Post by oliverhelmet on Nov 18, 2021 21:21:47 GMT
Article by Paul Beasley Thursday, November 18th, 2021
F.A. CUP 1st ROUND REPLAY: BRISTOL ROVERS 4 OXFORD UNITED 3 (a.e.t)
A game that we didn’t want and should never have had to play but that tired cliché “it is what it is” very much applied, so tickets were bought because as a fan it was my duty to attend.
Once the football day, from early afternoon onwards, got underway I thought it was going to turn out rather enjoyable. That was until the last two thirds of the second period of extra time which naturally changed my disposition dramatically.
In the second half when Matty Taylor came on I thought we started to play our football and once we’d got those two goals so very early in extra time our class shone through. After all we are League One and Rovers League Two. Being two goals to the good with only 10 minutes left it goes without saying that we should have seen the game out.
What our opponents had was spirit in abundance, never say die attitude and a deep desire to work and work until the very last. I’m not saying we weren’t trying. No way. But we didn’t have what they had. What they brought to the party (and that’s what it turned out to be for them at the final whistle) trumped what we brought.
They deserved it and I have nothing but admiration for them. Not that I know much about the division below us but for a side at that level, after seeing them at the Kassam, I concluded that at the very least they will be in the mix for promotion come May. Chatting to a Gashead in the pub beforehand he had less faith in his side than I did. “Nowhere near”, he said.
You can say what you like about Joey Barton but he certainly got his team playing in this and they did it without fouling and cheating as far as I could tell. So again fair play, literally.
Another thing that absolutely helps them is the home support. They never got on their team’s back when they were 3-1 behind and from our terracing we could detect what they were building on theirs as it became 3-2, 3-3 and then …. Well. Talk about sucking the ball in. There was that feeling. There were 4234 Gasheads in the ground but it felt like a lot more. The Blackthorn Terrace that houses home fans is some distance from the pitch so just think what influence they could play if almost within touching distance. Compare and contrast with the East Stand at Oxford.