Anyway, this left our play-off hopes in tatters, our manager seething and bemoaning his team's inconsistency yet again and the usual nonsense phone calls that follow a defeat on BBC Radio Oxford. One idiot was calling for Chris Wilder's head, emphatically stating that 'fancy football gets you nowhere in this league.' Bring back Ian Atkins? Give me a break. Wilder took us from the mire, from the depths of despair and is encouraging his side to play the game in the correct fashion. I greatly admire him for this. Personally, I wouldn't swap Wilder for anyone (bar maybe Ian Holloway...)
Still, we desperately needed a result on Saturday. In truth, we need to win almost every avaliable fixture left this season to have any hopes of reaching the play-offs again. Our opposition were Crewe Alexandra, managed by another coach who champions pass and move football, Dario Gradi MBE. I had seen this fixture earlier in the season at Gretsy Road and had been greatly impressed by Gradi's side, who like us were fighting for a play-off place.
Crewe started the game with greater purpose, their two lively forwards, Clayton (diving) Donaldson and Shaun Miller causing problems for our defence straight away. The away team ought to have gone ahead after skipper Dave Artell was left completely unmarked off a corner. It was almost a carbon copy of Crewe's goal in the away game. You would have hoped that United had learnt their lesson about picking up the burly centre-back. Artell is one of the least flashy professional footballers I have ever seen; he is from the Keown/Adams school of hard-knocks. In other words, the sort of player who would never dream of purchasing a pair of coloured boots.
However, this seemed to kick the sluggish home side into gear and for the first time that I can remember this season, Oxford went ahead against the run of play. Our goal came via a deflected shot from re-instated captain, James Constable, who had a terrific game.
Crewe then went on the attack in search of an equaliser and their lanky forward, Donaldson, was sent clear only to be bundled over in the box by Jake Wright. Clear penalty. Apparently not. The referee indicated that the incident had occurred outside the area, despite a visible patch of turf being dug up inside the box. The linesmen (who was even more clueless than the average league 2 one and that's saying something) had not even flagged. He seemed completely oblivious to what had just happened. The Crewe players were righlty incensed, particularly after the resulting set-piece came to nothing. As the players went off for half-time, the away team continued to vent their frustrations in the direction of the officials.
After a lethargic first half showing, Oxford United were much improved in the second half and were in the ascendency for the remainder of the game. With twenty minutes to go, good work from (yet another) loan signing, Ryan Burge, put Constable on goal and the talismanic striker cooly finished for his second of the afternoon.
The perfect afternoon? Not quite. In the last minute of stoppage time, a deflected Crewe shot bobbled past keeper Ryan Clarke to deny United of their first clean sheet at the Kassam since September. Oh, and we still got idiots phoning into Radio Oxford after the game.
Sunday's (yes Sunday) match at home to struggling Burton Albion is a must win game or this season will depressingly drift away.
Man of the match: Simon Heslop
