FL2: Oxford Utd v Torquay Utd 2 Nov 2010

What fantastically clear pictures - looks like I'm watching HD.

Hate to say I told you so - although I could not say that I foresaw us winning with 10 men for nigh on 70 minutes, which was a great peformance. You have got to credit Paul Buckle with his tactics there. At last he has given up his obsession with trying to accomodate O'kane in the team as well. Put Wroe back in and we have six points out of six!
We can certainly go to Mansfield in great shape on Saturday and I can see us winning that one as well.
As Dave said it was great to hear a bit of passion in the commentary as well. Sounded as though Kee had missed about three open goals before before the penny finally dropped that he is here to put the ball in the net!

Screw the pictures, I hope Carols o.k!

Could you use Photoshop to enlarge them Dave. Photoshop can let you enlarge or re-size and keep the quality of the pictures. It takes a little bit of time to get used to Photoshop but it`s excellent for editing and re-sizing photos.

I was glad to see Billy Kee get a goal at last. I watched him at Tiverton pre season and there is no doubt he knows where the goal is. Some of those at Tivvy were first class. I know it's not the same class of opposition, but nevertheless he certainly has a powerful shot and on that night an eye for goal. He's probably been a bit overweight and lacking some sharpness, but this is obviously improving and getting a goal is bound to help his confidence. Because I have seen what he can do, I've never been one of his critics, and I'm now looking forward to the real Billy Kee.

This game will live long in the memory - On several occasions during the drive from London to Oxford I considered not bothering with this one, but am glad I did. As a special treat to Longeaton Gull I even stayed to the end!

Oxford started like a team with a makeshift defence who had recently been hammered 5-0. For ten minutes I thought it was going to be a breeze - Rose and Zebs had the beating of their men and their defence looked shaky with crosses into their box - hence our first goal from a whipped in Nicholson free kick after Rose had been pulled back.

Oxford then came back into in and had already cut us apart a couple of times before Macklin got himself sent off. He'd shown a couple of nice turns only to let himself down with poor touches. Then, right in front of the ref he kicked out at an Oxford player after a tussle for the ball near the far touchline. Had an Oxford player done the same in fornt of us we'd have been screaming for him to go - there is no point blaming the ref in that situation - Macklin was stupid to give him a decision to make.

From then on until half time, it was wave after wave of Oxford attack with our left being overun. Anyone who went to the Burnley play off away match years ago or the Wolves sherpa van semi will have a good idea of what it was like . On another night Constable would have scored 4 by HT, but Bevs was suberb with one save inparticular which looked world class. I too was suprised to see Rose go off, but Bucks had to do something and was proven correct in the second half.

The second half was a very open game with Oxford forcing corner after corner, but failing to draw level and us creating chance after chance - we had two on ones, three on ones, but didn't make the most of them - although we at least forced their keeper into saves. It could have ended up 5-5.

I was impressed by the way Kee retained posession and brought others into the game in the closing stages. He had the game on a plate three times and missed each chance - then he put the hardest one of all away and you could see what it meant to him.

It may be that last night will be worth far more than 3 points to the team in terms of confidence and team spirit. To a man every squad member appeared delighted for Billy Kee - Benyon and Potter raced to congratulate him at the final whistle. Wroe also looked fully committed to the cause - I thought he was excellent last night. He was crucial in us retaining posession and give the defence a breather. He looked back to his best last night. \it seems unfair to mention only one or two players - Manse, Branston, Ellis, Zebs Oastler and Benyon all put terrific shifts in. Best game I have been to in a long time.

Awesome. That's how i'd sum up last night's performance. Every player on that pitch (after the red card incident, which everyone missed) worked his nads off for the team cause. Buckle called his subs excellently, be it who or when. A couple of minutes after we commented that Zebs engine had gone, he was replaced by the ever-watchable O'Kane. Another obvious one we discussed was Benno subbed by Kee, who would offer way more than Grits. Subs or not, they all showed a massive workrate and team spirit.

The ref was very poor, seemingly missing obvious fouls against us yet giving dubious decisions to the baying home fans. At one stage his Officials shirt came untucked and we got a flash of the blue and yellow underneath....

The atmosphere from the away fans was brilliant all game, backing our boys for all their efforts. Chanting and relevant jeering at a premium, and nice to see Longeaton getting his quota of exercise getting up and down to the "stand up if you love torquay" routine. Obviously paid the price though, cos Mr can't-understand-people-who-leave-early" had to totter downstairs before the half was up. Shame he missed the twin sister streakers...

Bevan made some fine reactionary saves, and towards the end of the second half all he had to do was reach up to pluck the ball out of the air as Oxford ran out of ideas. The defence mainly did supremely, even though (especially in the 1st half) there seemed a lot of sliced clearances and headers that were more up than out. Wroe was highly effective in midfield, Benno and Zebs ran their socks off. Rose looked impressive, but was sacrificed at the right time for more defensive stability as we were starting to get overran down the wings.

My man of the match though was Mansell, whose passion and workrate made him a standout in my eyes. Welcome back!

A big call out also goes to Billy. A Leicester "lad" like me, I thought his positioning and passion for the ball was cracking. A lesser player would have gone missing after those goalbound efforts had gone awry. But that quality strike for his goal speaks volumes for his character. I sincerely hope this is the first of many for him.

Oxford were poor I thought. For a decent team up against 10 men for 75 minutes, they didn't create many clearcut chances, and quickly ran out of ideas. Obviously not helped by their own fans who jeered them when in the second half they "wasted time" looking for the right pass or option. And we think our home fans can be bad!

Laugh of the night was not seeing Constable STILL moaning at the end of the game. Nor was it his incredible miss when clear through as he walloped it high and wide. It wasn't even Branstons climb over the top of his man into a near perfect handstand. It was in fact down to the stadium. After we'd gone two up, the home fans started flooding out, and the design of the 3-sided Kassam allowed us to chant "cheerio" at them as they trudged across the the big car park behind the goal to the right.

A pleasure as always to spend the match with Longeaton (both snr and jr) and Teddgull, even though the traffic problems vastly shortened my pre-match chat.

Excellent, roll on Mansfield.