H v Oxford City preview & match report

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Match Preview

Vanarama National League South

Tuesday 12 January 2021

Braintree Town v Oxford City

The Iron host Oxford City this coming Tuesday evening, both teams having played thirteen League games so far. The visitors sit in seventh place on twenty points, ten ahead of nineteenth place Braintree Town. This game was originally staged to be played on 12 November 2020, but the weather prevailed, as it did last season when the original game had to be abandoned midway through the first half due to a waterlogged pitch.

Last season City finished in thirteenth place after appointing David Oldfield as boss in March 2020. Oldfield made over 600 appearances in the Football League as a midfielder for Luton Town, Manchester City, Leicester City, Millwall, Stoke City and Peterborough United.

City had a good run in this season’s F. A. Cup beating Wootton Bassett Town (A) 1-2, Tamworth (H) 6-1, Weymouth F C (A) 2-3, Northampton Town (H) 2-1, before being knocked out in round two by Shrewsbury Town (A) 1-0. They are still in the F. A. Trophy having knocked out Welling United (A) 0-2.

On the road in the League this season they have won 1-4 v Hungerford Town, 1-3 v Billericay Town, Drew 1-1 with Chelmsford City, lost 2-1 at Havant & Waterlooville and lost 3-2 at Dorking Wanderers.

Leading the scoring charts for City this season is former Spennymoor Town striker James Roberts with 12 goals, John Ashby with 6 and former Millwall U23 striker Harvey Bradbury with 4.

Last season’s top scorer with 10 goals Josh McEachran has just one goal so his name so far this season.

Lining up for City at centre back will be former Iron player Dan Matsuzaka.

The re-scheduled home fixture last season was played on 28 September 2019 and Braintree took all three points courtesy of an Ade Cole penalty in the 34th minute.

Braintree are unbeaten in the last four meetings with City securing three wins and a draw.

The Iron were boosted by a much needed win last Saturday overcoming the then table toppers Dartford 2-1. A debut goal for Percy Kiangebeni in the first half and a scrambled effort from Taofiq Olomowewe gave them a two goal advantage after sixty two minutes play. Dartford were reduced to ten men when Jazzi Barnum-Bobb was dismissed with eight minutes left to play, before Dickson got a consolation goal from the penalty spot.

Another difficult game for the Iron as City have the second best defensive record in the League and are unbeaten in their last six games in all competitions. Braintree will need to take their chances to secure all three points.

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Braintree Town 1-2 Oxford City

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Report by Dave Ward


Braintree Town 1 Oxford City 2


Iron boss Ryan Maxwell was full of praise for his players’ tremendous second half performance at Cressing Road on Tuesday evening when they came so close to grabbing a point which they fully deserved against one of the division’s promotion favourites.
“It was a fantastic effort from the team because we put them under constant pressure in the second half forcing them to defend deeper and deeper and we had several chances that could have seen us equalise and end up with a point,” he continued. “As we know the difference between winning and losing is such a fine margin but we did enough to gain something out of the game.”
He went on: “We’ve come a long way in such a short time but we’re getting there and in such as match like this one it’s about game management.
“They had their backs to the wall in all of the second half and we just needed that bit of luck to score but it was not to be,” he declared. “But again we have lots of positives coming from this encounter and it’s part of our gradual development in becoming a more competent and cohesive team and I know we’re on the right road.”
Maxwell admitted despite taking an early lead in the game his side looked rather leggy in that first period adding: “They are a good side with plenty of movement – more than Dartford offered – and they break forward very quickly and we were caught out late in the first half when they scored their two goals.
“Again a lesson for the players to learn here and had we started and played in the first half as we did throughout the second I’m confident the outcome would have much different,” he added.
The half time arrive of the experienced striker Adam Yusuff certainly changed the Iron’s fortunes because he led the line with power and efficiency and caused the visitors’ rearguard all kinds of problems in that second half.
“He gave us a new dimension up front but the whole team responded magnificently and even their manager said at the end they were relieved to have heard the final whistle,” Maxwell continued. “We now have to take this second half performance into our next game at Slough on Saturday right from the first to the last whistle and I know we have a dedicated group of players united as a team,” he added.
It certainly looked good when Corry Davidson whipped in a low shot into the visitors’ net coming in from the left wing on 12 minutes but the more the half went on the more the visitors had the better of play so it was hardly surprising that they equalised on 32 minutes when a swift move down the right saw Nana Owusu fire home from close range.
With the Iron keen to go in at the interval on level terms the visitors though had other ideas and three minutes from interval another fast counter attack down their right wing saw Louis Coyle drive the ball home to give them the slender league.
The second half though was a completely different story as the Iron push hard from the kick off and set about their visitors with far more aggression and pressure causing them to be over run at times.
Further pressure came too when Frances Amartey came on as a substitute for Percy Kyangebeni with 16 minutes to go and both he and Yusuff force the visitors into some desperate last ditch defending.
Right on full time the Iron thought they had won a penalty for a defender’s handball but the referee declared it to be free-kick right on the edge of the visitors’ area but unfortunately Matthew Johnson’s fierce shot was charged down and cleared and with it the Iron’s last chance of scoring that much deserved equaliser.
As Maxwell declared: “It was as they say a game to two halves really but again we can build on this performance and we now prepare for the trip to Slough,” he added.

Braintree Town: Jackson; Robbins, Olomowewe, Henshaw (69 Johnson-Schuster), Smith; Renee, Thomas, Johnson, Davidson; Kyangebeni (74 Amartey); Derry (46 Yusuff). Unused subs: Krasniqi, Prestedge.

Referee: Callum Walchester.