Forthcoming Event

Court Place Farm Stadium - friendly matches
Monday 14th April from 7.15pm Admission Free

Oxford City Casuals v Banbury Utd

The open house event is to promote disability football within Oxfordshire, with the emphasis on learning disability. Oxford City are opening their doors to clubs that already have some MLD players or have an interest in setting up a disability team. Clubs will be able to observe the set up and hopefully take this experience away.

The evening will involve friendly small sided games and skill sessions where all can get involved if they wish (potential players should bring boots and shin pads).

The event is one of many in preparation for the launch of the new BOBi League (Berks, Oxon, Bucks Inclusion) which is due to commence in season 2008/09. This is to be a structured competitive inclusive league which will involve three counties; Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire and two County FAs working together. We are hoping to attract as many clubs as possible that might be considering forming a Learning Disability team of their own, so they can watch the matches and get a taster of what's involved. The more local clubs that form LD teams the stronger will be the new league planned for next season.

For further details contact:

Oxfordshire FA - Vicky Bonham 07956 415587 - vicky.bonham@oxfordshirefa.com
Berks & Bucks FA - Liz Verrell 07917 526707 - Liz.Verrall@berks-bucksfa.com
Oxford City - Colin Taylor 07817 885396 - ctoxford@btinternet.com

Learning Dificulties Football Festival

If you're interested in entering a team in the Football Festival - click here to download details and entry form information

Dominos Sponsorship Details

New Kit Sponsors

The club are really grateful to Dominos Pizzas based in Headington, Oxford who have kindly purchased a whole new kit for Oxford City Casuals.

The new kit in the club’s traditional blue and white hoops is emblazoned with the Dominos Pizza logo and really popular with the players – as modelled in the picture on the left.

With nearly 50 players signed on and circa 30 training every week the club plan to run at least two Oxford City Casuals teams next season and would be pleased to hear from any other potential kit sponsor.

Continuing Success Story

In their inaugural season Oxford City Casuals continue to grow in numbers each week and the project has been a resounding success.

The players train every Saturday morning and are playing friendly matches and tournaments until the planned new BOBi League is formed for Learning Disability teams in season 2008/9 across Berks, Bucks and Oxfordshire.

The Casuals are coached by a team of enthusiastic and committed coaches who have added greatly to the community aspects of the club. In a first for Oxford City, a special working group comprised of parents, coaches and club officials together with player representation has been formed to undertake all the management and planning of Oxford City Casuals.

The group meet monthly and the diverse structure is proving a major success which may be emulated across the other sections of the club which has over 20 teams to administer and a community objective with the FA of increasing that to 30 teams next season.

Casually Speaking - part 2

Oxford City Casuals – The team that puts Ability in Disability Football

Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to… well, Feltham actually. Last Sunday saw the Casuals make their way to Feltham, Middlesex to play the Feltham Bees. The Bees are part of Brentford FC and like us have dedicated coaches from the club. We all met at Court Place Farm Stadium and before getting on the coach there was a definite buzz going around the team. A certain feeling of excitement, nervousness and most of all impatience! That feeling of when you’re looking forward to something, but whatever you try you just cannot make it happen sooner. Still, as they say, all good things come to those who wait. So off we went, a coach full of players, coaches and supporters on to sunny Feltham.

We got there in good time and set about getting ourselves ready for kick off. It was our first outing in our new kit which has kindly been sponsored by Domino’s Pizza which we are of course very thankful for. So there we were, all in our kits and looking very smart, now it was down to business. We started in the traditional 4-4-2 formation and the early exchanges were very close, with not much between the two teams. However the deadlock was then broken, the Bees came through the centre and played a very good pass into the danger zone where a player was running into space, good control and a well placed shot put the Bees 1-0 up. With the Bees one goal up we pushed forward looking for an equaliser. A half volley from inside the area flashed just wide of the goal and that signalled that we weren’t going to give up easily. The Bees kept pressing and they managed to sneak some other goals in to go in to half time with a reasonable

