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OG by Mousinho. We were battling for every ball and showing considerable fighting spirit. I'd just been extolling the qualities of Wright to my mate when he promptly played a dodgy back-pass and put us in trouble. The danger was cleared but Oxford started to press more without creating a real scoring chance. Agyei was looking a handful, though, with his speedy runs and we'd have to watch him. Around the twenty-fifth minute word went round that Rotherham were losing 1-0 to the Wombles and that was all to the good. The ref, Kevin Johnson, was letting Oxford get away with too many wrestling holds on Wyke but surely he couldn't keep ignoring them... It went from end to end for the rest of the half with neither side coming up with any serious goal- attempts. Oxford won a corner on stoppage-time but we got it away and that was that. It'd been raining and blowing hard so far but the weather seemed to have been waiting for the half- time whistle to be blown as it proceeded to switch into overdrive and I wondered how that would affect the second- half.
Oxford started the second period like they meant business and we were on the back-foot for the first ten minutes or so with McLaughlin being forced into a great save, tipping over a long-distance shot five minutes in. The lad in front of me who'd been sporting a short-sleeved shirt so far was forced to don his jacket so Dennis was clearly getting to him. The Oxford fans finally came to life after they'd had a penalty shout ignored by the ref – mind you he seemed oblivious to a lot of offences. Just before the hour-mark
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