BURTON

Pre- match optimism

For some unexplained reason I felt rather optimistic going into this one. I even checked the online betting odds out.

Bet 365 had something too tasty to ignore.  Oxford 21/10, ridiculous. I am not really a betting man but I decided to have some of that, only a few clicks later to discover that “this bet is no longer available”.  Just as well wasn’t it?

Pre-match comments from the players and manager suggested that things (the bad things at Spotland) were going to be put right. I wish they’d keep quiet and just do their talking on the pitch. Not that I blame them for saying stuff to the press – it is expected. But bother to analyse 95% of what those inside the game say and it’s absolutely nothing of value. I did pick up from Mickey Lewis that we were going to be on the front foot. I took that to mean that we would be more attacking than if Chris Wilder had been in the dugout.

The line up

In the last “View” I questioned Deane Smalley and reasoned that we needed an extra body in midfield but could see some logic in our starting line up. I expected Smalley to help Tom Newey out as the Brewers had a very good right winger. I also expected him to tuck in and support Danny Rose and Nicky Wroe. He is not a left winger but as it turned out appeared to me to be trying to play as one most of the time.

A game of two halves – The first half

The first couple of minutes saw us keeping the ball at a slow leisurely pace whilst going nowhere. I can see that this could form part of a master game plan.  Or it could be seen as “dicking about.”  So much for getting on the front foot from the off and putting the opposition under pressure.

The pattern of the game soon emerged. Burton got in our faces. We didn’t get in theirs. They seemed to go through us with ease both down the middle and on the flanks.

I fully acknowledge that my tactical analysis is lacking because I mainly had eyes for yellow shirts and couldn’t tell you what formation Burton were playing. Apparently they too had two in the middle in the first half but changed to a three after the break.

Many fans still yell for 4-4-2, and in certain circumstances that may work, but a holding midfielder, or two if you are Chelsea away at the Etihad, can be extremely effective. Spurs don’t like holding midfielders. Spurs got slaughtered at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. Anyway what I’m saying is we could have done with one.

For Burton’s first, someone (Rose I think) was easily beaten by Ishmail and Knowles made a purposeful run through the centre, took the pass perfectly and rounded Ryan Clarke for a very good goal that had resulted from us losing the ball in their area when a mishit shot from Rose conceded possession.

If Jake Wright had decided to go with Knowles instead of raising an arm in a vain appeal for offside it would have been more helpful. Was it offside? I don’t think so.

For the second we had three players surrounding a Brewer. The Brewer was still able to find Phillips making a run down the wing. He did well to keep the ball in – it did not fully cross the line. After he beat Johnny Mullins who had ventured out from the heart of the defence it was fairly plain sailing. A chasing midfielder never caught up. Clarke made a save but I think he should have done better. It was one of those that should have been directed away from the danger area and out for a corner. (Am I being too harsh?). Instead the ball fell nicely for Ishmail who slammed home.

We were being hammered.  Almost immediately we were embarrassed down the left again. Mullins had followed a blue shirt out wide but this Brewer was able to find Phillips making yet another run. He had it easy again. Ryan Williams was the wrong side – he ran back but might as well not have bothered.  It was a penalty.

This time Clarkey showed what he can do. With a quarter of an hour to go to the break I expected this to spur us on to some type of performance that gave a hint of caring.

Burton’s control might not have been quite so total from here on in but over my half time hot chocolate I could not recall keeper Lainton touching the ball other than to take a goal kick.

A game of two halves – The second half

 I thought the first couple of minutes were similar to the first 45 and then noted a sea change.  Smalley (yes, honestly, I’m no fan but don’t think it is fair to let him carry the scapegoat label some foster upon him) went in for a challenge with some strength and proper meaning. He won the ball. We went forward. From then on we got stuck in and actually went forward with purpose. The transformation was amazing.

Williams suddenly again looked special for this level of football. He was running with and without the ball into areas that actually hurt the opposition.  In the first half he looked lost and had no one to play with.

Now he had David Connolly who was the catalyst for most of the good things we did. His quality shone and he made Williams shine too. Once Connolly got into the game he was doing what Dave Kitson had not done on this occasion.

Our goal was unsurprisingly a Connolly / Williams move. It was a very good goal.

We then had about 40 minutes to first get an equaliser and then the winner.  We produced a couple of proper attacking moves that were tremendously pleasing on the eye. Williams made a lung busting run and set up Beano for 2-2. Beano hit the post. I think he should have done better. Connolly was denied a goal by a top reaction save. No equaliser came.

The “were we unlucky” verdict

I can see the argument that we deserved something out of it for what we did when we came back out, but in a nutshell NO. We had been so bad in the first half we deserved to have points taken off us.

Gary Rowett said it on the Football League Show. “We’d been so dominant in the first 30 minutes we’d effectively won the game then”.

Mickey said, “We need to go on a run”.  (I do not blame Mickey for saying this, but I refer you to my earlier point.)

Going on a run / slow walk

Seems to be something no team near the top of League Two are capable of going on. Some people look on this as a good thing but I find it quite galling that there’s been a very good opportunity to have set ourselves up comfortably in the top three and we’ve not taken it.

At times I think people tend to forget that the minimum number of points that are handed out after a league game is two and someone has to at least share one a piece. Unless our horrible form picks up some teams will slowly walk past us as we stand, almost still, perplexed by tactically superior opposition.

The managerial situation

This is something that I cannot leave without comment. Occasionally I blurt out things that I’m thinking as if to state it makes it fact. Mickey Lewis is not the man for the job. I blurted this out on Saturday and got a “no s**t Sherlock” look or two.  Amazingly one Radio Oxford caller said that Mickey is indeed the man, based on the fact that he said, “it’s not about me it’s about Oxford United”. I’d really like that explained to me. Again though it is not Mickey’s fault. He did not ask to be the caretaker.

There is a view that Ian Lenagan is not appointing because he wants to save money. This may be so but I think it is very much false economy. IL is standing our not inconsiderable debt, which grows at quite an alarming rate, year on year, without charging interest. This is often conveniently forgotten by those with the “it is time for him to put his hand in his pocket” blinkers on.

What I don’t get is why it is all quiet other than for the occasional “we’ll take our time over this”.

We’ve had 60 applicants and on top of that Mr Lenagan is also seeking out people who have not applied.

What does this all mean?

None of the applicants is who the Chairman wants?

The people being sought out are not interested?

There’s no set deadline for dealing with this? I wonder how this makes the applicants feel.

I just feel like yelling, “GET IT SORTED, YOU’VE HAD LONG ENOUGH”.

If a tasty rabbit is pulled out of the hat then all will be forgiven.

For me that tasty rabbit is not Paul Tisdale. Just look at Exeter’s home record over the last couple of seasons.