Robins clip Oxford wings

Fixture: Oxford United 1 Cheltenham Town 1
Date: 29/1/11

Oxford faced a Cheltenham side coming into the game undefeated in their last 7 away games. Wilder chose to select the same squad that had beaten Shrewsbury in their previous game in the week. So the line-up was: Clarke, Batt, Worley, Wright, Tonkin, Hall, McLaren, Clist, Craddock, Constable, MacLean. Subs: Eastwood, Sangare, Heslop, Midson, Potter, Payne, Deering.

From the start Cheltenham looked very confident on the ball and started brightly. The front two of Thomas and Smikle looked particularly dangerous and the first real chance fell to Thomas as he chased down a loose ball going just into the area. Clarke came out quickly, his momentum carrying him outside the area with the ball in his hand but he was extremely fortunate that the official didn't give it as he quickly released the ball and kicked it into touch! Oxford's passing game struggled to get going as the Robins closed down the space quickly forcing misplaced passes. On the 5th minute Thomas had the ball in the net but he was clearly offside and the goal was cancelled out.

This seemed to kick United into life and they responded by immediately going on the attack and a through ball put Craddock in on goal. His shot was low and hard but well blocked by Brown, the Cheltenham keeper. Gaining confidence from this Oxford began to get into their passing stride and subjected the visitors to a prolonged spell of pressure with crosses from both full backs and corners testing their defence to the limit. Batt was beginning to get the measure of the Cheltenham left back and one run and cross was just short of reaching Hall in the penalty area. On the 21st minute Constable let rip a blistering shot from 25 yards which hit, rather than being saved, the keeper and somehow cannoned to safety.

But 2 minutes later, against the run of play, United found themselves behind, a self-inflicted blow, after conceding yet another soft goal. A foul was conceded in the centre of the pitch, the free-kick was lofted hopefully forward to Thomas. Wright, seemingly in control of the situation, allowed the ball to bounce, then hesitated allowing Thomas to nip in behind him and delightfully chip the ball over Clarke who was dashing out to block it.

It was a stunning blow after we'd dominated the play but the players picked themselves up quickly and set about trying to re-apply the pressure. Reward came 7 minutes later. A Cheltenham corner was quickly cleared and Batt was set free down the right. One of Town's defenders seemed to have broken the play up but dogged persistence by Batt managed to wrestle the ball away from him and sprinted clear. Whipping over a low pacy cross, the ball flew across the area to the back post where a diving Tom Craddock headed the ball into the net. Leading up to half time United contiinued to pass well and pressure the Cheltenham defence but apart from a blocked shot by Tonkin the half-time arrived with the scores still level.

Again, as in the first half Oxford were slow to come out of the blocks. Cheltenham mounted several attacks which had to be defended resolutely. Smikle came very close when he was picked out from a corner but his header was off-target. After about 10 minutes of this the U's finally began to re-assert the pressure and Tonkin again had a goal-bound shot blocked by a defender. Now completely dominant Batt was again creating havoc down the right-hand side and was unlucky to see a shot well saved by Brown.

On the 58th minute Batt took a quick short corner, the ball was played back to him and he put over a delightful cross which was met on the volley by Craddock but Brown in the Cheltenham goal pulled off a spectacular flying save to put it out for a corner. A minute later a Tonkin cross found MacLean in the area but his shot was again well saved by the keeper. In the 75th minute MacLean weaved his way superbly through defenders to the by-line where he put over a delightful chip that was millimetres just over Constable's head.

Two minutes later disaster struck again. A by now rare Cheltenham attack saw Smikle with the ball advancing into the area. With seemingly little danger Tonkin lunged in to win the ball, the striker went down and the referee immediately pointed to the spot! Thomas stepped up to take the penalty but it was weakly hit and Clarke guessed the right way, diving to his right to push the ball to safety. Buoyed by the save Oxford stepped up the pressure and launched more attacks on the Robin's goal with substitute Alfie Potter going the closest, his shot from inside the area going just wide of the right-hand post. In the end the match ended in a 1-1 draw but it turned out to be highly entertaining with both sides contributing to make a very good game.

We drop to 9th in the table but are still only one point outside the play-offs. Next up we have two very challenging away fixtures at Southend (Tuesday) and Gillingham (Saturday) in which we will be looking to avenge our home defeats at both their hands.