Neither good nor lucky, sadly....

Anything yellow and blue
amershamwrighty
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Neither good nor lucky, sadly....

Post by amershamwrighty »

Beaten by the better side - and 1-0 flattered us, I thought.

Ashton was immense for Stevenage, but Yemi (fat boy ?) wasn't.

I can only recall a couple of chances - one of which was Matt Green's free header near the end. Clist did well and although Beast and Wright did a decent job, they were both a bit naive in getting mugged into giving away free kicks for 'climbing' and we were fortunate that we weren't punished more severely. Deering better in the second half - shocking in the first.

We need to make sure we secure a play off position asap. Luton seem to be on fire at the moment, and York have recovered from their blip.
leicesteryellow
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Re: Neither good nor lucky, sadly....

Post by leicesteryellow »

&quotamershamwrighty&quot wrote:Beaten by the better side - and 1-0 flattered us, I thought.

Ashton was immense for Stevenage, but Yemi (fat boy ?) wasn't.

I can only recall a couple of chances - one of which was Matt Green's free header near the end. Clist did well and although Beast and Wright did a decent job, they were both a bit naive in getting mugged into giving away free kicks for 'climbing' and we were fortunate that we weren't punished more severely. Deering better in the second half - shocking in the first.

We need to make sure we secure a play off position asap. Luton seem to be on fire at the moment, and York have recovered from their blip.
yes i agree with most of that. Too many players not turning up for us in a big game, again. I have said most of the season that we have the best players. I was mistaken. After the last few performances I can see we dont. Too many players that can't handle pressure or take responsibility when needed.

One who did step up a tonight for me was chapman. Hargreaves was also playing well until he was taken off. (another strange decision from wilder) I also thought Creighton played ok.

So it's play-offs -hopefully. What we should do now is pick a team, pick a system, stick to it for the remainder of the season and try and get some form going.
Nashy
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Post by Nashy »

I thought Wright was a class act tonight, and generally we defended admirably. The midfield worked hard and tackled fiercely but there was no quality distribution though Stevenage closed down so well there was little time. Still too much lobbed up to the dominant heads of roberts and ashton. Thought Ashton pulling down Beano when he was away was a big call for the ref and he possibly bottled it. Stevenage shaded it. I hope we can show more composure and tempo as the play offs beckon. We mustn't lose the faith as we have as much chance as anyone if we can regain some confidence going forward.
GodalmingYellow
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Post by GodalmingYellow »

I thought our back line was the best they have been for some time.

For the first time, I thought Wright looked very good and he completely neutralised the Yemi threat. The back line looked much more solid with Creighton, so hopefully his injury will be nothing serious.

Our problem was really in midfield. Hargreaves made a couple of hard challenges but otherwise wasn't in the game. Similarly Clist was barely involved. The pitch didn't help, but Stevenage coped fine with it.

The element that concerned me was Stevenage being first to every challenge, winning every ball, chasing down every Oxford player, and generally looking much more up for the win. We've lost the fighting spirit to some degree.

Up front Constable harrie and bullied as he always does, but very few of our passes reached him, or indeed any Oxford player. We gave the ball away more often than I can remember from an Oxford side.

Overall this is turning into a very disappointing season, and I have little faith in our chances of winning the play offs, assuming we make the play offs.
recordmeister
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Re:

Post by recordmeister »

&quotGodalmingYellow&quot wrote:I thought our back line was the best they have been for some time.

For the first time, I thought Wright looked very good and he completely neutralised the Yemi threat. The back line looked much more solid with Creighton, so hopefully his injury will be nothing serious.

Our problem was really in midfield. Hargreaves made a couple of hard challenges but otherwise wasn't in the game. Similarly Clist was barely involved. The pitch didn't help, but Stevenage coped fine with it.

The element that concerned me was Stevenage being first to every challenge, winning every ball, chasing down every Oxford player, and generally looking much more up for the win. We've lost the fighting spirit to some degree.

Up front Constable harrie and bullied as he always does, but very few of our passes reached him, or indeed any Oxford player. We gave the ball away more often than I can remember from an Oxford side.

Overall this is turning into a very disappointing season, and I have little faith in our chances of winning the play offs, assuming we make the play offs.
I would say this has been the case since Wimbledon at home. Cambridge away, the other U's got to every ball first and look like the team who wanted it more. That's been the case since then. Is it just that our midfield is knackered?
A-Ro
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Post by A-Ro »

Another shocker of a ref, does anyone know what he gave the penalty for?

My brother was in the home end and he said the player slipped over, none of the home fans shouted for a pen and were as amazed as we were when he pointed to the spot.
OUFC4eva
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Re:

Post by OUFC4eva »

&quotGodalmingYellow&quot wrote: Our problem was really in midfield. Hargreaves made a couple of hard challenges but otherwise wasn't in the game. Similarly Clist was barely involved. The pitch didn't help, but Stevenage coped fine with it.

