Oxford City v Basingstoke Bulls - 31.01.15
Western Regional League
17-4 Loss
We played Basingstoke with our first full City regional team. Congratulations to Theo who made a full match debut and performed well under pressure; and thanks to Rich for stepping up yet again to ensure we can field a full team.
Thinking about the match there are many things we either did wrong or didn't do. We were very quiet for the first 10 minutes and then our new tactics did not quite happen as we had briefly drilled. Having defenders does make it a lot harder. We ran fast but passed slowly over short distances. Lots to correct but nothing we haven't done correctly in the past.
Good points were Claire's amazing ability to hold her ground; Alice's fast mid-distance shooting; and Dan's speed and his ability to play after a serious floor/head impacts -- although Gaz also gets that claim to fame. There was some nice switching but overall we lacked the wider view and had issues with timing.
When I saw the final scoresheet it was very surprising that Gaz's normally super-scoring division came home empty handed, but this does show how hard it was to get the opportunities and convert them.
Scorers: Dan (2), Alice, Jo
MVP: Becca, who came in and changed the shape of the game in her division. Excellent selfless post work and actually actioned the things Frank has been asking us to do.
- Match report by Jo
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Oxford City 1 vs Basingstoke Bulls 1 - 01.02.15
OKA League 1
9-5 Loss
The result says a loss, but the performance was a massive win. For context, it's the closest Basingstoke game we've had for a long long time, and for much of the match the result was in the balance. With seven of the players bruised (often literally!) from the regional match the day before, I'd like to congratulate everyone in the team for picking themselves up after the previous result, and putting into practice the tactics that Gaz developed overnight to counter the Basingstoke threats.
Basingstoke brought a very strong and experienced squad of 12 players, featuring a current England U21 international in the shape of Viktor. They've been free scoring this season, with Viktor scoring 65 goals so far, Ali 36, Louisa 38, Stu 31, Adam 26 and comfortable double figures for the most of their squad.
We traded blows in a tight first half, and the score was 4-4 when the whistle went, after some great long shots from Dave W in particular. The opposition were getting noticeably agitated, with their head coach shouting constantly.
The second half continued in much the same vein, and it really could have gone either way. Unfortunately, Dan missed a penalty that would have made it 7-5, and the opposition immediately went on to score to make it 8-4. We also missed a couple of other good chances, and in the end it was a case of what might have been as we traded a couple of late goals. Still, a great performance, built on a strong defence.
During the pre-match tactics session Gaz talked about the importance of winning the individual battles, and everyone did. Dan and Viktor fought out a 0-0 draw, Gaz drew 1-1 with Adam, Alice drew 1-1 with the dangerous Sarah, while Claire marked the dangerous Louisa out of the game with a great demonstration of 'tight D', and Niall was in overdrive in defence. Unfortunately, with so many goalscoring threats, it's hard to completely stop them from scoring! I could name everyone really, as we played that well.
Thank you to Michelle and Becca for coming down to support, and also to Theo for making himself available as a substitute.
Scorers: Dave W (2), Alice (1), Gaz (1), Jo (1)
MVP: Alice
- Match report by Dan
