Oxford's Split Personality

The League Two season is now ten games old – a point which is widely recognised as the time to review the start we have made to the season. By this point in the season the table has begun to take some shape, promotion contenders and relegation candidates materialise and patterns have begun emerge.

At the ten-match mark we find ourselves fourth in the table, outside the automatic promotion places by two points. It's a decent position to be in and puts us in a good position to push on and challenge this season but a concerning trend has emerged, albeit a not-unexpected one. Of course, the issue on everyone's lips at the moment is the team's home form.

It's something which has been debated extensively on Yellows Forum and on the excellent Oxpod United podcast and a veritable cavalcade of explanations have been posited, from negative fans to away teams raising their game at the Kassam. It's an issue that's come to dominate all talk of the club but one I've been reluctant to wade into, mainly due to the fact that I've already written about it last season. However, at the risk of repeating myself, it would be impossible to review the season so far without reference to this unusual phenomenon.

In the simplest of terms, Oxford appear to be a completely different side away from home than we are at home. On the road, we are clinical, free-scoring and relatively solid at the back (only Fleetwood and Mansfield have conceded fewer goals than us away). At home, it's a completely different story: only struggling Hartlepool and Accrington have scored fewer goals than we have on their own ground and matches at the Kassam frequently descend into dreary morale-sapping experiences as United struggle to find any rhythm to break down the opposition.

Away

Home

The level of support or the expectations of the fans shouldn't be a factor. Look at small, moneyed clubs like Crawley - expectations are high but supporters are low and it seems to have no effect on their performances. This season has put paid to the popular myth from last season that the state of the pitch was responsible for our poor home form - London Welsh have only played once at the Kassam so far this season. Having a 'nice' stadium isn't the problem either; Rotherham had a brand-new stadium last year which was a lot better than ours and they won promotion and Chesterfield's stadium is much newer and shinier than the Kassam and they have no problems at home.

In my opinion, the reason for our inability to perform at home is not due to the atmosphere or the pressure the players are under, it's something far simpler. The team are set up to be a very good counter-attacking outfit, but when it comes to taking the initiative and breaking opposing sides down we frequently struggle.

This is borne out by the stats. According to the (admittedly not-too-reliable) possession statistics listed on the club's official website, we have enjoyed the majority of possession on just two occasions this season. Clearly that's not because we're being outplayed by our opponents, it's because the team is set up allow our opponents to see a large amount of the ball and then hit them when the openings appear. This is a tactic which will naturally lend itself better to away matches but it's not going to work so well against other teams who are looking to do similar to us at our place – Southend on Saturday being a prime example (for the record, the Shrimpers had just 38% possession in that match).

Oxford are probably the best team in League Two without the ball, but clearly we need to be better with it. Despite losing, I saw some positive signs against Portsmouth that we are still capable of imposing ourselves on sides when they come to the Kassam but we clearly lacked that cutting edge that has made us so clinical on our travels. Nevertheless it gives me some hope that we can change our style of play at home and we'll have to if we want our form to improve.

We don't need to be fantastic at home to win promotion from this league, as the current table demonstrates, just a slight improvement will be enough to get us over the line. Gillingham won the league last season despite losing six and drawing five of their home matches last season – including a 1-0 defeat to us. That said, if home crowds are to improve from their average of 6,180 we are going to have to start getting results and entertaining fans. That's not so easily solved...

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Oxford United 1-2 Portsmouth

Oxford's JPT campaign is over for another year as they fell at the first hurdle at home to Portsmouth. The yellows dominated for large portions of the net but were unable to put the ball in the net and were undone by second-half goals from Patrick Agyemang and John Marquis. It extends the home losing streak to three matches ahead of the visit of Northampton on Saturday, but on a positive note youngsters Josh Ruffels and Callum O'Dowda each got 90 minutes and Scott Davies also impressed.

