Weston Super Mare

A good crowd including a very healthy number of visitors from the Somerset coast was at Court Place Farm this afternoon to see City’s biggest game for several years. Plenty of blue and white scarves in evidence pitchside and the cup-fever had even stretched to the players with Jon Gardner sporting an eye-catching blue ‘Mohican’.

The visitors set off at a high pace with Ashan Holgate and Dean Grubb showing early signs of intelligent running and deft passing and it wasn’t long before front man Gareth Hopkins was testing the defence and bringing a timely tackle from Stuart Cattell.

Weston went close when Hopkins headed wide after a dangerous cross from Grubb who had been picked out, not for the first time, with a great cross-field pass from Taylor.

City’s first chance on target came after 12 minutes when James Faulkner got in a header but Ryan Northmore gathered it cleanly, but two minutes later City went oh-so-close to taking the lead. Jon Gardner’s run took him into the heart of the Weston defence and, just when it looked that the ball would run behind, he played it back to Mark Jones at the far who took a moment to control the ball before seeing his shot take the merest of touches from the diving Northmore and cannon off the post.

Weston were stirred by the near miss and the next ten minutes saw more good work from Holgate; two free-kicks from dangerous positions by Ryan Harley – both dealt with well by the City defence; and a good run and shot – just wide – from Hopkins when put in by a long throw from Wilson.
Back came City. A Faulkner cross was just cut out by Northmore; a Gardner free-kick, after McSporran had been hauled down, was marginally high; and then a neat pass from McSporran got Gardner in behind the defence but his low shot from an angle hit the side netting.

Almost immediately play switched to the other end and Hopkins played in Holgate whose shot beat Gareth Tucker low down by his left-hand post to give the Seagulls the lead on 30 minutes.
Almost from the restart Weston won the ball in midfield and, faced with a retreating defence, William Clark struck a powerful shot past Tucker’s dive to double the lead.

Far from knocking the stuffing out of the hosts, the second goal had City digging deeper and they showed considerable enterprise in the last part of the half. James Faulkner, in particular, was proving a thorn in the Blue Square team’s side and worked good positions for himself to get three shots on target in the final ten minutes: but Northmore was equal to them all.

HALF-TIME: City 0-2 W-s-M

An early goal would have been just what was needed to put the Blues back in the game, and it seemed as though that was what they might have, when what looked like a hand-of-God moment from the central defender took a Jones cross away from McSporran’s head, but Mr Forrester saw nothing to concern him, and the danger was cleared. And as the home players and supporters were bemoaning the lost ‘chance’ Weston broke quickly on the City left through McConnell, and his cross beyond the far post was neatly lifted over Tucker and into the net by Clark for their third on 49 minutes. Game over?

Grubb and Harley both had on-target shots stopped by Tucker, and Holgate turned and fired fractionally wide before the City management gambled on a triple-substitution with 35 minutes remaining.

Five minutes later and Ikechi Anya showed why he is such an exciting player when he turned two defenders inside-out in working his way along the goal-line before laying off an inch-perfect pass to George Redknap who finished calmly, low and hard, to Northmore’s right. Ah well, a consolation goal at least?

Weston again caused trouble through the Grubb-Holgate combination with the latter’s shot pushed behind for a corner; and then Tucker had to be quick off his line to smother at the feet of Holgate.
Back to the other end – City players seemed to have got their second wind now – and a flick through by Alex Stewart fell between two defenders who hesitated just long enough for Anya to lift the bouncing ball over the head of Northmore and beneath the bar. Only one goal in it now and players and spectators suddenly alive to the possibility of more to come from a resurgent City.

Two minutes later and that man Holgate was again at the heart of a dangerous attack as he set up Harley close in who saw his firmly struck effort well parried by Tucker. The defence cleared high and long and Alex Stewart rose above the defence to flick the ball on for Redknap to hit a stinging shot that Northmore could only knock down to the unmarked Andy Gunn by the penalty spot but his first-time drive cleared the bar with 72 minutes gone. It only took another three minutes, though, for him to make amends for the miss. Taylor was, again, pulled up for a foul on Stewart, and Steve Davis swung a great left-footed free-kick into the area from wide on the City right, and Gunn rose above a crowd of players to head a remarkable equaliser for the City. City fans elated now and, for the first time, a hush descended on the Somerset contingent behind Tucker’s goal: a shock on the cards?

But this vintage cup-tie still had more to offer and the long-held idea that a team is at its most vulnerable just after it has scored was driven home to the City and Weston fans alike just a minute later as Grubb took on the City defence and fired a clean shot beyond the diving Tucker and into the far corner of the net.

After such end-to-end fare legs were tiring and neither side could fashion any more really clear-cut chances, although a flicked header from Redknap from anther Davis free-kick was not far from producing a trip down the motorway on Monday, and after five added minutes the visitors’ supporters breathed a sigh of relief and the home fans were left to wonder about the penalty incident and another couple of great opportunities.
But then cup matches are always full of ‘what-ifs?’, aren't they?

FULL-TIME: Oxford City 3-4 Weston-super-Mare

City: Tucker, Saulsbury, Davis, Gunn, Pond (Malone 55), Cattell, Gardner, Redknap, McSporran (Anya 55), Faulkner (Stewart 55), Jones.
W-s-M: Northmore, Willshire, McConnell, Clark, Wilson, Robertson, Harley (McGregor 74), Taylor (Rand 78), Hopkins, Holgate, Grubb.

Most City supporters would agree this was one of the most exciting games at CPF for quite some time. It showed in all its twists and turns just why the FA Cup is such a tremendous competition, and the City players can all be justifiably pleased with the parts they played in the spectacle.
I hope they’ve got some energy left for the more down-to-earth, but just as important, fare next Tuesday night: a league visit from Thatcham Town. And perhaps some of the not-so-regulars who enjoyed this game will have enjoyed what they saw enough to pay a visit again soon.
Best wishes to Weston in the next round ... they played an equal part in a great afternoon’s football.