lead. The score line flattered them as the game was a lot closer than what the score suggested. During half time the Gaffer set us a task, to continue as we were doing and to get at least one goal. So with this in mind we went out for the second half and straight away we looked much stronger unit. The Bees were finding it very difficult to break us down and we managed to cause them a few problems. Our continued pressure then paid dividends. With one of our attackers in the box their defence made the mistake of climbing on him when challenging for a header. The whistle went and a penalty the decision. Our chance had come to do it, to score that goal that we all longed for. The ball was placed on the spot and the striker started his run up. The keeper dives to his right as the ball goes straight down the centre! GOAL! We’d done it; we had the goal the Gaffer wanted. Such a proud and memorable moment for the team gave us the boost we needed to continue pushing. The rest of the game was very much an end to end affair with both teams having plenty of chances. In the end we ran out of time and it was not going to be our day. But the result is not important, the main thing is that we got that goal and one that I believe will be the first of many.

So our first away fixture was over, the result not what we wanted but a great performance from the team considering we were only having our second game. Many thanks to Andy, Janet, Steph and Colin for devoting their time on the day and of course to all the supporters who travelled to cheer us on.

Our next confirmed game is away at Hitchin Town at the end of March and if we keep improving as we have been then I predict that Hitchin will not know what’s hit them! Thanks once again for all your support.

Regards,
Ash.

Feltham Away

Click on the photo above to see a larger/closer image

The Oxford City Casuals squad travelled to play Feltham for the team's first away match on February 17th. In the photo via this link are Casuals coaches Janet Kidd & Andy Bone. The Casuals lost the match but thoroughly enjoyed the day out and are looking forward to the next away fixture on March 30th at Hitchin Town.

Casually Speaking

Casually Speaking…

Oxford City Casuals

– the team that put Ability in Disability Football

Hello and welcome to the new column that will give you the low down on what the Casuals are up to. My name is Ashby Hope and I will try to keep you informed of all the fixtures, results and general shenanigans that we manage to get up to.

We’ve now been training every Saturday since early September and there is a definite sense to teamwork building within the squad. Believe it or not but we are still growing with more and more players hearing about us and wanting to join. We regularly have 20+ players at training which makes for some excellent and well contested training matches! We’ve seen sun, rain (Torrential), gale force winds, an attempt at snow and sleet, but even these have failed to dampen the spirit and determination on a Saturday morning.

All the training and hard work put in by the Gaffer (Andy), the coaches (Steph, Kirsty, Janet, Emma and Jasmine) and of course the players had to lead somewhere. That place being Court Place Farm on a chilly October night for our inaugural matches against MK Dons. The night was split up in to 3 matches, a Junior 7-a-side, Senior 7-a-side and finishing off with a Senior 11-a-side match. The 7-a-side matches were closely fought with both sides showing great determination, skills and teamwork. They both ended in impressive 3-3 draws and in the spirit of the occasion probably the best results that could have been hoped for. The 11-a-side game was somewhat more intense with the MK Dons putting out a very strong team. As I warmed up before the game I couldn’t help but look over and watch the MK Dons warming up. My first impressions were that they looked like a very organised and skilled team. This was confirmed with their first attack of the game where a well taken shot from outside the area beat the keeper to take them 1-0 up within the first 2 minutes. They were a team who were very fit, played one touch football, accurate passing and equally as accurate shooting/finishing. It was clear it was going to be a very tough game.

It was proving to be a very difficult game as with every MK Dons attack they looked like they could score. The game didn’t start well and heads started to drop as the MK Dons continued scoring. It took an inspirational half time talk from the gaffer to raise the spirits and produce a much improved second half performance. The result in the end was clearly a good thrashing but for our first match against a very tough opposition it was a result we could take many positives from. I know from a personal view point it was the toughest game I’d ever played in. A big thank you has to go out to the fans who came out to support us that night and make the whole event enjoyable for all those involved.

Well thank you for reading this and I hope I haven’t bored you too much. Look out for the next edition of Casually Speaking when I’ll be able to update you on our upcoming fixtures and results.

Regards,
Ash.

Upcoming Fixtures
Sunday 17^th February – Feltham Bees (Away)
Sunday 30^th March – Hitchin Town (Away)

There is currently no formal league competition for players with learning difficulties in the local area. The Oxfordshire FA and Berks & Bucks FA together with other interested parties have formed an Inclusive Football Development Group with the prime objective of establishing a league for next season.

Oxford City FC are members of that development group and will be pleased to actively support any local clubs in forming teams for these special players. Please contact the club for details.