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Oxford United 0-2 Southend United

The curse of the Kassam continued as Oxford lost a second successive home game, going down 2-0 to Southend. Conor Clifford and Luke Prosser each found the net in the first half during what was a particularly poor showing for the first half. The result and performance caused a ripple of concern throughout the fanbase as United drop out of the top three. But don't take it from me, here's the match in tweets...

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PREVIEW: Southend Home (05/10/13)

Southend are the visitors this week as the mighty yellows look to build on last weekend's 3-1 win over Hartlepool and give the home fans something to cheer about. With United currently second in the table you'd think Oxford fans would be feeling good at the moment, but supporters haven't seen Oxford win at home since the visit of Bury back in August, with two draws and a defeat in subsequent matches at the Kassam. No wonder then that some fans are feeling a little unloved at the moment, but this weekend's match offers an opportunity to put that right.

That's not the only sequence of results we'd like to see overturned this weekend. Our recent form against Southend is miserable, with just one win in our last ten encounters. The last time the Shrimpers visited the Kassam was to knock us out of the JPT back in January, following that up the following month with a 1-0 win at Roots Hall.

That said, the Southend which comes to town this weekend is quite a different beast to the one which has caused us so much pain in the last few years. Paul Sturrock is out and new boss Phil Brown has not enjoyed the easiest of starts to his tenure in Essex. After winning the first three games of the season, Southend have since failed to register a single victory and haven't scored more than once in a game since the middle of August.

As a result, they took the rather drastic step of naming six first-team players in a development squad match against Colchester during the week in an attempt to get them back into a winning frame of mind ahead of their trip to the Kassam. Only time will tell whether the resulting 5-1 victory will have given them a much-needed confidence boost or will have tired them out ahead of the weekend.

Picture by Jon Whiles Photography

Chris Wilder has some interesting selection choices to make this weekend. For example, does he keep faith with the side which responded so strongly last weekend? If so, that will mean no place in the side for the returning Dave Kitson after he served his one-match ban last week. And what about James Constable, who is returning to full fitness after chipping a bone in his foot? Could Alfie Potter, who has been one of our most important players so far this season, be the one to miss out for either of the returning strikers? Certainly it would seem harsh on Ryan Williams to be dropped after impressing on the right wing last weekend and scoring his first senior goal. One thing we can say with certainty is that fit-again Max Crocombe will return to the bench this weekend, after Shwan Jalal was recalled by Bournemouth during the week.

From the Vaults

Oxford United v Southend United, 24^th August 1996

The season was young when Southend came to the Manor for our first home league game of the season. We had returned to the second tier after two seasons away and began with a trip to QPR, freshly relegated from the Premier League. Southend had been mainstays at this level since their promotion in 1991, but their star was falling and they arrived at Oxford with a season of struggle ahead of them...

You can find this and many other old OUFC matches in our VIDEO VAULT!

Also This Weekend

Oxford get their first taste of WSL football this weekend. Although the new WSL2 season doesn't begin until next year, the women's development squad begin their WSL Development League season on Sunday with something of a trial by fire. They travel to Hertfordshire University to face Arsenal's development squad in the Southern Division.

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Youth Team Thrash Swindon

Being unable to get to Hartlepool on Saturday, I decided to head down to Roman Way in the morning to watch the youth team in action against Swindon. Anyone who's already seen the score will, of course, understand why I'm glad I did! With just a couple of exceptions it was the first time I had seen any of the current crop of youngsters and I caught them in imperious form as they thrashed Swindon 7-1.

In truth, it was a total mismatch. As good as Oxford undoubtedly were, Swindon were poor in every area. This was plainly apparent from the moment the match began and within five minutes the yellows had a two-goal lead, thanks to the predatory instincts of James Roberts. Roberts was a revelation last season and he scored goals for fun as a first-year scholar (including the first time I had seen him play, in the Oxfordshire Senior Cup final back in May) and he was certainly a class above the Swindon defence.

His first was a looping header as he was allowed to rise unchallenged to meet a deep floated cross into the box. For his second, Roberts burst through the sluggish backline to latch onto an incisive through ball from Freddie Grant and from the moment he made his run it was clear he would score. The Swindon keeper was left helpless as Roberts coolly dinked it over him.

