THE GAFFER

Ross Jenkins

After a couple of tough games we return home today determined to regain momentum and get back to winning ways against Radcliffe. That’s not going to be easy against a side who had an excellent win against Hereford on Monday but we have done our homework and will be fully prepared for what should be a good game.

After beating Macclesfield and drawing at Kidderminster we slipped up over the Bank Holiday weekend with two disappointing results. The first against Spennymoor might have gone either way in a very open 90 minutes and then at Chester on Monday we played for an hour with ten men and should be very proud of our efforts: getting back to 1-1 with ten players was encouraging but losing the game maybe hurt more because we had put so much into it.

 It’s been a busy first few weeks of the season, as always. I understand the reasoning behind loading the fixture list towards the start when the weather and pitches are better and leaving gaps at the end for rearrangements but it does mean that resources get stretched and most teams pick up knocks, strain, injuries and suspension.

Unfortunately that has happened to us and has stretched our resources but you just have to get on with things and treat it as an opportunity: youngsters Brayden Daniel and Josh McConnell have both featured in the last two games and will get further chances as the season progresses. With so many new faces in the squad this season as well it is going to take time for everything to settle down but we can see that happening with each training session and match.

What we can’t do is let two defeats define the season. Instead, with two home games in a row,  we need to go out there showing the same hunger and team spirit and hopefully that allows us to win both matches and put us into a decent position when the league table starts to properly mean something.

 Enjoy the game,

 ROSS

OFF THE BALL

Chris Williams stops trying to turn Brayden Daniel, Radcliffe and Potter into a magic headline and sends himself off...

I was following the Chester game on our splendid new App and after half an hour I thought it had developed a technical fault. ‘Potter sent off. Dangerous play” it said. Had we signed a new Potter? Can’t be Alfie I thought. Dangerous play just means ‘foot up’ what has he done, kicked someone as they were tying their laces?

I worked it out; I have known Alfie for 16 years and I can’t even remember him being shown a yellow card. MANY people have been booked for kicking our mercurial winger up in the air, but he rarely retaliates and now here he is apparently being a Diva at the Deva. Clearly, the game is gone.

It reminded me of the only time I was, myself, harshly carded in a very unjust manner.

I often tell people that I used to play for S’ampton, saying it quickly enough that people presume it was Southampton when, in fact, it was Stadhampton in the Morrells Oxford Sunday League (Division 5). I used to love Sunday morning football: refusing a last beer on Saturday night “I’ve got a game tomorrow” as if that would make any difference after eleven hours of beer based antics. Or sitting on a teammates shoulders to put the nets up. Or having to adjust when the hungover left back finally made it on to the pitch, making it eleven a side, twenty minutes into the game.

I was Sunday League Right Back and I accept that I fully deserved Sunday League Referees. That is a properly thankless task, isn’t it? Like Stadhampton FC with me in defence, you are never going to win

But my favourite ref was a gentleman called Andy James. Andy was known universally across Oxfordshire football as Womble and became a good friend of mine. He was an absolutely top man but every single time he reffed one of my matches he bloody booked me! Some were deserved but over the years he’d brandish cards at me for the flimsiest reason. “Well, you didn’t catch him but you MEANT to” he’d stutter or “You were looking at him funny” . "Shut up Womble" I'd reply but there was no point protesting or he’d send me off . It amused both of us but the fines started to add up.

Then one day I was in the changing room and feeling chuffed because I’d got there early and been first into the kit hamper so my socks matched, the shorts almost fitted AND I'd got the place with the one hook to hang your clothes. “Who’s the ref?” I asked innocently just as he came round the corner. “It’s me” said Womble “and just to save us all a lot of time later, you’re booked”

Readers, has everyone else ever been booked before kick off? For doing absolutely nothing? I still feel aggrieved about it, 25 years on. And I had to pay the fine too because he filed it with the OFA!

Like Alfie, 25 years later, I felt mightily aggrieved.

Miss you Womble.