Season Six, November: Climbing the Table

Point by point...
The win at Southampton provided a platform to build on. In the next two games (home to Pompey and away to Blackburn), Oxford fell behind in the first ten minutes, but pulled it back to 1-1. The pair of draws hauled the team out of the drop zone for the first time this season. The downside was an injury to key midfielder Vegard Nordtveit, who would miss six league games.

Then came two defeats: an unlucky 1-0 loss at home to "dirty" Leeds, with a sucker-punch 45th minute goal; followed by a trip to the Emirates, where the defence did their best but Miroslav Klose sealed a 2-0 Gunners win.

Now back down to 19th, the live home game vs. Birmingham looked a must-win. And we pulled through, again coming from behind (though Anderson Silva levelled within a minute) to win 3-1. It was down to earth with a bump in the next two games. Everton, only just outside the drop-zone, romped home 3-0 with two goals in the first ten minutes. Then Oxford were dumped out of the League Cup after an insipid 1-0 loss at home to West Brom. I gave the players a good bollocking - or as good as the FM06 team talk mechanism will allow - after that one.

Turning The Corner
Then possibly the unluckiest game I've had, at home to QPR. I decided to give Anichebe a try after no goals by any of my forwards in five games; he was injured after just 7 minutes. Makes a change from conceding early! That was it for the first half, but a Rossi penalty put the good guys in front shortly after half-time. QPR equalised midway through the half, prompting continuous Oxford pressure. With five minutes left, Iversen had a goal disallowed with a frankly dubious decision, and then in the last minute, Rossi missed a penalty.

My players let their frustrations out in fine style in the next match, walloping the barber poles of Sunderland 4-0 on their own patch! Then, just as the ground expansion had been completed (capacity now 15,000 instead of 12,500), came my proudest moment on Football Manager: keeping Rooney, van Nistelrooy at bay for 87 minutes, then snatching a winner courtesy of Harry Kewell in the 88th. Oxford 1 Manchester United 0, the stuff dreams are made of. I punched the air alright!

Amazing Match
Oxford were up to 13th after two successive wins, and next was a live game at Charlton. Clearly wanting to put on a show for the cameras, forwards Iversen & Rossi fired Oxford 2-0 up after just 7 minutes. It didn't end there: Flood got a goal back, Lercher made it 3-1, Parsons scored a penalty for Charlton, and then Darren Bent equalised: 3-3 after 31 minutes! There was even time for Charlton to miss a penalty before half-time.
The second half proved far less eventful, as Flood scored again and Oxford, potentially drained after the United match, ran out of energy. It finished 4-3 to Charlton.

Crunch Time
So, after all that excitement, I'm up to 15th, three points clear of the drop zone.
The next four games could be pivotal: I face three of my closest rivals at home, starting with Norwich, who came up with me last season. As highlighted in the table, it is still pretty tight with four points separating 13th from 19th. Five points from these four games, and I'll reach the half-way mark with 20 points, half-way to the traditional target of 40.

RESULTS & FIXTURES

LEAGUE TABLE: 3 December 2010

Season Four: 2008/09

A very successful season, as my Oxford side reached the top 2 on a wave of good from in about November, and stayed there after a record-breaking winning streak. At one stage, the gap was 10 points, but that was whittled to about 3 by poor form, possibly due to being distracted by the prospect of an FA Cup 3rd round tie with Portsmouth. Form was renewed in the Spring, however, and with three games to go, Oxford were 7 points clear of 3rd-placed Preston, with an away match against lowly Stockport. The result was not the expected one! I'll let the picture tell the story:


So with two games to go, the gap was four points... a home game against Wycombe, another bottom half team. For the first half-hour, Oxford completely dominated, but Wilson and Cárdenas missed several chances. Then on 38 minutes, Wycombe break away from an Oxford corner, and Chadwick outruns the defence and slots the ball home. 1-0 to Wycombe, and that was the half-time score. Wave upon wave of Oxford attacks followed, until finally on the hour mark, a sweeping 13-pass move was finished by Anderson Silva blasting the ball in for the equaliser. Then, with just five minutes remaining, Madjid Bougherra hit a long ball from the edge of his own box, and suddenly Barrett was in the clear, one-on-one with the goalkeeper... GOOOOOOOOOOOAL! Not just a "punch the air" moment, a "punch the air and shout loudly" moment. As the text commentary said, "That has to be the winning goal!!!"
BUT.
In the 91st minute, a hopeful Wycombe ball finds Chambers in the penalty box... he squares for Adonis Shala with an open goal... and the ball is in the Oxford net. 2-2. Bugger.

BUT BUT!
The flag is up! Shala was offside - no goal!
The air gets another good punching, and after a few nervous minutes, the game is over... Oxford 2-1 Wycombe, and promotion to the Championship!
The final table, and the key players:



As you can see, the stable backbone proved very important. Centre-back Madgid Bougherra finished with the best average rating out of the permenant players; Striker Kyle Wilson not only weighed in with 33 goals, but also the most assists (12); and youngster Cárdenas was so impressive, he was listed in the League One team of the year. His 14 goals were very important. In addition, midfielders Anderson Silva and Sebastian Larsson (the latter, mainly used on the left, was signed from Arsenal on loan for a season, and then permenantly once the loan had finished) contributed several assists each as well as a good tackling average. Also worth a mention is Graham Barrett, who only started 18 games (coming off the bench 13 times), but scored 13 goals, including the one that sealed promotion.

Meanwhile...
Arsenal won the Premier League for the 2nd season in a row, and add the FA Cup to complete a fourth Double. Newcastle beat Chelsea to the last Champions League spot, and Man United won the European Cup. It's not all good news at Old Trafford, however: they finished 7th in the league and were knocked out of the FA Cup by losing 1-0 at home to non-league side Bradford Park Avenue.

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Up next, a busy summer with a few surprises...