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