Oxford City 3-2 Hungerford ( att : 328 )

December 26^th, 2019

With the results of my previous two visits to Oxford City being 1-5 ( Solihull Moors in the FA Cup ) and 1-4 ( Maidstone in the league ) I said perhaps Oxford City should pay me to stay away as it was a long time since I had seen them win. However, tickets for the Boxing Day match against bottom of the table Hungerford were free if you booked before the match on their on-line ticket portal. It would be normal prices to pay on the day at the gate.

I ordered two free tickets but as Mrs Fatbear wasn’t feeling too well I ended up going on my own. At the turnstile my paper ticket was scanned and I was asked if there were 2 people. I wonder if the wife was counted in the official attendance, as I didn’t think there were that many people watching !

As I sometimes stay in Hungerford when working nearby, I have seen Hungerford a couple of times, although the last time was two seasons ago, and I have a bit of a soft spot for them. Essentially, they appear to be a Hellenic League team punching 3 divisions above their natural level.
  

Last season they stayed up with an away win on the last day, and have an inexperienced squad this season. I didn’t recognise any of the names, and from the brief pen pictures in the programme they all seem to have come from sides lower down in the pyramid.

Hungerford started the better, with City looking particularly sluggish and giving every impression of over-indulging the day before. After about 15 minutes a sloppy pass from a City midfielder was intercepted and the Hungerford winger ran clear, looked up and played the square ball to the unmarked centre forward, Ferdinand. His first touch was poor and for a moment it looked like a defender could tackle but then he shot into the corner for 0-1.

For the next 25 minutes both sides treated the ball like the proverbial hot potato and the old hospital radio commentary of “we’ve got it, they’ve got it, we’ve got it, they’ve got it…..” sprung to mind.

A possible turning point occurred just before half-time as a City defender slid in and cleared the ball for a corner, the linesman started flagging wildly for a penalty. The referee ignored him and gave the corner, he was much closer to the incident, which was the cue for the Hungerford bench to go ballistic. Bizarrely, the Hungerford manager launched in to the other linesman, who being at least 60 yards away, had no involvement in the decision. “That’s embarrassing” was shouted out at least half a dozen times.

Anyway, the corner was cleared, a long ball forward was stopped by a Hungerford defender’s knee but it fell kindly for City’s best player, Zac McEachrean, to control, take a step and then hit an unstoppable shot into the top corner from about 30 yards. Cue “That’s embarrassing” from a couple of home support around me. HT 1:1

City got a lucky at the start of the second half when a through ball was read by a covering Hungerford defender, but unfortunately for him his clearance hit Elliot Benyon ( ex Torquay, Crawley, Swindon, Wycombe and several Conference sides ) on the knee to go past the unprepared keeper for his first league goal for City.

Shortly after a Hungerford defender was trying to shepherd the ball out for a goal-kick but was out muscled and the ball was squared for McEachrean to make it 3-1. This was one decision that the away supporters might justifiably have cause for complaint as quite a few refs would have given a foul, and the linesman this time kept his flag down, even though the incident happened just in front of him.

The game was dull for the next 15 minutes when out of the blue Hungerford pulled one back with a thumping header from an out-swinging left footed free-kick for 3-2.

The last 20 minutes were very entertaining as City’s fragile defence struggled to cope, and as Hungerford pressed forward, City also missed a couple of good chances to settle the match. 

I stood amongst some of the Hungerford supporters for the last 20 minutes as their side was attacking the end where the exit is.  I‘d guess they brought about 50 fans to the game.  There were some very amusing one-eyed comments, everything was the ref’s fault, even though I thought he had a good game part from perhaps the decision for the third goal. One Hungerford supporter was even keeping track how long the ball was out of play when Oxford had the throw-in, goal-kick or free kick, “so that was seven minutes eight seconds of time wasting and I bet the ref doesn’t add that on”.  He didn’t.

Another Hungerford supporter mused "I suppose I have got value for money", and then laughed when he remembered his mate had to pay to get in.

Anyway, City were able to hang on for three points to move within 3 points of the play-offs ( or seventh as I prefer to call them ! )

Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uavuU1fTgjE