Oxford United v Woking - Blue Square Premier

Oxford United Starting Eleven

Cole
Day, Willmott, Quinn, Carruthers
Odubade, Hutchinson, Murray, Haldane
Constable, Guy

Substitutes: Hinchliffe, Clarke, Deering, Reid, Fisher.

Substitutes Used: Clarke on for Day at half time. In the 60th minute Reid then replaced Guy, and finally Deering came on for Haldane in the 82nd minute of the match.

Woking Starting Eleven

Pidgeley
Mondon-Konan, Hutchinson, Lorraine, Miles
Yorkie, Quamina, Vernazza, Sole
El Kholti, Williams

Substitutes: Salau, Warner, Pattison, Lambu, Moon.

Substitutes Used: Only two substitutes were used by Woking in this match; the first change to be made was Pattison on for Sole in the 64th minute, and then in the 82nd Lambu came on to replace Williams.

Were it not for the safe hands of Jake Cole then Oxford United most definitely would have suffered defeat in this game against Woking. Oxford United twice hit the woodwork in this game; Chris Carruthers hit the bar whilst Lewis Haldane clipped the outside of the post. Woking also found themselves denied by the bar however and both teams were left cursing the woodwork come the final whistle. The game ended 0-0 but both teams had chances and either team could have taken this one.

Oxford United went into this game having previously lost 2-0 against Wrexham; in the previous four games Oxford had three times remained goalless and yet somehow managed to score six against Eastbourne. Inconsistent Oxford are finding it incredibly difficult to score this season and Woking were therefore the absolute favourites for this one despite the Oxford United home advantage. Only two yellow cards were shown throughout this game and the two teams finished the match with one apiece.

Paolo Vernazza could have scored for Woking were it not for a super stop from Jake Cole, and Delano Sam-Yorke had two excellent chances to slam the ball home against Cole also; Cole was having none of it however and refused to give up his clean sheet (perhaps thinking heavily about a clean sheet bonus). Jake Cole was without doubt the man of the match in this game, he was absolutely fantastic in the Oxford United goal and there was just no beating him. He stopped everything that was fired at him and never did he look like letting anything slide past him.

Woking managed 11 corners throughout the match and could have made a lot more of them than they did, Oxford had a fair few as well however and they do did in fact have 8. 19 corners in total then and not a goal delivered from any of them; a poor match for displays of set-piece excellence and with the scores level at 0-0 come the end of the game; not really a game to talk too much about.

The Hutchinson twins met once more in this match; brothers Eddie and Tom came head-to-head, both players played quite well but neither of the twins could find the back of the net. There seems to be quite a bitter sibling rivalry between these two, always when they come together there seem to be no smiles shared, they're definitely both very dedicated to their football however and always this is something that is absolutely excellent to see.

For the third season running this Oxford United versus Woking game at the Kassam ended in a 0-0 bore, perhaps the only way to break this bore draw Kassam curse is for one of these two teams to leave the Blue Square Premier; which team will it be though, and will the team fall out the trapdoor to the Blue Square South, or gain promotion to the exciting League 2? To be honest I see both of these teams remaining in the Blue Square Premier for the foreseeable future so the 2009/10 season could well see a 0-0 draw between these two sides for a fourth season running; only time shall tell, and as we head further into the 2008/09 season both teams have picked up another important point here at the Kassam. Not the most exciting game of football in the world, still one which saw the woodwork brought into action on many an occasion however and also a match in which Jake Cole showed himself to be an incredibly impressive goalkeeper.

Final Score: Oxford United 0 - 0 Woking

Date: 25/08/08
Home Team: Oxford United
Venue: The Kassam Stadium
Referee: S Beck
Booked: Murray, Yorkie.
Attendance: 4314