The element that concerned me was Stevenage being first to every challenge, winning every ball, chasing down every Oxford player, and generally looking much more up for the win. We've lost the fighting spirit to some degree.
Bang on Terry.

Oxford were outmuscled, outfought and outcompeted especially in midfield and Ashton and Roberts cruised through the game at the back - Beano never got a kick. Those two look a superb pair and you can see why they rarely concede. Bostwick, Drury and Bridges completely dominated Clist, Bulman and Hargreaves.

Playing one up front against those two with little support was folly from Wilder who most certainly lost the tactical battle and got his team shape and selection all wrong. We played into their hands and handed over the iniative all to easily. The prize of a win was enormous yet the way we played suggested a lack of belief and bravery to get a result but it was potentially a title winning match and we bottled it.

In such an important game we underperformed alarmingly in my view. Stevenage were on top straight from the first whistle and the first half saw United steamrollered basically. We should have been at least two down at the break.

The second half after they scored saw more possession but no real quality (again) and we huffed and puffed. We easily gave the ball away and the passing was sloppy overall.

Where do we go from here - a settled team and shape would be nice.
theox
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Post by theox »

The thing that irks me most is that throughout this bad period we haven't really been done over by anybody. We are either drawing or being beaten by the odd goal. Against the top two teams in this league, we have been beaten by one goal and they haven't really looked better than us.

This tells me that we have the players to win this league. Therefore, the fault for this slip must lie with the manager and the f##king TINKERING!

Its always said that good teams need time to gell so why do that over the first half of the season and then pull it to shreds week after week?!? Truly astonishing.

The early season confidence has evaporated and the biggest attribute you need to win the play-offs is confidence. Good luck with that then......
Nashy
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Post by Nashy »

We have 7 none too difficult games in which to regain that confidence so evident as recently as Wimbledon. The fans must now play an even bigger part by backing the side and not getting on their backs especially at the Kastad. However much all fans are gutted at the decline they must now do their bit to rebuild the confidence in the players and confidence now is everything. Talking to cooky last night he admitted confidence was low but desire was still there. It will be a slog without Murray because again last night -admittedly in difficult conditions - our midfield lacked creativity so we were feeding off scraps up front. We will be in the play-offs for sure (GY's negativity really does irritate!) and consider our aggregate season's record against each of the others. we can still do it and if its via a trip to Wembley, well so be it! It could be worse! We need to make ourselves get back to the'i believe' mentality of last season's end. It may just transmit to the players.
GodalmingYellow
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Re:

Post by GodalmingYellow »

&quotNashy&quot wrote:We have 7 none too difficult games in which to regain that confidence so evident as recently as Wimbledon. The fans must now play an even bigger part by backing the side and not getting on their backs especially at the Kastad. However much all fans are gutted at the decline they must now do their bit to rebuild the confidence in the players and confidence now is everything. Talking to cooky last night he admitted confidence was low but desire was still there. It will be a slog without Murray because again last night -admittedly in difficult conditions - our midfield lacked creativity so we were feeding off scraps up front. We will be in the play-offs for sure (GY's negativity really does irritate!) and consider our aggregate season's record against each of the others. we can still do it and if its via a trip to Wembley, well so be it! It could be worse! We need to make ourselves get back to the'i believe' mentality of last season's end. It may just transmit to the players.
What negativity? I'm only reflecting what has actually happened. Take the rose tinted specs off Nashy and you'll find everything becomes much more focussed.

What really irritates is people who refuse to accept what has actually happened and try to pretend everything is OK when it clearly is not. That helps nobody and it is naiive to think otherwise. What does help is recognition of the problem and finding a solution to it.

The simple fact is that we can barely win against anyone at the moment, and whilst we will make the play offs unless things really go pear shaped, on present form we will not win the play offs and we will be subject to another season of tni pot football.

That isn't unnecessarily negative, it is necessarily realistic. You should try it some time.

The solution as I have stated frequently is the end of tinkering and playing of the best players in their best positions and keep them there.
theox
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Re:

Post by theox »

&quotNashy&quot wrote:We have 7 none too difficult games in which to regain that confidence so evident as recently as Wimbledon. The fans must now play an even bigger part by backing the side and not getting on their backs especially at the Kastad. However much all fans are gutted at the decline they must now do their bit to rebuild the confidence in the players and confidence now is everything. Talking to cooky last night he admitted confidence was low but desire was still there. It will be a slog without Murray because again last night -admittedly in difficult conditions - our midfield lacked creativity so we were feeding off scraps up front. We will be in the play-offs for sure (GY's negativity really does irritate!) and consider our aggregate season's record against each of the others. we can still do it and if its via a trip to Wembley, well so be it! It could be worse! We need to make ourselves get back to the'i believe' mentality of last season's end. It may just transmit to the players.
The thing to remember is that a lot of our wins (including the Wimbledon one), and therefore confident performances, come when we have scored an early goal.

Typically, if we score early we play well and win. If we don't, we struggle and lose or draw.

