Mark Bell Signs Contract

I am delighted to announce talented young player Mark Bell has signed a contract with Oxford City for the next 18 months. Mark has progressd through the youth side and Oxford City Nomads team and has worked very hard to secure a 1^st team place this year. He is showing terrific potential with 13 goals from 18 appearances to date.

This in itself is a great achievement for an 18 year old especially as Mark is a wide midfield player. I am certain there is much more to come from Mark as he learns the game and how to be effective for the team both on and off the ball. Mark has lots of good attributes that will stand him in good stead as he progresses through his footballing career.

We are striving to move the team forward on the pitch and also through the structure of the club and development of young players.

FA Trophy Preview

Tomorrow we look forward to the visit of Windsor & Eton for what should be a high quality FA Trophy game. I think it showed on their recent league visit they are a more than capable side with some excellent players so we will have to be on song to progress into the next round.

From our point of view we are pretty much at full strength with a few absentees due to illness during the 2-1 win at Hillingdon. Our only doubt is Andy Gunn who came off with a tight hamstring. This is not as serious as we first feared and Andy will be selected subject to the advice of Physio Neil Greig.

Steve Smith has arrived from Hemel in goal and I am sure he will prove a success for the club. Steve adds organisational skills and experience at the back which I feel is vital with lots of young players in the squad.

Generally the team are shaping up well but I am very keen to see an improvement in our play over the last 2 games. I felt we were too respectful towards Farnborough last week and didn’t retain the ball well enough on the whole over the 90 minutes and deserved to be beaten. We must impose ourselves against the opposition from the outset and not wait until we are behind to start playing – that said our second half performance demonstrated we can compete with any in this league.

Other player news Mark Janes is gaining valuable first team experience with Witney United on loan, he is a very talented player with great potential whilst Gareth Tucker is about to start a similar arrangement at Wantage Town.

As we know our squad is very strong at present and there are often difficult decisions to be made each week it is inevitable at times that we have difficulties in managing this as we all want to play! but I feel for us to achieve anything this year all of the players will play an important role

Preview of Windsor game

Firstly I would like to say well done to the players and staff for their efforts in our previous games that see us still unbeaten in this campaign. It is never easy getting a team to gel with 9 or 10 summer additions and there is still a lot of room for improvement.

I personally believe we have underachieved with 3 draws in our league campaign and have to work a lot harder to ensure we pick up 3 points when we are dominant and learn to hold a lead when we are not playing as well.

I am sure all who have watched us will recognise the dimension of the team has changed this season and we look more than capable of scoring goals from all around the pitch.

Tomorrow’s game against Windsor will be our toughest game this season, they are on a good run and have some very capable players with good pedigree. Manager Simon Lane has worked hard to build a strong squad and I see them as potential challengers this season.

We have 19 fit players at present which obviously gives me a nice problem to have but at the same time those who are not in the 1^st 11 have to show a professional attitude and do the job that is required of them – it is a sure fire thing that all will get their opportunities throughought the season.

Tuesday night we welcome a strong Fleet side in the Errea cup which will give all of the squad an opportunity to press for a place and gain some match sharpness.

New signings

We are delighted to announce the signing of Greg Williams, who is an exceptional non league competitor. Greg has not played since last representing us in November due to work commitments and is now in training.

We have also signed Stuart Cattell from Wycombe Wanderers on a month’s loan. Stuart who did an exceptional job for us last year before being offered a professional contract will come in as cover for Mark Avery who is away for 10 days in a week’s time.

Match Reactions and Team News

It is now good to be out of the pre-season games and into our league campaign. 4 points from the first 2 games is a fair return as the side is still bedding in at present.

I was pleased with the overall performance against Bracknell although we do need to be a lot more clinical in front of goal whilst maintaining concentration at the other end for the full 90 minutes.

Tuesday night at Abingdon was a typical derby, high tempo with lots of action. I was disapointed with our first half display for a number of reasons but equally was pleased with our second half showing.

