Oxford
McCaldon
Richardson
Ricketts
Morley
Crosby
Stockley
Powell
Whitehead
Quinn
Scott
Moody

A great turn-out of some 7 - 800 Jacks had very good reason to feel aggrieved by the outcome of this clash at The Kassam Stadium. At the very least the Swans deserved a point from a battling performance in which they dominated much of the possession. But at the same time, it was also a game that brought home some realities to the Swans supporters. Despite our recent improved run, this game highlighted the fact that without the pace and ingenuity of Sidibe up front, and without the solidity of an in-form Smith or Bound at the back, we remain distinctly limited in our abilities and ambitions.

We were further depleted by the loss of the in-form Steve Brodie, so our central midfield trio lined up as Lacey, Coates and Cusack, with Coates operating in the more advanced role vacated by Brodie. The now familiar back line was made up of a central three of Mumford, O'Leary and Sharp, with Howard and Evans in the wing back roles. Williams and Watkin made up the front two.

After repelling a couple of early attacks down our right side, the Swans soon settled down to their task and began to play the more fluent and constructive football, with Cusack orchestrating matters from the heart of midfield. Indeed, it was captain Cusack who produced the first strike on goal, a good effort from 20 yards which flew just wide on six minutes. The home side took a more counter-attacking approach, and one such effort, again down our right side, saw a low cross aimed towards Andy Scott, which Freestone did well to smother. But a minute later the Swans got the lead they deserved. With the home side appealing for offside, Cusack prodded the ball through to Coates, who nicked it past the on-rushing keeper and followed up to tap home an open goal. It was well worked and no more than our constructive approach play deserved.

And we continued to swarm forward, keen to press home the advantage, only to find ourselves caught out by a sucker punch - a rare home foray resulted in a corner, from which the ever-dangerous Moody rose to nod powerfully home. It was a good finish, but would he have done that with Smith our Bound marking him?

The Swans were not put off by the set-back, and continued to move forward positively. Indeed we nearly regained the lead when Williams flicked on a high ball to O'Leary who did well to place a firm header towards the bottom corner, only to see home keeper, Knight, produce a magnificent one handed save. A couple of minutes later Andrew Mumord swung in a wicked curling free kick which found the head of Watkin - who saw his effort just skim the outside of the post with the home keeper beaten. At this stage the home team were having great difficulty containing their spirited visitors, and they were increasingly resorting to foul play to try to repel our advances; the rather niggly jamie Brooks was the worst culprit, but it was Sam Ricketts who found his way into the book for a reckless tackle on Watkin.

At this point we were still well on top, but on the 30th minute the game turned against us in a cruel passage of play for the Swans. Firstly a neat ball from Watkin set Coates through on goal in a one on one situation with the keeper. His effort, however, was a tame one, which allowed the home goalie to save easily, and punt the ball quickly upfield. In so doing, the ball found its way to the impressive Andy Scott, who rode a half hearted tackle from Howard, cut inside and dispatched a neat finish past Freestone. This moment summed up our situation at the moment - no cutting edge in front of goal, not enough solidity at the back, and at the end of the day, no real good fortune either.

This spurred the home team on, and they quickly had another attempt on goal when a neat low header from Scott was comfortably saved. We responded with another good move down our right, which resulted in a Terry Evans cross being headed over by Williams. Half time arrived with the Swans contingent shattered by the way the game had turned, but confident that it could yet be retrieved.

Indeed the opeining of the second half saw a concerted effort from the Swans who succeeded in exerting considerable presure. The home side was forced back to the edge of its own 18 yard line, and conceded a series of corners and crosses. But this period again highlighted our problems in front of goal, our only effort on target being a fine low strike from O'Leary which was well saved by the home keeper. On 63 minutes a quick throw in found Evans at the by-line and his low cross was just cleared for a corner as Williams and Watkin rushed in. The pattern of the half continued in this vein. The Swans continued to push forward, and Oxford played the game like and away team, content to soak it up and try to hit us on the break.

Casey was thrown on in place of the rather out of sorts Lacey, but he failed to make an impression. Sharp was thrown forward into the front line for the last 20 minutes, but he too failed to make any real headway in an unfamiliar attacking role. And as the clock began to run down it became increasinly clear that we were not going to be able to breach the home defence. In fact it was Oxford that came closest to scoring again, with a couple of decent efforts on the break. At the final whistle the Swans crowd acknowledged the efforts the players had made, and the team applauded the excellent support which they had received from the stands - a travelling Welsh crowd which had resisted the temptation to throw any missiles on to the pitch!

Freestone - 8 A sound all round effort; had no chance with the goals.
T Evans - 8 A terrier in defence, but also supported the attack well and delivered several good crosses; this lad has been a real find.
Howard - 6 Struggled to repel the advances down the left side.
Mumford - 7 Performed well in the heart of defence and distributed the ball competently
Sharp - 6 Solid enough for the most part, but struggled with the robustness of Moody
O'Leary 6 - As above, but couldn't contain Scott.
Cusack 7 - For the first hour he prompted well from midfield
Lacey - 5 Lacks match fitness and failed to make any real impression despite a promising opening
Coates - 7 Took his goal well and looked our most threatening player for much of the game; faded in the last half hour.
Watkin - 6 Played the game with back to goal, but looked lively at times
Williams - 6 Began to pace himself from the 10th minute; still dangerous, he is more of a 30 minute man these days, and struggles in the absence of Sidibe.

