The pre-season against Oxford was a truly forgettable affair. The players from both sides seemed to be going through the motions for the first 20-25 minutes. The match improved up after a dodgy challenge on Morrison, which Noble was very upset about. Clearly incensed, a few minutes later Noble went in hard on an Oxford player, which nearly resulted in a mass brawl. It did however result in livening up the remainder of the first half. Unfortunately Oxford were slightly more livened than us and scored after about half an hour.

What disappointed me most were our attacking players, whose over-elaboration and lack of directness never seemed to result in any proper chances. Carlton Cole had one of his off-days. Ricardo Vaz Te frustrated, either trying to dribble past one player too many, making the wrong pass or simply not looking very interested. Ravel Morrison never seemed to take the right option and looks very lightweight. Nolan seems to have had a blow out over summer and looks very heavyweight.

I suppose you could mitigate each of these players’ performances (Cole hasn’t featured much in pre-season and allegedly has been told he can leave, Morrison is young and it takes time to forge an understanding, Nolan has a month to shift his timber, etc) and after all it was only a friendly, but it made for a dismal performance. Our best attacking moves came from the flanks with both full backs (especially Demel) pushing forward.

I had not seen Henderson before and I am neither excited nor dismayed. He couldn’t have saved the goal (which was struck brilliantly). However, in the last few minutes of the game he left his area to deal with a ball, failed to clear it and was tacked by an Oxford player.

The back four played reasonably well. McCartney was his usual reliable self – nothing spectacular, nothing stupid. Reid was strong and solid. Jordan Spence looked comfortable and didn’t do much wrong – he has started in every pre-season game so far, perhaps BFS sees him as a good option in the event of Reid or Tomkins being absent. Demel was fantastic going forward, but I have reservations over his defending.

Not much to comment on Gary O’Neill, who had an uneventful game. Likewise Noble apart from getting riled in the first half.

At half-time Matt Taylor came on for McCartney, whist Maynard replaced Cole. For someone who supposedly has the best left foot at the club, some of his crossing is shocking and his free kicks well off target. Similarly to the Southend game, there were wholesale changes with half-an-hour to go, all youngsters who I had not seen before bar Hall and Nasha.

I’m not really a fan of new grounds, but the Kassam stadium is probably one of the worst examples I have visited. It is situated right on the edge of Oxford next to an entertainment complex, with several overpriced food options (fish n chips meal deal with drink for £6 was the best I could find). The stadium is not helped by having only three sides, but at least seeing wayward shots bounce off the cars parked behind the goal does provide a modicum of amusement.

In summary, I came away from this game looking forward to the new season a little bit less.