Cider pressing

[Old Abingdonian]

I could find one significant fault with our performance yesterday, namely that we did not display the same intensity after we scored the first goal - but otherwise, I thought we were very impressive. Rose, Sercombe, Baldock, Mullins, Hylton were all top quality for this league, and there were no weak performances.

Granted Yeovil weren't very good, but when did we last field a team as good as this one?

[OUFC4eva]

Granted Yeovil weren't very good, but when did we last field a team as good as this one?

Probably early in 1997.

[OUFC4eva]

Leaving Grenoble Road yesterday evening had me puzzled as to
who might have been the U's man of the match.Plenty of candidates!

I would still like another player in before 6pm on Tuesday - apart
from a new understudy 'keeper.

[slappy]

Another enjoyable game of football, we could have scored more. We seem to be taking many more shots than last year, and it won't take much improvement for the success rate of those shots to convert games into wins rather than draws.

[Matt D]

agreed; another enjoyable game. a bit less nervy for me than the notts county game, I felt we were more in control with a one-goal advantage, or perhaps i'm just starting to develop a bit of faith in the current oxford squad.

both county and yeovil I suspect are okay teams - I think our energetic game with several pacy options up front is making teams look poorer than they actually are. we'll see, but when yeovil came out for the second half and tried to press Us more, they didn't get much joy for very long.

I took an arsenal-supporting friend along for this one. he usually sees Us once every season or two, and had seen enough at half time to declare it was the most convincing oxford side he'd seen.

as an aside, appleton's target of eight points from every five game batch - realistic or under shooting? atkins used to aim for nine points, and jim smith's 'win your home games and draw your away games' would give you a total of nine or eleven points.

[Kernow Yellow]

as an aside, appleton's target of eight points from every five game batch - realistic or under shooting? atkins used to aim for nine points, and jim smith's 'win your home games and draw your away games' would give you a total of nine or eleven points.

If promotion is the aim then it has to be 2 points per game - so ten points from every five games (on average). Nine from the first five is a good base to build from and very pleasing, but nothing to get complacent about. We dropped points at home to Crawley and have to make them up at an away game if we want to be serious contenders. Appleton's target will probably sneak a play-off place - we should be aiming higher than that.

[Snake]

League tables mean nothing at this stage of the season, as I keep telling myself. That doesn’t stop me enjoying looking at them though

Shame about the "wow signing" that never happened on the basis of OUFC results in the initial games.

[Kernow Yellow]

Shame about the "wow signing" that never happened on the basis of OUFC results in the initial games.

Yes, Appleton didn't want to unsettle the squad apparently. I'm not sure whether that's a clever move or just an excuse not to spend some more cash. It's nice not to be repeating the player churn from early last season, but I do think we still look a little light in certain areas - our defensive cover is already depleted with Sam Long's injury, and I can see the goals drying up if Hylton spends any time out of the side for whatever reason. Taylor and Hoban haven't shown that they're anything other than bit part players yet.