Final Score - Oxford 9 : 6 Swindon

25th November 2007

Oxford City Stars entertained local rivals Swindon ENL Wildcats at Oxpens Road with the visitors out to get revenge after the City Stars closely fought win in Wiltshire the previous week. The City Stars welcomed back Alan Green to the line up after four weeks out injured however they were without Mark Krater. Swindon added highly rated youngsters Shannon Taylor and Grant Richardson from the team that had been defeated the previous week.

A large crowd had gathered to watch this derby match and the Oxford supporters were on their feet with just over a minute gone Alan Green fired home from close range to give the home side the lead. Unbelievably twenty seconds later Green had scored his second after Darren Elliott and Sam Broughton had combined to set him up. Former City Star Jamie Thompson in the Swindon goal was having a torrid time and things got even worse for him and his team when Joe Oliver made it three nil to the Stars with only two minutes gone in the game. Swindon were rattled to say the least and the home fans were in full voice as the Stars looked rampant. With six minutes gone the Stars made it 4-0 with a sensational goal from the third line of Knightley, Johnson and Oliver. Knightley took the plaudits for his finish but the whole line combined well to make the goal. This came just a minute after Oxford had a goal disallowed after the referee judged it to have been kicked in. If the Oxford supporters were dreaming of a demolition then the Wildcats were certainly in no mood to oblige and they hit back when a diving Dan Prachar somewhat fortuitously poked the puck under James Skaife to pull one back for the visitors. With two minutes to go and with Darren Elliott in the box for a dubious roughing call after a humdinger of a body check on Swindon’s Nick Gallagher, Jamie Newton finished well on the powerplay with Taylor getting the assist.

Swindon changed their goalie at the start of the period with Ollie Lansdowne replacing the shell shocked Thompson in between the pipes. The City Stars started the second period in much better fashion than they ended the first and Alan Green soon completed his hat trick in style before reeling away and pumping his fists towards the jubilant home support. Forty seconds later it was the turn of former Swindon player Nick Eden to score past his old club after Andy Cox had fed the puck to him out wide and Eden lasered his slapshot in to the bottom corner past the flailing Lansdowne. With the Stars now in a commanding lead they sat back and allowed the visitors time and space to get back in to the game conceding two goals in the space of a minute. First was a powerplay goal from Scott Gough after he latched on to a kind bounce off the boards from a Taylor shot to make no mistake. Ten seconds later Taylor scored himself with Gough turning provider and it seemed the Stars were in for a long night. With the score now at 6-4 the City Stars coach Darryl Morvan called a time out and this proved effective as Alan Green scored his fourth virtually straight after to subdue Swindon’s comeback and give the Stars a three goal cushion.

The third period saw both teams cancel each other out with Oxford having the larger share of possession but Swindon looking dangerous on the break. With ten minutes to go Nick Oliver thought he had sealed the game for Oxford with a well taken effort but Swindon answered straight back through Newton after Oxford’s defence went AWOL. Dean Francis hit Oxford’s ninth to end a frustrating night for him as he had hit the bar and post earlier in the game. Unbelievably a minute later Swindon scored their sixth through James Burnett to set up a tenser finish than any of the home support had wanted. Despite the lapse in concentration Oxford finished the game comfortably however the crowd were on their feet at the end when a hit by Swindon’s Mike Smith after the final buzzer on Oxfords Dean Francis motivated Grant Bailey to smash Smith to the floor and both teams to engage in a melee which seemingly delighted the support of both teams. A comfortable win for Oxford who have now won the last four games between the two teams.

Scorers:

Oxford: Alan Green 4+0, Dean Francis 1+2, Nick Eden 1+1, Joe Oliver 1+1, Nick Oliver 1+1, Patrick Knightley 1+0, Kent Johnson 0+2, Andy Cox 0+2, Sam Broughton 0+2, Darren Elliott 0+2, Will Skaife 0+1, Grant Bailey 0+1.

Swindon: Jamie Newton 2+3, Shannon Taylor 1+5, Scott Gough 1+2, Dan Prachar 1+0, James Burnett 1+0, Stephen Whitfield 0+1.

Penalties:

Oxford: Grant Bailey 14 mins (inc misc), Alan Green 12 (inc misc), Will Skaife 2, Darren Elliott 2.

Swindon: Mike Smith 10 mins (inc misc), Ciaran Long 10 (inc misc), Yousif Abu Saada 4, Shannon Taylor 2, James Burnett 2, David Lovejoy 2.

Netminding:

Oxford: James Skaife - 35 saves, 6 goals, total 41.

Swindon: Jamie Thompson - 10 saves, 4 goals, total 14 (20.00), Ollie Lansdowne - 26 saves, 5 goals, total 31 (40.00).

Also Played:

Oxford: Dave Carr, Jacob Smith, Lee Featherstone, Kevin McGurk (NM - did not ice).

Swindon: Nick Gallagher, Alan Armour, Sam Feeney, Ryan Burgess, Grant Richardson.

Period Scores:

4-2, 3-2, 2-2