OCFC 2 - Winchester 0

The fog and frost that had led to the postponement of mid-week matches lifted in time for City to welcome the other City club to a cold and damp Court Place Farm for the first time.
We welcomed back Kieron Drake, who had played for City at the end of the 90s, in goal in place of Lee Farrow, and held a minute’s silence to say farewell to Brian ‘Dixie’ Dean, who had scored on his debut for City as a seventeen year old back in 1952.
City started well with some incisive running on the right and left flanks leading to a couple of early corners, and it was from another corner in the 11th minute that an accurate Mark Jones delivery was neatly flicked on from the near post to an unmarked Mark Avery who had time to pick his spot by the far post: a well-worked goal. Jamie Musselwhite had a good chance to level things almost immediately but fired over from just inside the area.
Harry Burnley and Mark Jones were combining well on the City right and making well-judged crosses and Billy Beechers was picked out with one of these, but his shot clipped the heels of Anthony Alleyne and went just wide.
James Davis picked up a nasty knock to the eye and was off the pitch for four or five minutes before it was decided that he needed to be substituted, during this time Ben Wright was forced wide by Gavin Lane when free in the box and pulled his shot wide.
City almost doubled their lead after 25 minutes when neat footwork from Harry Burnley on the edge of the area saw him turn and lob the ball against the angle of post and bar with Hook a spectator in the centre of his goal.
The game became rather disjointed for the last fifteen minutes of the half but Beechers was pulled up belatedly for offside as he latched on to a good through pass, and Rendell took a smart return pass to make a dangerous run into the area but took the wrong option for his final ball. At the other end Vavrecka hit a good shot just past Drake’s right-hand post on the stroke of half-time.

HALF-TIME: City 1-0 Winchester

The Blues applied plenty of pressure in the early part of the second half: a cross from Rendell clipped the bar; a run and cross from Burnley just failed to reach Beechers, and a Mark Jones’ free kick from the edge of the box just cleared the bar. The visitors were still getting forward and, though attacks were generally dealt with tidily by the well-marshalled back line, Musselwhite and Flood both missed the target when well placed.
City’s second goal arrived on 73 minutes when Beechers avoided the offside trap and ran on to a well-timed pass to fire accurately across Hook and just inside his far post.
The visitors pushed on in the last ten minutes to see if they could salvage a point, but the defence held firm and, although Flood did strike the bottom of a post near the end, the lead was maintained without too many alarms.

FULL-TIME: Oxford City 2-0 Winchester City

Oxford City: Drake, Lane, Rendell, Avery, Craker, Merritt, Jones (Durrant 75), Malone, Alleyne (Keen 78), Beechers, Burnley.

Winchester City: Hook, Aimable, Davis (Flood 20), Vavrecka, Thurgood, Diaper (Lang 71), Webber, Wakefield (Nancy 71), Wright, Musselwhite, Smith.