Final Score - Streatham 3 : Oxford 5

Sunday 21 September 2008

The Oxford City Stars faced their second away game in as many days as they took on the Streatham Redskins in South London. Streatham were missing seven players due to a mass brawl the previous evening in their game against Cardiff however import Martin Lambert and talisman Joe Johnston both played. Oxford defender Mark Krater was the only missing player for the Oxford side.

In front of a noisy home crowd the game faced off and Oxford took control almost immediately pressing the Streatham defence with a series of attacks. Despite a large amount of possesion the Stars werent threatening Shane Kemp in the Streatham goal and looked rather disjointed. The Redskins however were counter attacking in numbers and the Oxford defence were isolated on a number of occasions as they faced 3 on 1 breakaways with alarming regularity. After eight minutes the deadlock was broken as an Oxford move broke down in the Streatham zone and the home side cleared the puck to allow Robert Formisano to skate unchallenged through the neutral zone and fire a low wrist shot in to the bottom corner of the Oxford goal from just over the blue line. The home fans were now cranking up the atmosphere with constant drumming and chanting and this spurred on the home side virtually straight from the restart as Joe Johnston jinked his way past three Oxford players, and his long range wrist shot took an awkward bounce and eluded James Skaife again in another goal he really should have saved.

Oxford were now looking shaky and the Redskin weres threatening everytime they had the puck however it was Oxford defender Andy Cox who took charge of the situation calming the play down and taking the momentum out of Streathams play. The Redskins were now well in control of the game and with the home crowd targetting the Oxford goalie Skaife with some less than complimentary chants, the stopper upped his game and made some suprb saves to deny Streatham’s Chris Rasmussen and Martin Lambert from close range.

The second period started with Oxford looking a changed team and seemingly better equipped to deal with Streatham’s counter attacking style of play. The first period had been a lesson from which the Stars had learned. With eight minutes gone Oxford pulled a goal back with the best move of the match. One touch passing between Darren Elliott and Andrew Shurmer found Alan Armour and he fired in to the top corner. Two minutes later, and with Oxford captain Darren Elliott sitting in the penalty box, the visitors managed a rare shorthanded goal with Dean Francis racing away from a Sam Broughton pass and finishing high past Kemp to make it 2-2. The rest of the period saw the referee take centre stage with Oxford spending much of the time shorthanded.

The third period promised to be a cracker with the scores level and luckily for Oxford the Streatham team was visibly tiring as their small squad struggled with the three stron lines from Oxford. After six minutes the Stars took the lead for the first time in the game with a brilliant goal from Jacob Smith assisted by Nick Oliver and Richard Wojciak. Two minutes later it was 4-2 to Oxford when Dean Francis found himself wide open in the slot and slapped the puck straight through the Streatham goalies legs. The home side certainly werent lying down though and they took full advantage of a powerplay when captain Joe Johnston cycled round the back of the net and then finished sublimely to give the home side hope. The referee then made a number of outrageous calls on Oxford as the away penalty box gradually filled with one Oxford player after another for some pretty dubious calls. This gave Streatham virtually the rest of the period as a powerplay including around four minutes of 5 on 3. Luckily for the Stars their defence held up with Cox continuing his fine form and James Skaife stopping a number of goal bound shots. With Streatham camped in the Oxford end it was the visiting sides turn to counter attack and they did exactly that when Shurmer released Nick Oliver who skated in one on one with the golaie before finishing casually in the bottom right hand corner of the goal. With a two goal cushion, Oxford simply shut up shop and the home side were unable to score. The final buzzer marked Oxfords first win in Streatham for over three years.