This week, someone at work pulled what might be described as a 'dick move' on me. It was something which outside the workplace bubble or even the bubble of your own mind is completely trivial but in the insular, claustrophobic world of work can feel like a deep injustice.

I tend to dwell and ruminate on this kind of thing, I allow it to fester in my head in growing frustration, I lose sleep and get distracted, I replay what I want to say, but never will, over and over again. It's a swirling mass, a deep loss of control, eventually it subsides and life moves on.

The following day I was in the gym and my phone chose to play some Beyonce through my headphones. I'm not Beyonce's typical demographic and around 98% of my music taste couldn't be further from her style - in fact I feel slightly daft even mentioning her - but I happen to think she's one of the greatest artists of all time.

Now, I'm not a woman, I'm not black, my forebears weren't enslaved and killed, I've never been publicly humiliated or dismissed as trivial, I don't know what a bugaboo is, superficially, I shouldn't be able to assimilate with her experiences. But there is one theme that drives strongly through everything she does which really resonates: she is fiercely protective of her agency.

Agency is the feeling that you have some control of your own destiny. Beyonce is proud to be black, a woman and successful even though these are things which are routinely thrown at her to try and trivialise her existence. It is who she is and she's not going to pretend otherwise. She has a curvy body because of her heritage, why should she deny it? That's agency.

Agency isn't a zero-based game - you can enhance your own and that of others at the same time, but people often try to build their own by removing yours. If it is challenged, though, you have to consciously reclaim it. If people pull a dick move at work, I am not a victim, I still have options and that gives me agency.

I'd missed out on a ticket to Leyton Orient, so instead took the opportunity to go and see Oxford City play Woking in the National League. Incidentally, given what I've just said, I was recently accused of being 'too woke' so enjoyed the irony of watching Woking. Do Woking ultras call themselves the Wokerati? They should.

These are good times at City, it wasn't that long ago we were playing at their level. The place is a hive of activity, kids walking around in City kits, games being played across their 5G pitches and they have a loyal and growing community of fans and volunteers. At one point a Woking fan accused one of their players of being a 'lazy cunt' and those stood around him loudly censured his language because he'd fallen below the standards of decency expected of the club. If anyone doubts what a new stadium for Oxford United could do for the community, you can see it in action in microcosm at Court Place Farm, despite being a tourist, I felt very welcomed and would thoroughly recommend a visit or two there this season.

There were a few Oxford United scarves and they've undoubtedly benefited from our success - the team featured Canice Carrol and Josh Parker, and has Alfie Potter in the squad - but there were plenty of people wearing City's colours. For them, this is their club, a source of their own agency.

In East London, we kicked off still smarting from the departure of Liam Manning. I've already said, I didn't fully take to him, so was oddly relaxed about him leaving. I expected Chris Hogg to go with him, but the announcement that he'd also taken football analyst James Krause as well really irritated me. Manning's not only leaving to satisfy his own ambition, he's asset stripping us in the process.

It's not Manning or Hogg or Krause that really matter - it's the active process of removing agency; the control from a club which helps to shape our world view, gives us a structure and purpose and brings hope, harmony and enjoyment in a sometimes difficult world. For someone to callously furnish their ambition at the expense of that is contemptable.

That's football, you might argue, and it is, he has the right to protect his family and future and he does, we should move on and we will, and it's still not right. These things can co-exist. Rebuilding from that unfairness, from the decapitation of our agency, is what brings and requires resilience.

It would have been easy to accept a draw or even a defeat at Leyton Orient given the last week; to lick our wounds and feel sorry for ourselves. It would be easy for Oxford City to accept they are too small for the National League and that there's no shame in relegation this season.

But when both sides went into the break 2-0 up, it showed that neither were ready to give up what they've gained just yet. It would be easy to dismiss our performance as simply an echo of Manning's fabled 'behaviours' but standing pitch side at Court Place Farm you really sense the searing effort required just to compete at any level of football. The behaviours needed to be consciously and actively applied.

Both games tightened going into the final quarter - Woking pulled a goal back; Rodrigues extended our lead before Orient hit back. It would have been easy, easier, in fact, for both teams to simply accept their fate in the final twenty minutes. Emotionally and physically drained, it felt like there was a tractor beam drawing them back to an inferno of injustice. But instead, they dug deeper, battled harder, doubled down on what they believed. The nature of the win, the proof we can pull through under extreme pressure, might be the biggest lesson we learn from Manning, and that could only happen after he'd left.

The Orient result came through first, and despite a very late goal for Woking, City pulled through 3-2 as well. Battered, but not beaten but more importantly both clubs' agency reinstated. The Mannings of this world will come and go, a trivial footnote, a speck of dust in compared to the club, the people in it and what it is trying to achieve. We move on.

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