As i said before, its a confidence thing and the lack of any kind of plan B.
ty cobb
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Post by ty cobb »

The fans have been behind the side all the way this season – last nights support was astonishing for a non league match on a Tue night, there were a number in the home end who didn’t celebrate when they scored.

Yet again OUFC have let the fans down. Last nights performance was dreadful, everytime we got it we hoofed it forward or gave it away. We don’t have a target man, and the two centre backs cleaned up everytime as they did on Sat. We bring Potter on and yet we still hoof it long. Everytime we had a throw we gave it back to them, they got a throw, they got it on the floor and if in our last third got a good cross in. Beast showed what we had been missing recently winning all his headers and being a rock and had Wilder not fucked about with the team we would still be top.

I couldn’t see us getting back into the match when they scored. Why, because we always bottle the big game and have done for years. It looks like another season of disappointment, supporting Oxford for 20 seasons has resulted in about 4 seasons where you think it’s worthwhile, the rest have been just awful. Next season will be our 5th in the division. Every other half decent club who comes down gets up either straight away or the season after, 5 seasons in this league is very poor reflection on WPL.

To me there is very little enjoyment anymore, going to towns that are retail parks full of chavs like Stevenage and getting turned over by a team with far less resources than us to face a long trip back home does not seem a attractive option to spend my limited leisure time.

The great thing about football is when it’s going well it’s brilliant, you get a spring in your step when your team wins and is the best one in the league and it helps ride out those times when things aren’t going so well. With Oxford you just don’t get those good times, even when it’s going well like the second half of last season we conspire to cock things up by getting enough points deducted so we don’t get in the play offs (which we would have won).

A normal football fan would say but the great thing about football is that it could all change around, we’ll go to Wembley and get promotion the best way by beating Luton in the final in front of a huge crowd. But we know that’s not the case, we’re going to throw away a lead in the semi final and get knocked out by an ex player. Why? Because we’re Oxford and that’s just the way it is.

Oh yes, one thing that struck me last night was that it was lucky that we got knocked out of the FA trophy 2 games from Wembley by putting a weakened team out – we were clearly the fitter team who wanted it more as a result of being able to concentrate on the league. (In fact you can trace our poor run back to that game).
Nashy
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Post by Nashy »

Ooh you really do bite at everyone's comments if they differ from yours (Wright deate for example). i am not looking through rose tinted glasses but being realistic. We are lacking any creativity and key passes and crosses are being messed up too often so beano and others feed off scraps. We do miss Murray in that respect. What i am saying is we need to turn negatives to positives and (yes blindly) get behind them for 7 games || play offs. Confidence is a fragile thing in sport and can come back as quickly as it goes (eg York). Of course its massively disappointing to throw away the automatic promotion spot but everyone now needs to be realistic (as you wish them to be GY) and focus on hitting some form for the play-offs. What i am saying is that players need even more support when confidence is low.....and by the way GY how you can ever claim that Wright is a poor centre back God only knows! till as long as you, i and everyone is pulling together we might still do it..who knows?
SmileyMan
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Post by SmileyMan »

One small bit of luck was Wimbledon's draw, which effectively moved us two points closer to securing a top-five finish. Seven more points from seven games allows us to beat the worst case scenario.
GodalmingYellow
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Re:

Post by GodalmingYellow »

&quotNashy&quot wrote:Ooh you really do bite at everyone's comments if they differ from yours (Wright deate for example). i am not looking through rose tinted glasses but being realistic. We are lacking any creativity and key passes and crosses are being messed up too often so beano and others feed off scraps. We do miss Murray in that respect. What i am saying is we need to turn negatives to positives and (yes blindly) get behind them for 7 games || play offs. Confidence is a fragile thing in sport and can come back as quickly as it goes (eg York). Of course its massively disappointing to throw away the automatic promotion spot but everyone now needs to be realistic (as you wish them to be GY) and focus on hitting some form for the play-offs. What i am saying is that players need even more support when confidence is low.....and by the way GY how you can ever claim that Wright is a poor centre back God only knows! till as long as you, i and everyone is pulling together we might still do it..who knows?
It has nothing to do with &quotbiting&quot Nashy. A ridiculous term introduced when someone doesn't like being disagreed with.

The fact is that if you make an unnecessary unpleasant personal remark, such as saying someone is irritating, then you must expect them to have a right of reply.

And if you present an argument which someone else disagrees with, you must also expect them to have a right of reply.

That isn't &quotbiting&quot, it is discussion.

I ahev no problems supproting OUFC, and your suggestion to the contrary is way off mark. I stood on the terraces last ngiht, no less than begging for Oxford United to score and doing everything I could to encourage them to do so.

That has nothing to do with my comments on this board, which are a reflection of the reality, which you don't seemt o want to acknowledge.

None of us need reminders to support the team we love. That's a given. But that doesn't mean we have to ignore what is actually happening when it comes to writing on forums like this. And doing so makes us no less of a supporter.
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