Oxford United 1-2 Northampton Town (att. 8,267)
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| Welcome to .... |
With it being another international weekend (don’t get me started) it was a chance to delve into the lower divisions and tick another stadium off. Oxford seemed perfect, at least it’s easy to get to from London. I’d been to the old Manor Ground, twice, but never this new stadium. I’d heard it was difficult to get to and you get the occasional whiff of sewage from the local works. The former was certainly true, the latter…well, I did catch a couple of sewery-type smells, 2nd half, but this may have been osmosis.
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| Nearly there... |
For once I had company too. An old Londontyke mate who lives near Witney came down. As I was his Best Man once upon a time, I s’pose it’d be rude not to meet up. And then The Captain came up from Southampton way. He’s so keen to crack on with his 92 he’s giving Norwich away a miss next week to visit Port Vale. I wish him luck.
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| The view from the Car Park End. Did they have to cut down these trees? |
I have no recollection of where Oxford’s old ground was in relation to the city centre, but I do know it can’t have been half the journey of the Kassam (is it still called that?) After a few pints in town, we jumped into a taxi. Now, call me pernickety, but if I’m travelling through fields to get to somewhere, that means I’m in a completely different town. Stu, who knows the area, swears this was the best route.
20 mins later we were there. OK, we missed kick-off (we heard the minute’s silence!) but we were quickly served at the box office (by a lovely mature lady) and took our seats in the North Stand. Surprisingly, considering how busy it was in that section, we got 3 seats together. One £4 pie later, we were sat down.
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| Subtle, yet in your face. I like it. |
Northampton isn’t exactly a derby, though the two consider themselves rivals, and at forty odd miles, close enough for the away side to bring a decent contingent, 1300+. Certainly their end was full. Perhaps if Oxford had a 4th side to their stadium (will it ever be anything other than a car park?) then they’d have more scope to increase this.
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| Barriers to prevent us from sticking it to Northampton. |
As it is, the Kassam has three well proportioned stands, all cantilever, with the ubiquitous ‘meccano’ roof supports. The Main Stand has two tiers (upper tier, £28 – for 3rd division action!) while the other two stands have one tier. But where we were was quite steep, and we were very lucky to be seated a fair way up, virtually on the halfway line. I couldn’t have chosen better. Thus, an excellent view of the action.
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| The view from (near) the halfway line. |
Northampton scored early, a scrambled effort off a corner, before wasting several opportunities to extend the lead. Then, with half time looming, an Oxford player ran onto a throughball and drove it into the bottom corner from the edge of the box, a superb finish. Finally, the home support had something to cheer, as up till then all we heard were crowing Cobblers fans. How Northampton would regret letting Oxford back into this gam…oh, hang on, the U’s defender has let Northampton clean through…and he’s shot through the keeper into the net. I should think so too, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s Northampton were streets ahead. (Ironically, had Oxford won, they'd have been i a play-off position while Northampton would be in the relegation zone. You;d never have thought it from this match.)
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| You could be waiting a while... |
Not much happened 2nd half. Certainly Oxford showed no sign of equalising, despite sending on all three subs. From a Barnsley-supporting point of view, it was great to see our loanee Alex Mowatt (reputed cost: £500k) unable to set foot on the pitch from the bench. If he’s not good enough for Oxford, his career’s in trouble…having played 100 games for Dirty Leeds by the time he was 20, or summing. At least former Reds' legend Marc Richards (well, he played regularly in the side wot went up from division 3 many aeons ago) came on for the Cobblers. I dare say he's more of a legend for them, having bagged nearly 50 goals.
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| Cobblers! |
With an 18:01 train to catch, we hopped on a bus to the city centre…which took the best part of an hour…meaning I missed said train. Did I say this stadium is miles away? I think on another day, this place could rival the Ricoh Stadium for most miserable matchday experience in English football. I’ll be back only when Barnsley play here. Thankfully, I had an overweight bald geezer wobbling his bare belly in the direction of Northampton fans, as well as stewards intermittently taking the (empty) beer bottles of U’s fans to amuse me. I’m amazed the latter doesn’t happen more often, sneaking beers in from the drinks’ kiosks…but at least the stewards were sensible, not chucking anyone out.
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| The keeper gathers late on. |
The Damage:
£24 ent
£13.40 train
£4 steak and ale pie
£5.60 taxi/bus
= £47
Programmes? I saw they did exist, but never saw anywhere to buy one either inside or outside the stadium. Still, spending £4 on a pie (my own fault for being hungry) and £24 to get in was painful enough. I wasn’t keen to give them more of my hard earned.
The Tunes:
The Digging Remedy (Plaid)
Claustrophobia (Scuba)
Until The Hunter (Hope Sandoval)
Silence (Pete Namlook and Dr. Atmo)
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| Oxford v Northampton panorama. |
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| Looking towards the Car Park End. |
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| The Main (South) Stand. |
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| The East Stand, home of the ultras. |
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| 'Manor Relics' |
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| Word to the wise; calling yourself 'ultras' doesn't make you so. |
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| That minute before Northampton went back ahead. |
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| The Car Park End starts emptying. |
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| A late corner for Northampton. |
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