Casey - 5 He will be disappointed with his substitute appearance.

The Kassam Stadium - 6 A rather soulless affair for a new ground, with the unfinished open end not helping, and car parking a real challenge.

Remarkably, they would not sell coke in cans, but were quite happy to sell glass bottles of Carlsberg...let's hope our Eastern neighbours don't play there for a while.

This was a disappointing day for the Swans who will feel that they deserved more - and they would be right. No doubt if the Tony and Michael were still on these shores, they would have brought us the stroke of good fortune we needed! But the home side would equally argue that after the break, despite all our pressure, we never really threatened their goal - an they too would be right. The importance of Sidibe to our attack cannot be stressed enough, and any prospective consortiums would do well to remember this (Tony Petty wouldn't even know what position he plays). But on a positive note, the team has shown that it is at least good enough not to be relegated this season, and I suppose that has to be the extent of our ambition in playing terms, whilst the most important developments take place off the field.

Oxfords new ground the Kassam Stadium is on the very edge to the south east of the city. Basically no food or drink facilities for visiting fans apart from one pub 'The Priory'. With only three sides built the visiting fans are in the North stand section nearest the open end. The stand is a fair bit away from the pitch but did give a very good view. The crowd was 5934 with approx 550-600 visitng fans giving excellent support.

The Swans lined up with Freestone, Evans, Mumford Sharp O'Leary and Howard. Cusack, Coates and Lacey, with Watkin and Williams up front.

The opening exchanges were played at a frantic pace with Oxford attacking at speed direct from the kick off. Both teams had half chances before the Swans opened the scoring after 10 mins, a Swans attack came to nothing but the goalkeepers clearance was played back, finding Coates beating the off side, and with a defender closing down on him managed to get a flick passed the advancing keeper from just inside the box and followed through to put it in the net.

Coates ran to the fans, taking his shirt off, but to show the inconsistancy of refs, no booking. The fast pace continued and on 15 mins Moody equalised for Oxford with a header in the six yard box beating desperate attempts to clear on the goal line. Swansea were getting a large proportion of the possession and were constantly on the attack without breaking into the area. Mumford did have one long range shot wich skimmed the ouside of a post but most of the play broke down at the edge of the box.

On 30mins Coates again found himself through in a similar position to his goal, but this time under pressure due to his lack of pace shot at the keeper. Oxford counter attacked and within seconds instead of being 2-1up were 2-1 down. There seemed no real danger but with Scott getting the rebound off 2 Swans players put the ball past Rog into the corner of the net. We continued to pressure and had one good effort from Cusack just over the bar. We went in at half time undeservedly losing after being the better team in what was an entertaining half played at a high tempo.

The second half was again keenly competative with the Swans in control for long periods. O'Leary had one shot, far out in line with the edge of the box. Hit hard and low, the shot found its way through defenders and heading just inside the post but was scrambled away for a corner. With about 15-20 mins to go Casey replaced Lacey, but did not help our cause, by giving away many silly free kicks when we had Oxford under constant pressure.

Again we dominated the later stages but could not break through with all lose balls in the box dropping to Oxford. One critisism here, we do not gamble or are sharp enough in the box, otherwise one of the chances could have resulted in an equaliser. With Smith Sidibe and Brodie missing our options are limited. The last 10 minutes we threw Sharp into attack but the time was played out with Oxford frustrating the Swans by wasting time at every opportunity. One late appeal for a penalty when Watkin went over in the box but maybe it was 50/50. From Oxfords goal kicks Moody constatntly came back from an offside position to join the action, but was never penalised.

In conclusion we have come away from defeats in the past, saying if we had done this or that etc. Today no such comments, the team played well and gave their all, a bit of luck and we could have won a game we trully were the dominant team. Our man of the match, Nick Cusack who not only organised but covered every blade of grass.

After hearing of long waits after games we parked in the official car park with a little trepadation, but to our surprise had no problem and got away within minutes. The only real problem was to get a place in the car park we had to be there by 1.30.

freestone - nothing really to do especially second half commanded his area well from most crosses.

t.Evans - got up and supported well with some quality crosses.

Howard - imo let the side down a bit today dreadful distribution and bottled a number of 50/50 challenges.

sharpe - seem composed but lost his marker a few times didn't seem to happy being pushed forward for the last 15 mins

O'Leary - put oxford's powell into row Z probably oxfords best player but o'leary made his presence felt.

mumford - imo not a centre half but could be a better player in midfield , some creativity but wasted in our first third of the field.

Lacey - to me seems to similar to cusack maybe Philips might have been a better choice from the start.

cusack - my mom , seems to have mastered the ray wilkins vision of passing sideways ,well he opened the game up well today.

coates - I thought looked quite good today in what looked like a brodie type role but faded in the last 15 mins.

Williams - we all know we needed some sort of lead by 60 mins before johns body clock gave up, again faded totally last 30 mins

watkin - held the line well but was constantly fouled by the oxford defence seem to missed mama.

Casey - some telling runs but no final ball seems all to familiar.