The Six Pointer

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SmileyMan
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The Six Pointer

Post by SmileyMan »

They don't get much bigger than this one. 3rd versus first, 9 points the difference, and old boss visits his previous team with full knowledge of the pitch and the weaknesses at the back. They've won seven on the trot while we've had a definite wobble.

If ever there was a time to bring your 'A' game, this is it. And it's vitally important for the fans and the club that we beat Wilder and his team of rivals at home. Not just for the points, not just because it brings the championship closer, but just because it'll be a statement of intent. Not a draw, a win.
YF Dan
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Re: The Six Pointer

Post by YF Dan »

Our recent league form (W4, D2, L1, F 15 A7) over a season would give us 92 points, and nearly 100 goals.

We've also beaten a premier league team, a promotion chasing L1 team, and reached a Wembley final.

I'm not one of these "we're definitely going up" supporters, in fact, I' have nightmares about the Wycombe game on the last day of the season. But "definite wobble"? Nah.
Brahma Bull
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Re: The Six Pointer

Post by Brahma Bull »

And this idea we are defensively in disarray........

We have conceded 27 league goals, only Plymouth and Pompey can offer better, conceding 26 each. We have silly chatter about both our Goalkeepers in the process and how incapable they are moving forward.

It appears to me, our fans (or some of them) are guilty of buckling under the pressure, season after season.
Kairdiff Exile
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Re: The Six Pointer

Post by Kairdiff Exile »

Brahma Bull wrote:It appears to me, our fans (or some of them) are guilty of buckling under the pressure, season after season.
I think that's unfair, for two reasons:

1) There are two sides to every argument, and it's pretty clear that we've been less impressive in the last few weeks than we had been at points earlier in the season. Now, admittedly, that's because for large chunks of August-January we were 'on one', defeating all who stood before us and no team could keep that going forever. But it's not unreasonable to scrutinise why that scintillating form has dipped to just good form. I'm sure Appleton is doing the same - doing so might identify any problems and necessary minor tweaks and allow us to return to scintillating form rather than dipping further to average form.

2) As Oxford fans, we've been conditioned over the last 10+ years to having a rough end of season. It doesn't always happen, but it's happened often enough that many of us now panic at the first signs of post-Christmas problems. Is that the fault of the fans "buckling under the pressure, season after season"? Or is it at least in part an inevitable reaction to the culture of mediocrity that has stunk out Grenoble Road for much of the 00's?
Kernow Yellow
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Re: The Six Pointer

Post by Kernow Yellow »

SmileyMan wrote:And it's vitally important for the fans and the club that we beat Wilder and his team of rivals at home. Not just for the points, not just because it brings the championship closer, but just because it'll be a statement of intent. Not a draw, a win.
Disagree with this. Northampton will probably go up. They're 15 points clear of the play-off places. Of course it would be lovely to beat them - we need as many wins as we can get at the moment - but this is certainly not a six-pointer, in the sense that the points difference between us and them is fairly irrelevant. A top three finish is everything this season. Much, much more important that we beat Accrington on Saturday, as they could threaten our position more seriously.

Also not sure what you mean by Wilder's "full knowledge of the pitch" - it's been completely relaid and made narrower since he was our manager!
Brahma Bull
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Re: The Six Pointer

Post by Brahma Bull »

Kairdiff Exile wrote:
Brahma Bull wrote:It appears to me, our fans (or some of them) are guilty of buckling under the pressure, season after season.
I think that's unfair, for two reasons:

1) There are two sides to every argument, and it's pretty clear that we've been less impressive in the last few weeks than we had been at points earlier in the season. Now, admittedly, that's because for large chunks of August-January we were 'on one', defeating all who stood before us and no team could keep that going forever. But it's not unreasonable to scrutinise why that scintillating form has dipped to just good form. I'm sure Appleton is doing the same - doing so might identify any problems and necessary minor tweaks and allow us to return to scintillating form rather than dipping further to average form.

2) As Oxford fans, we've been conditioned over the last 10+ years to having a rough end of season. It doesn't always happen, but it's happened often enough that many of us now panic at the first signs of post-Christmas problems. Is that the fault of the fans "buckling under the pressure, season after season"? Or is it at least in part an inevitable reaction to the culture of mediocrity that has stunk out Grenoble Road for much of the 00's?
I think the ridiculous panic over the goalkeeper is a prime example. Since last week, I've seen plenty of panic over getting a new Goalkeeper in. Goalkeepers make mistakes, when they do, they normally get punished. The reaction during the game on Saturday was Benji was culpable for both goals, having seen the goals, nothing could be further from the truth. This is days after Slocombe did make some errors and was dropped.

Furthermore, people reacted by wanting Max to be recalled. Reading his match-report on Saturday, he was culpable for failing to deal with his cross that resulted in Southport dropping points.

