A Yellows Job is Never Done

After Oxford’s massive win over Swindon Town on Saturday, they had to quickly bounce back to play 4^th place Shrewsbury Town on Tuesday. I was a bit concerned that Oxford may have put too much effort out for the Swindon match and would be dead on their feet for this still important match. Striker James Constable was also out of the match as he was serving his suspension from his red card against Swindon. As concerned as I was though, come Tuesday I basically forgot about the match. I couldn’t have followed it too deeply as I was at work at the time, but I didn’t even do periodic score checks as I normally do. Flat out, I forgotabout the match until I was ready to go home for the day (a few hours after match’s end) and then just saw the final score.

From looking at the match tracker though, Oxford were on fire early. Midfielder Lee Holmes was on top form again, but this time instead of assisting goals, he was making them himself. He didn’t waste any time either as he scored with the match’s first shot – in the first minute of the game. As his shot was from the right outer edge of the 18-yard box, it must’ve been a well placed blast for goal.

Oxford took four shots in the half, with three being on goal. All three of those were taken by Lee Holmes. He was that on form. With that said, it wasn’t too surprising that one other shot of those three made it past the Shrewsbury keeper. In the 38^th minute, Holmes hit another blast from the other side of the box to put Oxford up 2-0. Following that, Oxford’s keeper Ryan Clarke would keep out Shrewsbury’s sole first half shot on goal to keep the 2-0 lead into the break.

Shrewsbury though were looking more threatening as the match resumed however. They had the first two shots of the second half and it would be that second shot that would find its way to the back of the net. Oxford could still sit back a bit and play defensively at 2-1, but not nearly as much as they would if it was still 2-0. Throughout the rest of the half though, it looked like they would pull through with the win. They really didn’t do anything offensively – just two shots (by Holmes of course) – and just sat back and attempted to hold off the eleven second half shots from Shrewsbury. I say attempted because Shrewsbury’s last shot of the game, in the fourth minute of stoppage time made things level at 2-2. The shot at the death of the clock was taken from yards outside the 18-yard box. Lee Holmes’ shots must have been impressive, but this one had to have beaten both of his. It either must have had some wicked curve or was just struck with so much power to have beat Clarke from so far out. Impressive as it may have been, it sadly took away the win from Oxford and instead they had to settle for the draw.

The Yellows still sit in 7^th position, but the draw allowed 8^th place Gillingham to make up ground. They won their match over Barnet and now only sit a single point behind Oxford. This weekend’s fixtures will make things more clear – hopefully further cementing Oxford into that 7^th spot.