Kezman Off The Mark

Last updated : 18 July 2004 By Liam Corbett
And it was Gudjohnsen who set up Kezman for the equaliser, can cancelling out Mooney's 41st minute strike.

With just under 25 minutes remaining, Kezman squared Geremi's pass to his strike partner, who un-selfishly returned it back again and Kezman finished the move off.

Kezman had already hit the woodwork on two occasions, one a left foot volley against the bar and a right foot curler just after half time, that crashed against the inside of the Oxford post. Mourinho wasn't lying when he said the boy is two footed!

And what did our new boss think of the game? Well, as before he again stated it was another training session, and that he was very impressed with the player's attitudes.

"What I’m pleased with is the attitude of the players,” he said, “because it is not easy to play football when you are tired, and they were already tired when the match started. I asked them for a big effort to compete and they did it, without the quality they will have in the future to play with. I cannot ask too much from Cole, Géremi, Kezman, with so few days training. I cannot ask more from the young boys."

“The objective was achieved, because it was to put them in a competitive situation against players who were much more ready in their preparation. In fact some of them couldn’t sprint because they were so tired, others as time passed their performance went down.”

“After this period of hard work will arrive a period of compensation when they become sharp. The big problem is for the others who start training on Monday who will go through the same process later. They will go to the US and play top teams, Celtic, Roma, Milan, and will be in the same moment as the ones today there.

“But this is preseason and you try to do your best with the players for when the real thing starts.”

Oxford's manager is, in fact, Graham Rix, who worked under Claudio Ranieri as assistant manager at the Bridge.

“I think they’re on a different planet now,” claimed Rix.

“They’re in a league of their own, and with Mr Abramovich’s backing, they can go and do whatever they want – providing they make the right decisions.

“I think Chelsea will have a very, very successful season.”

Lets hope Graham is right!