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Huge thrashing as history is made at the 2023 National League South Playoff Final

There were joyous scenes as history is made at the 2023 National League South Playoff Final with Oxford City beating St Albans City.

Just two minutes into the game, skipper Reece Fleet fired the Hoops into the lead, a cracking start for the hosts.

Oxford City extended their lead as Zac McEachran capitalised on a goalkeeping error to double. Dylan Berry really messing that one up.

By the half hour mark, Oxford City found themselves three up. McEachran received the ball from Coyle and drove into the box, before teeing-up Ashby, who found the far corner with a superb finish.

The first half goals didn’t stop there, as Josh Parker brought it down after a long ball and faced up to Mukena, before cutting back onto his left foot and slid the ball past Berry into the bottom corner to make it 4-0. Dreamland for Oxford City.

The Hoops sealed their place in the National League South playoff final with a hard-fought 2-0 victory over Worthing at the Raw Charging Stadium.

First half strikes from Zac McEachran and Alfie Potter were enough for the Hoops to seal their place in the final with a shot at securing National League status at stake.

Zac McEachran said post-match: “Unbelievable feeling. I’m knackered, to be fair. Unbelievable. We deserve it. And, yeah, I’m just buzzing.

Interviewer: What a season it’s been. But did you expect the performance to be as comprehensive as it was today?

ZM: No. We know how good they are. It’s been a tough, tough test. Both times we played them to go in 4-0 at half time. Unbelievable. And I think the second half we just sat back. But it was a comfortable performance in the end.

Interviewer: Part of that early start, obviously getting that goal. We also got two assists today. Your own performance, not just today, but leading up  to this, how pleased are you of your contribution?

ZM: Yeah, I’ve done better this year with the goals and assists and happy to get a goal to assist today.But the main thing was promotion and yeah, just buzzing we got that.

Interviewer: How about the manager, Ross Jenkins? The job that he’s done this year to put out performance like that, there’s a lot of preparation and detail goes into it.

ZM: Yeah, a great manager. He’s got a lot of faith in everyone. He put faith in me. I was out two seasons ago, weren’t playing. He put me back in and hopefully paid him off.

Interviewer: And you’re taking this club into the National League for the first time in its history. You can see what it means to the supporters. What does it mean to you?

ZM: Everything. Yeah. Just buzzing. Just buzzing. Can’t put it into words.

On the advantage of playing at home, Ross Jenkins said prior to the game, as per Oxford Mail: “If you can’t win the league outright, like an Ebbsfleet, then the next best thing is to get those home ties.

“We worked hard for it and we managed to get what we wanted, and that was a home tie against Worthing.

“The good thing is that we put in a real good performance against Worthing, and it was a professional performance.

“We’ve got to take confidence from that game.

“The boys are really up for it, they’ve trained well and the atmosphere feels good so we’ve got to keep on going.

“Last week, we had a good attendance and Worthing brought 500 or 550, and they were good as well.

“It’s a good sign that we can generate the fanbase and hopefully we can put in a performance that will encourage people to come back.

“Hopefully they can support the boys and make some noise because we did it on Sunday and got a good reaction, and the boys loved it.

“The feedback from the boys on the pitch was that it was brilliant to play in front of, so if we can replicate that again, the boys will be full of energy and excitement.”

Oxford City done the double over St Albans in the league earlier this season with a 1-0 win away from home last August and 2-1 win in January whilst playing at home.

On this weekend’s opponents, Jenkins said: “At their place, it was a bit more of an even match-up and we got a decent goal from Josh Ashby with an edge of the box strike.

“It was quite even and I think a draw would probably have been fair.

“Both teams were knocking on the door but we managed to get that win.

“At our place, I thought we were really good and had high-energy, and played really well, and it’s something we’ll want to replicate again on Sunday.”

“They’ve had two extra-times, it’s difficult and shows a bit of character from them.

“We’re lucky enough that we didn’t have to do that and we did the job in 90 minutes, so we’ve got to take the positives out of that.

“The boys are fully capable and ready for extra-time if needed but we don’t plan on dragging the season any longer than we need to.

“It’s something that we need to be aware of, that these games can be extended into extra-time and penalties, but I think the main thing is that we start the game like we did against Worthing and we put in a professional performance.

“The focus has been purely on the 90 minutes, we’ve never addressed penalties or extra-time during the season.”

This is what fans said to the huge thrashing as history is made at the 2023 National League South Playoff Final…

@Tom_Emanuel: Oxford City flying!

@PauloSimao55: Barring absolute collapse, it looks like Oxford City heading into the National League then. What a huge achievement for the club. Shows that no matter your size, if you’re run properly by people who care, you can achieve.

@Thomasjtaylor92: Are Oxford City just kicking the ball around with no one on the pitch

@AmyJAndrews: Oxford City taking the piss! You love to see it.

@Easters86: Marginal favourites at this point. Incredible achievement for Oxford City.

@wababba: very glad i decided to watch the NL South final, it’s extremely one sided but oxford city are playing some gorgeous football

@DarranPearce: Fair to say St Albans have had a shocker of a 1st half. I know play offs often have drama but hard to see it not being Oxford City have a first ever season in the National League next year. Not sure how their ground will cope with some of the bigger teams fans either

@sar1184: Smashing it Oxford city… get in. 💪🏻

@ATFC_Brady: Oxford city are some team. Making a strong St Albans side look non existent. They will be a great addition to the league next season

@AFCJas0n: The massive Oxford City are going up, love to see it 💙 🤍

@rewindmyselecta: Oxford City deserve this

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