FA Cup R1: Oxford 1 Yeovil 0

The biters were bit. The giant-killers giant-killed. The Glovers poor recent run in the FA Cup continued at the Kassam Stadium on Saturday, Conference leaders Oxford United beating a surprisingly lack-lustre Yeovil side by a single goal to nil. I watched the entire game (for my sins) on a Polish tv stream on the net, so just for a change feel qualified to comment more fully on an away game than I usually do and to give my usual marks to the players. To sum up: We were fairly shit.

The team lined up as follows in a 4-4-1-1 formation:

15. Richard Martin: 7/10 - Possibly my MOTM, apart from letting in Oxford's goal. Made several good saves to keep us in the game otherwise.

2. Craig Alcock: 2/10 - Oh dear. Craig's hate affair with the FA Cup continues unabated. At fault for Oxford's goal when with plenty of time to clear the ball he dithered, called the keeper to come for it when it was his ball to clear, dithered a bit more and then let Jack Midson in to lob the ball over the now oncoming keeper and into the empty net, for one of the softest, stupidest goals it's ever been my displeasure to witness. As Alan Hansen might say, Alcock's indecision was final. Shocking defending, Gary, just shocking. Added to that he seemed incapable of beating the first defender when crossing. You can just imagine the furore on the green room if Nathan Jones had played like that...

5. Steven Caulker: 7/10 - Actually coped with the dangerous James Constable pretty well and kept him quiet most of the time. Possibly my other MOTM.

6. Terrell Forbes: 5/10 - Not one of Terrell's better games. Managed to look like a headless chicken in both penalty boxes, defending and attacking, where he fluffed chances to score and to clear with monotonous regularity.

3. Nathan Jones: 5/10 - Didn't do much wrong before his substitution but on the other hand didn't do much at all, right or wrong.

26. Jonathan Obika: 4/10 - Oh dear. Spent most of the game out of position on the right wing and was as effective there as you might expect for someone who's played most of his career as a left winger/striker. Resembled a fish out of water, in other words. His first touch was abysmal and his passing worse than that, at times it was almost embarrassing to watch. Marginally more effective when moved up front alongside Williams in the second half but contrived to get in the way of one goal-bound MacDonald effort and then shot weakly at the Oxford keeper when in a good position in injury time. Needs to up his game considerably.

25. Shaun MacDonald: 6/10 - Not at his most effective best, but at least tried to put himself about and impose himself on the game, even if he didn't really manage it much of the time.

8. Keiran Murtagh: 3/10 - He's got all the physical attributes to make a successful football league career for himself, but one wonders about his mental strength. Just when we needed an all-action, box-to-box midfielder prepared to run his bollocks off for the cause, Murtagh turned up instead. The only surprise was that he wasn't subbed at any point. Needs to up his game considerably.

11. Andy Welsh: 6/10 - Not his most effective game by any means, but was one of the few players in the green-and-white to provide any kind of attacking threat. Which made his 62nd minute substitution all the more incomprehensible.

13. Ryan Mason: 6/10 - As above, not his most effective game by any means, but was one of the few players in the green-and-white to provide any kind of attacking threat. Somehow became too isolated from the rest of the midfield and from Williams up front and ultimately ran up too many blind alleys. At least he looked like he cared.

9. Sam Williams: 4/10 - I like Sam, I really do. He gives it a go, gets battered from pillar to post and never gives up. But a striker simply has to provide a goal-threat or at least make chances for other people to score, and yesterday (and too often in other games) that just didn't happen. Another who needs to up his game considerably.

Substitutes:
7. George O'Callaghan (62 mins for Andy Welsh): 6/10 - In hindsight and fitness permitting should have started instead of Murtagh. By no means the best midfielder in the world nor even the club, but at least got involved and looked like he wanted to be on the pitch.

23. Danny Hutchins (56 mins for Nathan Jones): 6/10 - Good to see Danny back at last and - considering his lack of playing time this season - not looking out of place either. Let's hope there's more to come.

There's been a lot of criticism of Skivo's tactics and team selection on the green room since Saturday, but in my opinion a lot of the criticism can be classed as being wise after the event. Given the players he had available I thought he picked the right team and formation initially, where I think he was at fault was for being too slow to recognise that what we were doing wasn't really working in an attacking sense. Defensively we looked reasonably comfortable for most of the game and in the end Oxford only scored because of one man's error. The match stats show parity between the sides in pretty much all areas, but for me that's where the real disappointment lies. We were the team from 2 leagues higher, we should have stamped our authority on the game and imposed ourselves on our opponents.

Specifically, it was clear from very early on that Obika on the wing wasn't working and that Williams had too much on his plate as the sole striker. Murtagh was having a 'mare in the midfield and the obvious change to make as I saw it was to go to a 4-4-2 replacing Murtagh with O'Callaghan and pushing Mason out wide, with Obika up front alongside Williams. Instead for some reason Skivo took off Welsh, who had been one of our few attacking threats and Murtagh was left to carry on doing what he was doing before - nothing. The midfield became more congested, Ryan Mason was left more isolated and frustrated and with no-one now providing any width now Welsh had been withdrawn we were relying on the fullbacks to get forward which they didn't really do consistently - and when they did get forward the crossing rarely went beyond the first defender. Despite all that we still created enough chances in the last 15 minutes to score, but when your luck's out it's out, and so were we.

It's not the fact that we were knocked out of the cup by a lower league club that was so disappointing, after all we've done it to enough higher league sides over the years to know how easily it can happen. No, it was the manner of the defeat that rankles. We went out with a whimper rather than a bang. It wasn't what we've come to expect from a Terry Skiverton side. Let's hope we see a reaction this coming Saturday at home to Southend, a reaction that will enable everyone to put this defeat behind us. It could be an uncomfortable month otherwise.