Oxford City host the Brakes

 

Featuring a couple of pubs in Marston and a second visit this season to Oxford City's MGroup Stadium.

Amongst very intermitent posts of late, non-league football seems to be featuring quite a bit.  All being well I'll be rocking up at a couple of third division German matches in the near future, putting Prop Up the Bar in danger of becoming a lower league football blog.  One that spends a fair bit of time in the pub and never mentions the Premiership or Ange Postecoglou.

My autumnal Satuday started in Marston old village at the closest pub to Oxford City's ground... 

The Red Lion (42 Oxford Rd, Oxford OX3 0PH)
Dating back to the 1800's, this is a village pub within the Oxford ring-road.
When I first visited it consisted two seperate rooms served by the one bar, but a makeover has opened this up into one space.  It's a little smarter and dining-room-like to the right of the front door, whilst the other direction sees high tables and blokes propping up the bar.  

Four cask ales on offer: Abbot, Tribute, 6X, and a Greene King/Belhaven seasonal special.

It's Halloween - the 'Caution Dead Keep Out' tape is wrapped around the pillar - so I picked the Belhaven 'Haunted Highlander' which turned out to be a surprisingly quoffable mild red ale.

I tucked myself into the corner bench by the fireplace.  A group of away supporters met up at the bar and compared journeys here via different means.  One of them pointed out that Truro Town were up in Gateshead on the same day - the longest trip in the football leagues - a fair bit further than the 50-miles from the south of Warwickshire.
That said, never underestimate the challenges of travelling two stops on Cross Country trains.

Finishing my pint, I made the ten-minute stroll through the pleasant streets of Marston Village, the smell of wood smoke in the air, the sun shining on the wedding party emerging from St Nicholas' Church.

Up at the ground, a lederhosen-clad oompah band greeted punters through the turnstiles (all 702 of 'em) with a bit of George Michael's 'Faith', which I don't think counts as traditional German beer fest music.  

Next to them were two very friendly and enthusiastic ladies staffing the mini beer festival where you could ply yourself with Greene King wares in plastic glasses.

I procurred a £5.00 pint of the 'Genieve' West Coast IPA, a collab with Thornbridge which was a fairly decent drop to sip on the barriers as I waited for kick-off.

Today's visitors are in their second season in the National League North having yo-yo'ed between divisions a bit in the past few years.
They date back to 1933 when they were formed as the works team for Lockheed Borg & Beck, their nickname 'The Brakes' coming from the equipment made in the now defunct automobile factory.

Leamington's support may not have been huge in numbers, but they gathered on the seats in the corner of the groud by the goal they were attacking in the first half, banged a drum, and made a fair bit of noise.

Morning rain showers disappeared and the game was played under brilliant autumnal blue skies.  Both teams were on a run of bad form, with Oxford coming closer to breaking the deadlock in the first half.  So everything was looking good for them when the ref produced a red card on the stroke of half time and reduced the Brakes to 10-men.

10-stubborn men...it took right until the latter stages of the second half for Captain Josh Ashby to finally find the back of the net for City.  Only for Ant Lynn to head in a Leamington equaliser in time added on.

I ambled out the ground, politely turning down the frantic attempts of the young lady at the beer fest bar to sell me an 'Old Session Hen'.  I suspect there was a fair bit still left in those barrels.
A 15-minute walk back toward the city centre took me to one of the cities pubs that I haven't visited in ages...

The Up In Arms (241 Marston Rd, Headington, Oxford OX3 0EN)
This was previously a 1930s pub called The Somerset that closed in 2009 and spent several years as a Chinese restaurant.  It looked lost as a pub forever, despite some sturdy local campaigning.  Then in came Dodo to give it a modern makeover and offer up pizza and Arkells ales.

You also get a bit of old Halls Brewery livery on the exterior...

...dogs providing a trip hazzard on the way to the gents...

...cask ale in the form of Arkell's 'Belt Driver IPA' or the local 'Hooky'.

But what you've really come for is the "seriously gushing taps"!

Dodo don't really go in for the traditional pub look, but every time I've visited there has been a decent number of varied customers in.  And whatever I may think of the alarmingly big billboard promoting Burger & Chips above the bar...at least it re-emerged as a pub and wasn't lost forever.
And the Arkell's was a decent enough pint, soundtracked by a bit of Happy Monday and Stereo MCs.

This wasn't about to become an epic tour of Oxford pubs post football.  The fact that I'd quaffed three pints of festival beers throughout the match when I'd usually be having a break from the ale put paid to that.
Instead I was heading home at an early hour, stopping at Lidl's to buy pretzl's for Mrs PropUptheBar to accompany her German bottled beer.

With a quick stop at the Cowley Spooons...

For a late sighting of one of the more unusual options on the recent Wetherspoon's beer festival list.

Yuck!  I probably should have just gone straight home.