Should I go to the match?

Anything yellow and blue
tomoufc
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Should I go to the match?

Post by tomoufc »

I've been a Us supporter for abut 10 years now. I'm rather obsessed by them, in fact. But because of personal circumstances and a bit of unfortunate timing I haven't been able to see the team play at home this season (I've been to a couple away nearer where I live). Now, ordinarily, if I was visiting Oxford as I am this week I'd naturally head down the Kassam if we had a home fixture, no matter if we were already relegated, managerless, resigned to mid-table, or playing a dull-looking JPT fixture.

But with Saturday's tie something feels different. A quick glance at the other place shows a protest against Wilder planned. Someone made the comment 'what would happen if we took the lead?' I believe that to be pertinent. Will there be many Us fans there who don't care if we score, if we win, lose or draw? If that is the case it may very well put me off going. I don't see the point in a protest with four league games remaining, and I certainly wouldn't want to be at a home game where the crowd are more there to make a point against the club's management than to support the players that are out there.

For the first time as a Us fan I'm questioning whether to go to the match and support my team, when really I have no excuse not to.
&quotI've been a slave to football. It follows you home, it follows you everywhere, and eats into your family life. But every working man misses out on some things because of his job. &quot
Radley Rambler
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Re: Should I go to the match?

Post by Radley Rambler »

Tom

Go - I think it will be a minority protesting. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. If the protest is measured, well thought out and not abusive, then it will show Mr Lenaghan that there is a real strength of feeling at present. If the protest is merely loud and unpleasant abuse, it will quickly die away or just be ignored.

I'm still going and I won't be partaking in the protest. I have to say though that for the first time since WIlder took over, I do think a change is merited. This is not to say that Wilder isn't a good manager but I just can not see him taking us to the Championship in 5 (now 4 and a little bit) years and thus imho he is not the man to achieve the Chairman's publicly stated ambitions for the club. Over the past 2 seasons, we have been found wanting when it mattered and the players just now seem to be going through the motions until the summer break.

I think Wilder is in the Atkins model - a manager that won't lose many and will do well at Conference level/on a tight budget but who just doesn't have the attacking mindset/tactial nouse to go further.

I'll see you there!
Joey's Toe
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Re: Should I go to the match?

Post by Joey's Toe »

I'm in a similar boat to TomOUFC. I make 6-10 games a season (this year I've managed three aways - all wins! - and another four at home), and this weekend was one where I'd planned to combine a family visit with a home game. But I'm pretty doubtful whether I'll bother. Our season has petered out and the game is a dead rubber. If we were blooding a few youngsters, I might even have gone just to see what they were like - but it doesn't even sound as though we'll see that.

Saturday's game will be the usual huffing and puffing for a draw or a marginal defeat/victory, but without any vim or vigour which would make me want to part with twenty quid and sit in a soulless plastic stadium upwind of a sewage works in the cold for an afternoon, surrounded by an angry mob desperate to shout abuse at our most/only successful manager* of the past 15|| years.

If that's disloyalty, then I'm disloyal. But seemingly I'm not alone in having the same thought.

* = I'm not defending Wilder particularly here. I'm ambivalent about whether he should go or stay at the end of the season. My point is that there is a sizeable minority of Oxford fans who revel in every misplaced pass or goal conceded because it adds further weight to the simplistic &quotWilder Out&quot chants. That attitude probably doesn't help the efforts of the XI on the pitch, and it certainly doesn't do much to attract the fair-weather fans.
Dr Bob
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Re: Should I go to the match?

Post by Dr Bob »

I am unable to go to the Rochdale game, so this will be my last chance for a home game this season. Even so, I was umming and ahhing whether to go after the Morecambe game - but I know I shall be there.

I can only speak for myself and I am not judging anyone who feels differently, but I would feel uncomfortable if, having followed the team through some very lean years - from the Kempout days, through two relegations and four years in the Conference - not to go just because we were playing poorly and there was nothing specific riding on the game.

Also, as an exile who no longer has close family to double up a visit with, it felt odd when earlier this season, I could have gone to a home game but chose not to for some reason I now forget. I simply missed being there - for all the pain that can bring.

I also have to say that I find it fascinating watching us when we play so badly - in a car-crash-rubber-necker kind of way. Then again, I am on fairly strong chill-pills just now. Heartily recommended for anyone of a Yellow disposition...
slappy
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Re: Should I go to the match?

Post by slappy »

Quite - I'm not sure I want to have a 140 mile round trip spoilt by protests. I want to go to games where the fans cheer the team on, not spend their whole time looking for an excuse to call for the manager's head or slam the players. So it may just be Dagenham, and Accrington away for me now.
Dartford Ox
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Re: Should I go to the match?

