Day Out

Simon Irving goes to Oxfordshire…

The ground is now known as the Kassam Stadium, with the club obviously feeling it owes much to Firoz Kassam, who no doubt saved them from extinction by helping to complete the then half-built stadium which had for some time been left unfinished due to lack of cash to pay the contractors. Kassam obviously hasn't stumped up much cash for the U's team though, so no doubt he's not as popular now as he was when they first moved into their new home, relieved just to be in business still.

Oxford were a solid enough side, and threatened us regularly, but lacked the killer touch in front of goal. On a freezing cold night, the game was pretty bearable as there was plenty for us to crow about. The Wrexham fans (just under 300 - fantastic effort given that everyone has to get away from work and travel there midweek) were very vocal and positive throughout. I spotted the legendary Carl Tunnah, and one or two faces from the Colliers Park Wrexham Fans' Tournament.

Big Dennis Lawrence and Steve Thomas had notably excellent games, while the entire team worked tirelessly and fought much harder for every loose ball than perhaps we have been used to in recent seasons. We could all see the effort that was being put in, and the 2-0 win capped it all. Many of the U's fans were disappearing into the icy night well before the final whistle which was a bonus for us, as it eased our exit from the ground's car park and environs.

It's a strange place for a ground. If you thought Chester's is a bit remote on its Industrial Estate, Oxford's is even more so. You are well way from the city, going past business units and the like. Many fans were parking on the estate roads, on both sides. I saw what I thought was the ground to the left at one point, so started to look for somewhere to park. I overshot, then stumbled upon the ground a quarter of a mile further up the estate! I still don't know what we had seen earlier, but we were both convinced it had been the ground!

We eventually parked on the official car park, and it was free, spacious, and extremely well stewarded/marshaled. The ground looks very attractive, and from the car park you can see right inside, as the nearside goal has no stand behind it. The floodlights are on top of the stands, so no traditional pylons here. All the stewards/staff we encountered were very friendly. 

The programme hatch had run out 20 minutes before kick-off, but more were brought through shortly afterwards. The ground offered a good spec of the pitch from all three sides I would imagine - we couldn't complain at our view, but I'm sure most fans paid the £14 in advance of the game for a ticket. £17 on the night is a bit steep for Division 3!

Highlights of the night were Big Dennis' fantastic performance where he was first to every ball, and scored a goal just to put the top hat on it; also the conga from some of the travelling Dragons at the end was great to see; and finally the team coming over to applaud us applauding them for quite some time - I'm sure this meant a lot to all of us and the players. 

Once again I reminded myself as I traveled away from the ground how dismal it would have been to be travelling back so far, so late at night, if we hadn't played well or got a result. As it stood though, the team were fantastic on the night, as we have been at away games by and large all season, and the 2-0 scoreline capped it. Well worth the trip.