August 23, 2025
Today saw a meeting of 11th vs 8th in round 4 of National League North, with both sides in search of a victory that would put them up into the promotion play-off positions at this early stage of the season.
Oxford City Update
After these diaries reported on the 5-2 pre-season victory over a Charlton Athletic XI, Oxford City had a pretty ordinary rest of their pre-season, drawing 1-1 at Gloucester City, and losing 0-1 at Chesham United, and by the same score at home to Maidenhead United.
Since that game, winger Jaydon Carbon had signed for Middlesborough for an undisclosed fee, and teenage centre-back Lewis Croker had joined Crewe Alexandra. The departure of Andre Burley had also been confirmed, joining Dagenham and Redbridge.
Trialists made up three of the back four and the goalkeeper in the Charlton match, and The Hoops had subsequently signed Sam Lewis on a season long loan from Aston Villa to be the number 1 keeper. The defence had been strengthened with the signings of centre-back Charlie Wiggett, who had last been seen playing for Sligo Rovers in the League of Ireland, ex-Hibernian, Wigan, AFC Wimbledon and Forest Green Rovers centre-back Darnell Johnson, and right-back George Burroughs, who most recently had played for Redditch, AFC Telford and Altrincham.
City had also signed German born striker Isaac Westendorf, who had played in Northern Ireland for Larne and Ballymena United, and last season played in Malta for Balzan. The Oxford City squad though still looked light on numbers and so more signings could be expected, either permanently or on loan, especially when injuries start to mount up.
Oxford City started the season with a 2-3 defeat at AFC Fylde, after having led 2-0 early in the second half, but followed up with a 2-1 home victory over much fancied Macclesfield Town. In mid-week City travelled to another of the teams expected to be challenging for promotion, and came away with a 1-1 draw at Kidderminster Harriers. Five goals had been scored, by five different players.
Spennymoor Town
Spennymoor are located in County Durham, seven miles south of Durham, with an estimated population of around 20,000. The club are a descendent of Spennymoor United, who reached the semi-final of the FA Trophy in 1977/78, before a merger of the clubs in 2005.
Home is the 4,300 capacity Brewery Field and the club have a nickname of The Moors. Their traditional kit is black and white stripes with black shorts and socks.
The Moors were winners of the FA Vase in 2012/13, beating Tunbridge Wells 2-1 in the final, after beating Guernsey 4-1 on aggregate in the semi-final.
Against all odds, Spennymoor reached the 2024/25 FA Trophy final as a National League North side, but lost 0-3 at Wembley to Aldershot. They had previously eliminated National League sides Rochdale, Sutton United, Boston United, as well as Hampton and Richmond Borough, Alfreton Town and South Shields in the early rounds of the competition.
Spennymoor have played in National League North since 2017/18, with a best placed finish of 4th in 2018/19, when they lost on penalties in the play-off final to Chorley. Last season they finished in 9th place and had an average league attendance of 1,278.
Spennymoor Town Squad
The obvious star player in the Spennymoor squad is veteran forward Glen Taylor, who as at the end of last season had scored 210 goals in 394 appearances for the club, and had been their leading goal scorer in eight of the past nine seasons.
As a Crawley Town supporter, it was interesting to see that ex-Reds left-back Mitch Hancox was now playing for Spennymoor. Hancox had played 15 games on loan in 2015/16 on loan from Birmingham City, and had gone on to play for Macclesfield, Solihull Moors, York City and Chester amongst others.
Another familiar name to these diaries was ex-Morton, Clyde and Ayr United midfielder Cameron Salkeld who played for Darlington against Oxford City last August.
Centre-forward Austin Samuels signed this week after playing for Rushall Olympic last season, having previously been with Bradford City, Aberdeen, Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Greenock Morton, and was an England Under 16 international when at Wolves.
Defensive midfielder/centre-back Dan Rowe played in the Football League for Wycombe Wanderers, defender Ben Pollock was ex-Hereford, Boston and Chester, whilst keeper Brad James was at Middlesborough as a youngster and had a loan spell at Hartlepool before being released and joining Spennymoor. Defender Ben Beals also joined Spennymoor after being released by Middlesborough.
Midfielder Rob Ramshaw had made over 300 appearances for The Moors, and prior to joining Spennymoor played nearly 100 games for Gateshead, whilst Michael Dolan had played over 200 matches for Newport County in League Two as well as playing in the EFL for Yeovil, Hartlepool, and Bradford City. Left -back Dan Jones was with Port Vale last season, and had also played for Hartlepool, Barrow and Harrogate.
Ex-Greenock Morton and Queen Of The South centre-back Michael Ledger is hopefully known as “General”, winger Junior Mondal is one letter away from being a world star and ex-York Coty defender Olly Dyson can be expected to hoover everything up at the back !
