Oxford United
4th September 2007

D 2-2

Attendance: 4560

There's something in the air at the Kassam stadium, and I don't mean that lovely smell of sewage from the nearby water treatment plant. City seem to save their epic performances for their visits to Oxford, with our last 2 meetings at the Kassam perfect evidence for this.

Our visit earlier this year was unforgettable and without doubt, the best performance by Exeter that I have ever seen. Despite losing the home fixture psychologically we had the upper hand over Oxford, with nothing to lose and everything to gain. With our entire season coming down to one match it was no surprise that most people on the bus were quiet and nervous. As always, City had to make it harder for themselves, going 2-0 down on aggregate after only 27 minutes. But with the City supporters singing their hearts out in the stands City got back into the game, cancelling out Oxfords goals and taking the game to extra time. Extra time was unpleasant to watch but nowhere near as bad as the ensuing penalties. When Billy missed our first penalty I and many others thought it was over. Thankfully successful penalties by Gill, Taylor and Mackie levelled it up and took the shoot out into sudden death. After Logan failed to end the shoot out after a comical miss by an over confident Turley comments such as "I can't take it anymore" "I feel sick" and "Get a grip, get a grip, get a hair grip" could be heard from the supporters. These feelings reached a peak after Zebroski hit the post as we knew that if we scored our next penalty we'd be off to Wembley. And so up stepped Steve Tully who with a perfect penalty sent the team and travelling supporters delirious! There was much hugging, screaming, jumping and lengthy renditions of certain songs by Johnny Cash and Doris Day. No person celebrated quite like Jamie who took it upon to lift up Paul Tisdale and partake in some dodgy singing into the Sky microphone. In a strange coincidence we had Steve Tullys' parents travelling with us on the bus. I lost count of the amount of times they were told that their son was a legend on the way home!

After being beaten 4-0 in our previous game, and with Oxford seeking revenge we did wonder if we'd get anything out of this seasons return to the Kassam. Such feelings were only heightened when Bertie and Stansfield injured each other in the warm up! The game started and the travelling supporters reminded Oxford of the night they probably wish they could forget as chants of "two nil and you messed it up" (the edited version!) rung out around the Kassam. Oxford definitely like their penalties, and after 67 minutes they were 2-0 up. Oxford also like surrendering 2-0 leads against Exeter, and in the dying moments of the game super-sub Logan scored his second to salvage a point for City and restart the "two nil and you messed it up" chants.

The excitement didn't stop with the final whistle as the supporters bus and its passengers, now a visible target for local frustration, became prisoners of the Kassam. After 45 minutes of being surrounded by what appeared to be Oxfords' entire police force, we were escorted out by 4 police cars and a police helicopter. Once out of Oxford our police escort turned back and we were able to celebrate our victorious draw. There was to be no singing of "Que Sera Sera" this time, mainly because "We're going to Farsley" really doesn't have the same ring to it!