Willit be as one sided this time

By Nathan Jackson
February 4 2005

City play Oxford at Sincil Bank on Saturday with hopes of another dominant display. The teams met in October with City winning 1-0 despite having 4 goals disallowed, 4 hits of the woodwork and 17 corners in what was the most one-sided 1-0 victory for a long time.

2 wins from 2 local derbies in the last 2 weeks have given the Imps a great chance of at least a playoff place but now comes the hardest game out of the 3, a home game to the form team of the division, however, an old curse might just be enough for the Imps. Back in October, City faced October in the Imps most convincing victory even without getting a massive score. However, that was then, this is now.

 

Futcher is still the only player out of contention. The only other guaranteed player from last week that won't be playing is Craig Westcarr after he returned to Nottingham Forest after a rather uninfluential loan period. However, the could possible be a change of tactics after last week, Keith changed from 5-3-2 to a 4-3-3 after only 5 minutes.

Most likely formation (Right to left)

Marriott

Bloomer        McAuley           Morgan         Sandwith

Butcher          Gain              Toner

GTF          Yeo          Richardson

 

Oxford United started the season well under Graham Rix and were challenging in the top half, however, that soon changed after a 6-1 thumping at Yeovil. After that, the pressure really pilled on Graham Rix and then went on a run of 7 defeats in 8 games and were in danger of going down. Rix moved upstairs and was replaced with former Argentian international, Ramon Diaz. After initally starting slow, they lost 2-0 at home to Kidderminster but since then, they've won 4 and drawn 2, a run which saw Diaz named League 2 manager of the Month, an award he won finishing just ahead of Keith Alexander but we all know what happened when Alexander won it.

Oxford's away record currently stands at won 3, lost 6 and drew 6. Oxford's recent hero has been Craig Davies who has scored 5 goals in the last 9 games which is considerably better than the man who was signed to get Oxford promoted, Tommy Mooney.

 

City travelled down to Oxford in the middle of October and absolutly dominated the play. In the first half alone, City put the ball into the net 5 times, the first four were disallowed for various reasons but the fifth was converted by Francis Green just before half time. After the break City hit the bar twice, one from Martin Carruthurs from a close range header, the other was from Kevin Sandwith's 40 yarder which was just inches from going in before it clipped the bar.

That was City's first victory over Oxford since October 2001. Since then, City had lost 1-0 three times, 2-1 and a 0-0 draw.