Spennymoor This Season
Spennymoor started the season with an impressive 2-0 victory at home to Hereford United, and then went to Radcliffe Borough and returned home with another 2-0 win. Taylor had scored three of The Moors four goals, with Rowe the other scorer.
However, the wheels feel off the wagon during the week with a disastrous 0-5 home loss at the hands of Kings Lynn. The Moors then had another set-back this week with the news that striker Gary Madine, ex-Cardiff City, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Coventry City and Blackpool amongst others had announced his retirement. Madine had signed in the summer and started in the opening two fixtures.
Previous Meetings
Last season was the first time the two sides had met. Oxford City won 3-0 at home in December in front of a crowd of 1,082 but lost 0-1 away on the last day of the season, where Corey McKeown was on target for The Moors.
Matchday Information
According to AA Route Planner, the journey from Spennymoor to Marsh Lane is 236 miles and should normally take 4 hours 25 minutes. The Spennymoor supporters coach had a 07.45 departure time and it looked like around 30-40 fans had made the journey.
Tickets for today’s game were £13 for adults online and £16 at the turnstile. This represented a reduction from £15 online and £17 at the turnstile last season. There were a whole range of reductions depending on ages, from seniors to children. Hospitality was £40.
A special promotion for the game was draught pints being reduced to £4.
The weather at the 15.00 kick-off was overcast but dry with the temperature around 21 degrees..
Bet365 made Spennymoor 11/8 favourites, with Oxford City at 29/20 and the draw 13/5.
Spennymoor were playing in a change kit of all red whilst Oxford City were in their traditional blue and white hoops.
Spennymoor made two changes from the side that started the 0-5 defeat at home to King’s Lynn, with Jones and Mondal replacing Beals and Doherty. Oxford City also made two changes to the side that started at Kidderminster, with DJ Campton-Surridge and Alfie Potter coming in the line-up with Josh Parker dropping to the bench and Jack Bearne missing out with a shoulder injury, who is likely to keep him out for some time.
Programme
An online programme was available on the new Oxford City App, with paper programmes now discontinued as they were apparently now financially unviable. The online programme is similar to those produced by several rugby clubs with links to both sides’ websites.
Personally, I feel that if City are going down the online programmes route, they should follow the example of many local non-league clubs eg Thame United or Risborough Rangers, where it is a pdf of what would have been the paper programme. Also, unlike most clubs, the online programme isn’t yet available via City’s website nor does there appear to be any archive.
Team-sheets used to be handed out free of charge inside the ground, but now cost £1.
https://oxfordcity.shorthandstories.com/oxford-city-v-spennymoor/
Matchday Report
Oxford City nearly opened the scoring in the first 30 seconds. Westendorf spun away from Rowe and ran clear with just the keeper to beat, but his low shot was too close to James, who made the save and held on to the ball. It was a great chance.
The home side had started strongly and were winning all the loose balls before Spennymoor got into the game. McKeown released Ramshaw inside the left-hand side of the penalty area, but from a tight angle his shot was blocked by keeper Lewis. The roles were reversed in the 8th minute as Ramshaw released McKeown but Lewis was able to come of his line to challenge the Moors midfielder, and the ball ricocheted off for a goal-kick.
A minute later McKeown was teed up to shoot from just outside the 18-yard line, but his right-footed curling shot was pushed away by the diving Lewis. A left-footed cross from the right-wing by Dyson then bounced across the goalmouth and off for a goal-kick. The Moors were starting to play !
The response from Oxford City was to send a long ball down the left-hand channel for Jacob Roddy to chase, and when Spennymoor partially cleared, Zac McEachran hit the bouncing ball harmlessly wide.
After 13 minutes Ramshaw did well to prevent an overhit pass from going off for a goal-kick and his flick reached Taylor beyond the far post, who headed back across goal. Josh Ashby could only half clear as far as Dolan, whose 25 yard effort was superbly saved by Lewis.
In an end-to-end game, Campton-Surridge skipped past Jones, who resorted to hauling the City winger to the floor, and Jones was shown the first yellow card of the match. The free-kick was cleared at the third attempt.
Westendorf then robbed Dyson of possession and again ran clear, but with three defenders bearing down on him, the centre-forward could only shoot straight at James, who made a regulation save.
Westendorf was looking fast, strong and powerful and was a handful for the Moors defenders, but his finishing was letting him down.
Out of the blue, the game’s first goal arrived. MacKenzie Heaney floated a cross from the right which sailed over the head of Wiggett, and Ramshaw was on hand to sweep home on the half volley from close range. 0-1 with 23 minutes played.