Of course, it wasn't all a one-man show. Roberts may have gobbled up every chance that came his way but he needed someone to create those chances for him. Enter Sam Humphreys, who was a constant threat on the wing. Time and time again he beat his man and looked to deliver a ball into the box and it was always obvious that it would lead to a goal eventually. In fact it took less than 20 minutes as Jamie Calvin tapped in the third from close range. Humphreys had again turned the Swindon full-back inside out before heading for the byline and pulling it back into the danger zone. The danger should have been cleared then and there but when defender and goalkeeper contrived to make a hash of the clearance Calvin was on hand to punish them.

Barney Martin

Swindon did pull a goal back, direct from a corner, and enjoyed a fleeting spell of pressure but Oxford never really looked in trouble. Goalkeeper Barney Martin should probably have done better for Swindon's goal but otherwise coped admirably on what was an admittedly quiet afternoon for him. He made a couple of decent saves in this period, including to spare Alfie Grant an embarrassing own goal after a cross bounced off his legs and looked destined for goal. Even more impressive is that Martin is only playing for the youth team at the moment because the first and second-choice goalkeepers, Josh Hill and Eddie Cavanagh, are both out injured. Martin usually keeps goal for the under-16s.

But as impressive as the whole team undoubtedly were, the first half really belonged to Roberts, who scored his third just before half-time on the break, pinching the ball off the feet of a static Swindon centre-back before lobbing the humiliated goalkeeper to wrap up his hat-trick. How many other times can we say we've seen an Oxford player score a first-half hat-trick against our local rivals?

The highly-rated Aidan Hawtin was introduced to the fray after the break and he looked hungry to inflict further damage on the visitors. He could have had a hat-trick himself, narrowly missing a one-on-one just moments after coming on to the field, he did well to meet an excellent defence-splitting pass but saw his effort drift agonisingly wide of the left-hand post. He had better luck on his second and third attempts, finding the net first with a header and then with a volley after getting the wrong side of the defence but on both occasions he was denied by the linesman's flag.

Having hit their opponents on the break several times in the first half (sound familiar?) Oxford's approach play in the second was more largely based around some lovely passing football. The Swindon defence were bamboozled by United's slick passing and superior movement and as a result they were able to slice through the massed Swindon ranks as if they were made of butter. Roberts got his fourth from just one such move, the yellows passing the ball around nicely on the edge of the area and when the gap inevitably opened he exploited it with a well-placed strike, finding the bottom right corner with pinpoint accuracy.

With Muctaru Conte coming off the bench to play on the left wing, Sam Humphreys was moved to the right but looked no less comfortable as an inverted winger. Given the recent discussions about our use of width in the senior team, I thought it was interesting to see that we are trying to produce players with the tactical flexibility to play on either flank. Humphreys looked very dangerous coming in centrally with the ball on his left foot and he added Oxford's sixth after a glorious passing move had opened up space on the left, allowing Hunphreys the simple task of tapping in the cross with his stronger foot.

Having been pulled around all match Swindon by now looked exhausted and they collapsed towards the end, having briefly looked like they'd tightened up at the back in the earlier stages of the second half. But the exhausted and disheartened defence could do nothing to stop the sprightly Hawtin from finally getting his goal when he latched onto a through-ball from Humphreys and slotted in for the seventh.

It's difficult to make any firm judgements about the team or make forecasts about the future of these players based just on one match, especially one as one-sided as this one. But based on the evidence on display in this game, the future is looking incredibly bright for some of these lads and for the club in general if this is the standard of player they're producing. With the development squad now in place to ease their progression into senior football the club is now better set up than ever before to nurture the obvious talent on display in our youth team.

Team: B Martin, Clarke, F Grant, Ashby, A Grant, McCormack, D Martin, George, Roberts, Calvin, Humphreys

Subs: Hawtin, Hackett, Conte, Welch-Hayes, Hayden

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