Wealdstone 2 – 2 Oxford City
Wealdstone2 - 2
Oxford CityA couple of chances and a couple of new faces, but still the same Wealdstone as a match that in the first half hour they looked likely to win comfortably, they then contrived to allow Oxford to equalise and then lead. Then with the last couple of minutes remaining, Stones got back into the match with an equaliser and nearly won the match right at the death.
For a change, here’s how Megaphone Mick saw it:
Weird game. We actually played very well for 35 minutes in the first half, as we played a high tempo game that had Oxford City in trouble every time we attacked. We opened the scoring after around 17 minutes when a low right wing cross from Richard Jolly was driven into his own goal by Ballard. At that stage it really did seem a case of how many Stones get. Suddenly though we switched off for the last ten minutes of the half and conceded a sloppy goal as Oxford broke away, Carter parried but Lewis was on hand to score. The second half saw us start brightly but this flicker of hope was soon extinguished after about ten minutes of the half when we let the visitors start to dominate proceedings as we aimed hopeful balls up to Jolly and Morgan with little or no support whatsoever from the midfield.
It came as no surprise when another Oxford attack, after the midfield were caught square giving the ball away, saw them take the lad on 77 minutes when Champflower was on hand and unmarked to finish the move.
If nothing else, this should have given Wealdstone a big kick up the rear, but no. I wouldn’t say we lacked effort in particular, but it was like watching a rudderless ship veering hopelessly out of control while the crew jumped overboard, as Stones struggled to get their momentum back and get back into the match. Thankfully cometh the hour, cometh the men, in the shape of substitute Ben Alexander and that man Jolly again, as we salvaged a point in the last minute when Ben burst into the area, had his heels clipped but stayed on his feet. He didn’t panic and shoot but instead laid on a perfect pass back to Richard Jolly who picked his spot from ten yards.
A minute later and the local Police sirens wailing, Stones nearly gained an undeserved victory as after pressure from a corner, Dave Ryan, another substitute, fired at goal through a crowd of players only for the keeper to pull off a good save. The last gasp equaliser probably spared the players from a few choice words from the sparse crowd, but thankful though I am for the goal, I am sorry to say it merely papers over the cracks. The majority of the second half was very poor indeed, and the problems stemmed from midfield. Oxford did dive and roll around a lot to waste time, but we should have the personnel to beat poor teams like this.
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