Oxford City 0, Wycombe W 1

By NIALL JEGER OXFORD City failed to match the Herculean efforts of their previous two FA Cup matches against Wycombe at the Manor last night and defiantly bowed out of this first round second replay.

Oxford weathered a first-half storm and it was only Steve Brown's 51st-minute goal that separated the two sides in an uninspiring match.

Perhaps City's only fault was to show Wycombe too much respect but, over three matches, no criticism can be levelled at manager Paul Lee and his FA Cup heroes.

From the kick-off, livewire Jermaine McSporran forced an early corner after City skipper Matty Hayward slid in to block his shot.

Oxford keeper Alan Foster had no worries collecting the menacing in-swinger and he was magnificent in the first half.

He had to deal with efforts from McSporran, Sean Devine and Brown in the first ten minutes as City were in danger of being overrun early on. City defended strongly, but perhaps a bit too deeply, and Wycombe should have gone ahead in the 20th minute when Dave Carroll shot straight at Foster from close range. Seconds later, McSporran shot just over.

Devine missed a free header from a Carroll corner then Foster made another good save to deny skipper Keith Ryan's dangerous free kick.

Foster made the save of the match in the 25th minute. McSporran's bye-line cross was met by a rasping header from Devine, six yards out. Foster parried the ball to safety, and Wycombe were left wondering how they were going to beat the 24-year-old accountant.

City's two central defenders were outstanding throughout. Richard Peirson made a great last-ditch tackle on McSporran in the 32nd minute then Hayward cleared Michael Simpson's goalbound effort off the line.

City at last rallied and showed they could attack. In their first assault on Martin Taylor's goal, Jason Davy made a surging run from his own half in the 35th minute, but lost possession, then Terry Sweeney had a speculative 30-yard shot blocked. It could have been a different story if Davy had put City ahead in the 44th minute. He latched onto a super pass from Sweeny, was clean through on goal with just Taylor to beat, but hesitated and scuffed his shot well wide.

Wycombe continued to dominate at the start of the second half. McSporran headed over from Matthew Lawrence's cross and did the same with his foot soon after.

The deadlock was finally broken in the 51st minute. Lawrence angled a long header through the City back line, Brown timed his run to perfection and slammed home a left-footed 12-yard drive.

That fired City up and things became very scrappy. Dwaine Strong was booked for an awful challenge on Lawrence and then Devine was shown a yellow card for clashing off the ball with Sweeney.

In comparison to last week, teenage striker Strong had a quiet game, but should have been treated better by referee Paul Danson when he broke to the edge of the Wycombe box and was fouled three times before losing out. Lee brought on Stewart McCleary and Tate Hulbert for Strong and Terry Morrisey in the 64th minute to bolster the attack, but City didn't threaten until the last few minutes.

Hulbert powered a shot just wide before City won their first corner in the 89th minute.

Then Hulbert had a great chance to force extra time deep into injury time.

Davy made a cracking run down the left flank. He cut inside and crossed to Hulbert who delivered a weak shot straight at a grateful Taylor.

Story date: Wednesday 17 November

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