Post by Dartford Ox »

Is it just the dismal football that is keeping people away from the matches. For me, the appallingly long winter has been a major factor. 5 times I have bought a ticket to go to a match and then chickened out on the day because of the cold.

I have just bought a ticket for the Dagenham match. Only a 25 minutes drive away - but will I make it?
amershamwrighty
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Re: Should I go to the match?

Post by amershamwrighty »

In your situation, I could think of plenty of better things to spend twenty quid on. I'll be there, but I've got a ST and will be getting one next year.

Thing is, this 'Supporting Oxford United' caper is pretty much a life sentence. I've missed a couple of home games this season - Barnet and Fleetwood, which were night games when it was bloody cold and being indoors was more tempting. I've left others before the end because the performance was garbage eg Rotherham.

I think Wilder's time is up - his comments in the press this week are breathtakingly arrogant without a shred of humility - but I won't publicly call for his head and nor will I boo players because neither is helpful.

But there is always hope that we might witness a 'champagne moment' - a cracking goal, last minute winner, glorious through ball : Tommy Craddock's goal at Wycombe is an example - and that is what keeps me going.

Enjoy the game !
Radley Rambler
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Re: Should I go to the match?

Post by Radley Rambler »

&quotamershamwrighty&quot wrote:In your situation, I could think of plenty of better things to spend twenty quid on. I'll be there, but I've got a ST and will be getting one next year.

Thing is, this 'Supporting Oxford United' caper is pretty much a life sentence. I've missed a couple of home games this season - Barnet and Fleetwood, which were night games when it was bloody cold and being indoors was more tempting. I've left others before the end because the performance was garbage eg Rotherham.

I think Wilder's time is up - his comments in the press this week are breathtakingly arrogant without a shred of humility - but I won't publicly call for his head and nor will I boo players because neither is helpful.

But there is always hope that we might witness a 'champagne moment' - a cracking goal, last minute winner, glorious through ball : Tommy Craddock's goal at Wycombe is an example - and that is what keeps me going.

Enjoy the game !
I haven't seen these - do tell.
Werthers Original
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Re: Should I go to the match?

Post by Werthers Original »

If I didn't have a ST I probably wouldn't go at all. Being at nearly every game let's you watch the narrative unfold and brings interesdt to nearly every game. but i 'm lucky that I can walk to the ground
amershamwrighty
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Re: Should I go to the match?

Post by amershamwrighty »

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/sport/10328612._/

RR - hope you can get this to work.
Hog
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Re: Should I go to the match?

Post by Hog »

Is that the right report? Can't see anything breathtakingly arrogant there.
Radley Rambler
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Re: Should I go to the match?

Post by Radley Rambler »

&quotHog&quot wrote:Is that the right report? Can't see anything breathtakingly arrogant there.
Agreed, he does indicate that he was the main part of the success but as the manager that has to be right in the same way as he is now taking the brunt of the discontent.
Ancient Colin
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Re: Should I go to the match?

Post by Ancient Colin »

I think this is a really interesting thread, and one that the remaining Wilder supporters might want to contemplate. I buy a season ticket, which others use (mostly) when I don't. I've probably seen fewer games this season than since we left the Manor ... and I'm finding it increasingly difficult to justify the 210 mile round trip given what I see and the atmosphere in which I see it. I could probably have gone on Saturday, we get back from France late Friday but, frankly, I've got better and more productive ways of using my time. It would be completely irrational for me to buy a season again next year. I probably will, but it's hope over expectation. True supporters are melting away.
OUFC4eva
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Re: Should I go to the match?

Post by OUFC4eva »

&quotHog&quot wrote:Is that the right report? Can't see anything breathtakingly arrogant there.
If his comments in this article - which are basically extracts of his Aldershot post match interview on Radio Oxford -
are construed as breathtakingly arrogant then I have missed something too.

Fans are basically forensically and pyscho-analysing every word he utters to basically find fault.

Pretty sad really.
Old Abingdonian
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Re: Should I go to the match?

Post by Old Abingdonian »

I am concerned about how supporters - or at least those who post on forums - have wound themselves up into a hysteria of negativity, which threatens to do serious harm to the club. Yes, we should have done better. Yes, we are a fairly big club for this league. Yes, we have high expectations (1986 and all that). But it seems really sad if supporters do not want to come to games because of the atmosphere created by other supporters. What does this achieve??

I know there is something visceral about football, and this must remain. But the kind of twisted bitterness being shown towards Wilder at the moment, and something verging on self-hatred are completely disproportionate and unhealthy. This is completely independent of the judgement about whether Wilder should remain as manager.

So, yes, I will be there on Saturday, and that means - as ever - a 140 mile round trip.
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