Almost immediately after, Westendorf ran onto a long ball from Wiggett, getting to it ahead of James, but his lob over the keeper was cleared for a corner by Rowe. Johnson saw his effort from the corner blocked at the far post.
Wiggett’s attempted pass to Scott was intercepted by McKeown, who ran to the edge of the Hoops area, but his shot was weak and easily saved.
Westendorf again made his presence felt by winning possession close to the half-way line and then passed forward to McEachran who weaved his way into the Spennymoor area, but with three defenders closing him down, McEachran’s toe poke took a slight deflection and ended in the far corner, past the despairing dive of James. 1-1 after 32 minutes.
When Jones sent a huge long through into the centre of the Oxford City 6-yard box, Taylor could only head high and over the bar. At the other end, Burroughs won a corner after being put into space by Wiggett, and when Roddy took the set-piece, Wiggett’s flying header went a couple of feet over the bar.
Westendorf and Scott then combined to put Potter clear, but the danger was ended by the linesman’s raised flag. This was followed by Dyson getting past Roddy, but his cross into the Oxford City area was headed away by Johnson.
With half-time approaching, more good work from Westendorf resulted in McEachran being fouled just outside the Moors penalty area, but Ashby’s free-kick crashed into the defensive wall, being stopped by the head of Heaney, who crashed to the floor and play was halted.
The last action of the first-half saw Mondal force Roddy into conceding a corner for The Moors. When Spennymoor played the ball back into the danger zone after it had been headed away, Wiggett got an important foot to the ball, but the linesman had flagged for offside.
The scores remained level at the end of a hectic first half, full of good football which was an entertaining watch. Spennymoor had looked very good going forward, but shaky at the back against the rampaging Westendorf.
The second half was not of the same quality, with both sides being regularly guilty of losing possession through stray passes.
The first chance of the second period saw McEachran play a clever flick to give Westendorf some space but the shot was blocked for a corner, which was headed away by Pollock.
Another Jones long-throw caused confusion in the home defence and Taylor had a short blocked at the far post. Shortly after, Mondal set-up Ramshaw, but the 20-yard effort went a few feet over the bar.
The visitors came close to regaining the lead in the 55th minute. Mondal’s left footed cross from the right went beyond the far post where Ramshaw headed back across goal for Taylor to head over the bar from 6 yards.
Westendorf then made a surging run past Rowe’s lunge, but the move ended when Parker was crowded out.
On the hour mark, Jones played a terrible pass straight to Hoops substitute Parker. City worked the ball patiently until Ashby’s piledriver was well saved by James. Another flowing move from the home side involving Wiggett and McEachran came to an end when Roddy was judged to have fouled Rowe whilst attempting to make a header to a floated cross.
Another passing move from The Hoops resulted in Scott volleying over the clubhouse after a pull-back from McEachran.
With 16 minutes left on the clock, Westendorf did well to rob Pollock and was then hauled down close to the byline and corner flag. Pollock was shown the second yellow card of the game. The free-kick from Ashby was cleared as far as Roddy, whose long range effort was also blocked by the Moors defence.
Spennymoor then enjoyed a good spell as the game enter the last ten minutes. A Dolan free-kick was headed high into the air by Pollock, enabling Lewis to make an easy catch. Dolan then tried his luck from 25 yards, and his left-footed strike was pushed away by the diving Lewis. Substitute Sankeld tapped home the rebound but he was a couple of yards off-side so the goal was chalked off.
Oxford City then nearly took the lead as Parker head back across goal for Westendorf but a Moors defender managed to get there first. However, he could only head as far as Roddy, who headed narrowly over from around 14 yards.
Play went back into the Oxford City half and Taylor went down very easily when challenged on the edge of the 18- yard line. The referee awarded a rather soft free-kick, but Taylor got up to take and his drive took a deflection off the defensive wall, wrong footing Lewis and nestled in the opposite corner. 1-2 after 84 minutes.
The goal appeared to take the wind out of Oxford City, who rarely looked like getting back on level terms. Brayden Daniel did well on the left wing, but Westendorf was pinged for fouling Pollock in his efforts to win a header, but Spennymoor comfortably saw out the 5 added minutes to take the three points and move up to 6th in the table
Defeat was harsh on Oxford City who probably deserved a draw from a closely fought encounter but slipped down to 16th .
Oxford City : Lewis – Burroughs ( Wilson ), Wiggett, Johnson, Roddy ( Daniel ) – Campton-Surridge ( Parker ), Scott ( Bampoh ) , Ashby, McEachran – Westendorf, Potter
Spennymoor Town : James - Dyson, Rowe, Pollock, Jones ( Hill ) – Mondal ( Doherty ), Heaney ( Beals ), Dolan, McKeown ( Salkeld ) - Ramshaw, Taylor
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