All of the new players have integrated well and I am delighted with the squad we have our performances will improve over the coming weeks as players learn to work with eachother and learn to adopt the system of play which best suits us.

Squad news – Jon Gardner will be sidelined for a few games at least after injuring his groin at Abingdon

Chris Hill has departed the club returning to Ardley. I am dissapointed at this as Chris had shown promise in pre-season and was worthy of being given the chance to step up. I was also disapointed about the way the matter was conducted throughout but wont go into further details.

As Chris departs we welcome a fantastic signing to the club in Ikechi Anya.

Ikechi is a 19 year old wide player with bags of pace and talent he made his league debut for Wycombe Wanderers as a 16 yr old in 2004 becoming their youngest ever player. He also came on as a substitute in the carling cup semi-final against Chelsea in 2007.

I am sure Ikechi will be a huge success at Oxford City.

We look forward to 2 further away games this weekend both Taunton and AFC Hayes are very competetive at home and we will be looking to give a good account of ourselves in both matches

Start of a New Season - 2007/08

As we approach the 1^st league game, we go into the season having completed a very good pre-season programme. The players have been back in training from early July and have worked hard on their fitness and technical/tactical detail.

The club as a whole has supported us very well during the close season and we believe we have put together a squad that will show an improvement on last years efforts not only in terms of results but also in performances.

We have some very talented footballers at the club and it is our collective job as a management team to give them the best environment to allow this talent to develop. I am keen to encourage progression from youth through to nomads and then to first team as we saw at the end of last season whilst at the same time we have healthy competition for places at present.

Jon Franklin has joined our coaching team alongside Mike and Dougie Graham, Jon was manager of Aylesbury United last season and bring lots of additional qualities to strengthen our off the field organisation and ensure we are extremely well prepared for each game this season.

In terms of new players pen pics will be placed in the programme hence to say I am delighted with our signings and the way all of them have settled in creating a nice atmosphere at the club and integrated well with those remaining from last years squad.

It is always difficult to predict following a pre-season how we will fair but I am confident in our players ability and the knowledge and experience of our management and coaching team. We are however a young team and there has to be a learning curve for these players. The game at Bedworth was an excellent example – we played the second half of that game with 8 players 19 or under and many hadn't been involved in a southern league fixture with the desire to win shown by the Bedworth players – if they can adapt to this and cope with games like this it will stand us in good stead.

Thank you for all your support during pre-season and we look forward to a positive season ahead.

Justin

New Signings...

Dougie Graham has joined the coaching staff at Oxford City FC. Dougie has made a great impact in training and on matchdays with the players. He is a UEFA B Licence holder and coached Oxford Uniteds Junior and Youth team for 8 years. He is also a qualified athletics coach and coaches for Radley athletics club.

Alan Judge has joined the club as a specialist goalkeeping coach working with keepers from 1st team to youth - Alan's playing career is very well documented, he is a very knowledgable coach who will benefit the club immensly.

I am pleased to announce we have re-signed John Mitchell this morning. John hasn't played since his last appearance at City and trained with the squad last night. He will need a few sessions and will play in the nomads before returning to the first team squad.

This is a very pleasing signing for us as John is a proven natural goalscorer at this level and will prove a major asset in this seasons run in.

Pre-Newport Match

After a couple of wins the spirit within the dressing room is definitely a lot better than a week ago. We still have a lot of hard work to do and whilst some of our forward play on Saturday was better we were desperately dissapointed with the goals conceded. This is the responsibility of the whole team not just the defenders, and we can still work harder to close down and press the opposition. We have been pleased with the improved form in some of the players and are now trying to ensure we get the level of consistency from everyone.

Tomorrows game being mid week has thrown up a few problems with team selection as we have 2 or 3 players unavailable due to work commitments. We will certainly be travelling to Newport demanding a continued improvement in our performance and hopefully that will secure 3 more points.