blowing towards their goal, Teddy Hall would have definitely been happy with a 0-0 draw at half time. The same cannot be said about Charlie 'Gary the Overlord' Southern who decided to change the match in the last few minutes of the half. After his 43' minute goal was disallowed for a (very dubious) offside, he photocopied it just a minute later, with a finish (this time probably offside!) that was the apotheosis of class and technique: a goal that reminds Zidane's epic finish against Leverkusen in the 2002 Champions League final. Two halves, two entirely different stories. Teddy Hall came in galvanized by the unexpected goal and, after just a couple of minutes of pressure, found another wonder-goal from another Charlie: Allen sprinted down the wing, saw the keeper badly positioned and beat him with a beautiful lob from 30 yards out. Absolutely stunning. Want an analogy? Shevchenko's goal in Milan-Juventus in their 1-1 draw (2001). The second goal made a big impact on the game: Wadham's players lost faith in their chances of success, while Teddy Hall gained full control of the pitch. Hoffmann and Clark rose to season best standards with the first winning the long awaited Belgian duel (sorry Bruno!). It was now time for what is known as "Champagne football", first touch passing game, with loads of great runs from Storey and Theodore and with the Overlord waving his magic wand and just making the hardest look so easy. Southern himself closed the match definitely with an accurate finish to make it 3-0 and then, as if we hadn't seen any good goals yet, made it a personal hat-trick with a classy lob. Already on goal double figures after 7 games, journalists are beginning to ask themselves just how much better the boy can get in the remainder of the season. With the three second half subs integrating very well into the team's schemes, Teddy Hall were able to close the match on 4-0, having been close to conceding only twice throughout the whole game. Impressive, if you think Wadham are a solid top-tier team with two very valid additions from the Centaurs. Ecstatic atmosphere amongst the Teddy Hall players at the end of the match: Lemecha-Sim defined the match as "a joy to watch. And an absolute honour to play in." Waldron's comment was: "vey well done boys i'm so happy we kept a clean sheet risked so little" (all without punctuation, obviously). Much more ambiguous, to the uninformed spectator, was Tom Thedore's comment: "I want to dedicate this win to the Jeda. I owe everything to him. If we win, it's because he's inspired us to. I pray to him 7 times a day." On the whole, it was very unlucky for Wadham to play Teddy Hall in their best form. The latter now have high hopes of maintaining their posittion as premiership leaders and have a long successful run in Cuppers. Only the future will tell.... Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:39:43 +0000 http://www.ouafc.com/news/298#timestamp:1227292783 Match report http://www.ouafc.com/news/297 “We were hard pressed by the other side, but did not concede; generally very poor, but did not despair; provoked, but did not react; pushed around, but not defeated. We always carry around in our body the post-footballing niggles, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our being… (top of the league - temporarily).“ 2 Cor. 4:8-10 (The Common Room Version) After last week’s cuppers exit how would the plucky Wycliffe lads respond? Could they pick themselves up from the disappointment the first loss of the season? Opponents this week were Christchurch 2nds skippered by a certain Alex Bexon (of Val Bexon fame who seemed to think we were all “Vicars and Christians”, obviously he hadn’t met the football team yet!) So, with this added spice to the game Wycliffe lined up, happy to be back on home soil, playing on the parks for the first time this season. A capacity crowd had gathered (well 6!) and the game was doused in atmosphere. Father Firth made his first appearance of the season and made an excellent vocal contribution with some familiar songs such as, “I shall sing of the wondrous Storey” and other such classics! The game was a strange one. Wycliffe started very strongly and were all over Christchurch from referee Shelley’s first whistle. Dominance immediately paid off as Leady picked the ball up on the edge of the area, jinked past two defenders and calmly slid the ball past the approaching Christchurch keeper. 3 minutes gone. A very good start. 1-0. This pressure on the Christchurch defence then only seemed to increase with Leady, Lower, Slade and Tindall all having magnificent chances in the next 20 minutes. It was quite literally men against boys at this stage. However, the men were constantly missing the target and seemed pretty incapable of depositing the spheroid in the net! Fortunately on 34 minutes Vaughan played an excellent ball across the edge of the Christchurch box and Gaster (SCIO) popped up and struck a sweet shot first time with his weaker left foot. The ball flew into the corner of the corner of the net - a super finish. 2-0. At this point the redundant Wycliffe were thinking of going for a cup of tea and leaving the midfield and strikers to it. However, very bizarrely, we decided to take our foot off the pedal for the final 15 minutes of the first half. Christchurch came back into the game strongly and Wycliffe just couldn’t find that third goal to kill the game off. Leady and Lower seemed to be feeling the effects of recent illness and the rest of us weren’t controlling the ball or working hard enough. We finished the half in ragged fashion. Storey let the ball through his legs, Coleridge mis-kicked and Simons got nowhere near with a lunge. The Christchurch striker completely missed the target from all of 2 yards out with the Dingall (another on the sick and dying list) nowhere to be seen. Amazingly, the half-time score was 2-0 but it really should have been 5-1! Storey was slightly worried and addressed the lack of shape and work rate in his half-time team talk. Christchurch bought on two of their 1st XI players at half time and they were bristling with confidence on the sidelines. “It’ll all change now,” they thought. To be honest the 2nd half was poor from the Wycliffe point of view. The defence nullified the ever-strengthening Christchurch forwards with Coleridge, Storey and Simons, Gregory really strong in their challenges. The problem was we couldn’t keep the ball and we were losing possession in midfield. We held out well under conditions that roughly resembled the Alamo by the end! Slade and Vaughan kept running well up front and we did look threatening on the break but chances were either well saved by the new Christchurch 1st’s keeper or missed the mark. The problem was though the ball was coming back too fast and Christchurch were now tabernacled in our half! We continued to defend well though and we held out … just. Final score 2-0. Man of the match: the referee (which speaks more about our performance than anything else)… Captain, Commandant, Field Marshall Shelley. We remain unbeaten and went top of the league (all be it temporarily) for the first time in three and a half years. Your correspondent is honest enough to admit that we were quite poor, equipping ourselves worse than when we lost last week. However, a clean sheet is commendable and one of the first lessons we need to learn if we are going win this league is how to play badly and win! Also commendable were our reactions in the midst of some disappointing play-acting and “chat” from one of the Christchurch forwards. Gregory held his temper admirably and referee Shelley was well on top of it. Our witness remained a good one in spite of some strong provocation. St. Hugh’s at home next Thursday. We need a bigger and stronger performance to maintain our 100% record. Still, played three, won three! Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:21:32 +0000 http://www.ouafc.com/news/297#timestamp:1227284492 Match report