We then had 3 back-to-back home defeats, two of which, against higher placed sides in Cup Competitions. Plenty of people have probably come across that 'concern' in the past few weeks - c'mon, we faced a Championship side, a side in the play-offs in League One and a resurgent Rovers team in the league who actually got lucky with a win. Reaction, some kind of meltdown from our fans.

I've also seen plenty of people questioning this side, in the lead-up to Portsmouth, Mansfield and Morecambe. Where is the faith from some of our supporters?

This bunch of players and management team, have rarely let us down in over a year. We will lose and draw games of football, but I think this group deserve to have more faith given to them, instead of the absurd calls to recruit a goalkeeper for example. Social media seems to be the stem of most of this reaction, I might add.
SmileyMan
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Re: The Six Pointer

Post by SmileyMan »

Kernow Yellow wrote:Also not sure what you mean by Wilder's "full knowledge of the pitch" - it's been completely relaid and made narrower since he was our manager!
Most the three-sidedness, especially with a nice icy February wind.

It's not about the automatic promotion slots - I think both teams will make it comfortably. It's much more about Northampton and Wilder. If we lose, they'll have done the double over us, and we'll know that going into next year, we won't be the best of the promoted teams. We need every little bit of confidence, every scrap of belief, every tiny slice of luck.

Besides, I want to be champions. The players, manager, club and fans deserve it.
Kairdiff Exile
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Re: The Six Pointer

Post by Kairdiff Exile »

Brahma Bull wrote:This bunch of players and management team, have rarely let us down in over a year. We will lose and draw games of football, but I think this group deserve to have more faith given to them, instead of the absurd calls to recruit a goalkeeper for example. Social media seems to be the stem of most of this reaction, I might add.
I don't disagree with that for a moment. And it's probably fair to say (doubtless one of the Stats Monkeys on this forum will verify) that if we'd played this well in this league in recent years, we'd be a shoo-in by now - we're just up against some exceptionally good sides at the top of the league this year. But I still maintain that when Superb form dips to Good form, it's right to scrutinise that so that Good form doesn't dip to Average form.

For me, there are a few things we could do to get things back to how they were when we were at our best this season (some of which are already happening):
- Pick Buchel and stick with him. He's a better 'keeper than Slocombe, and much more commanding in his box. Saturday wasn't his finest hour, but you're right that you have to choose a goalie and then stick with him for a bit (which is, I'm sure, what Appleton will do / is doing).
- Give Hylton an extended run. He knows where the goal is, and I think inspires confidence in those around him (again, something I think Appleton will do / is doing). Him and Bowery could be a winning combination.
- Give someone else (either a youngster or a loanee) a run instead of Skarz - who I think is a good player, but one who would benefit from a rest.

I also think, and I may be alone, that letting Rose go was a poor decision - I'll be very interested in seeing how he does tomorrow night against us.
Jimski
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Re: The Six Pointer

Post by Jimski »

Thinking of Appleton's blocks of 5 games, I guess a draw against Northampton would give us the 8 points minimum that he identified in the latest block, as we've 7 points from the previous 4. We've achieved it so far in every block:

9 - 8- 10 - 13 - 8 - (7)

If we lose to Northampton though (easily possible), it would be our worst block of the season so far, and I guess could be construed as a wobble.*

So let's hope we don't!

* A tough block of games though with Northampton, Portsmouth, Rovers and Mansfield. Morecambe the only relatively lowly team.
Jimski
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Re: The Six Pointer

Post by Jimski »

I should add though that our home results do concern me a little. Should a promotion-chasing side be winning fewer than half its games at home? Thank goodness we've been doing so well away.
ty cobb
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Re: The Six Pointer

Post by ty cobb »

SmileyMan wrote:
Besides, I want to be champions. The players, manager, club and fans deserve it.
Interesting argument. If I was a Northampton fan I would argue that my players (who didn't get paid earlier in the season) my club (who flirted with winding up orders and kept on winning) and my manager (took over a team rooted to the bottom of the league and within two seasons turned it round to a team who is storming away to the league title) deserve it just as much as us, if not more. Wilder continues to vindicate those of us who said it was stupid to let him go.

And if we are serious about winning this league why did we give Northampton a excellent midfielder who started for them on Sat?

The wobble we've had is seeing our rivals gain space on us in the title race - we've gone from title contenders to hoping we can hold onto third. A win tomorrow night will mean the chase is back on, a loss will mean it's probably over for the title. Should be a great match and lets hope these fans who deserve it ours can turn up in bigger numbers than last week.
Kernow Yellow
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Re: The Six Pointer

Post by Kernow Yellow »

SmileyMan wrote:It's not about the automatic promotion slots - I think both teams will make it comfortably. It's much more about Northampton and Wilder. If we lose, they'll have done the double over us, and we'll know that going into next year, we won't be the best of the promoted teams. We need every little bit of confidence, every scrap of belief, every tiny slice of luck
Well you might think that both teams will make it comfortably, and I hope you're right. But Northampton are a hell of a lot more comfortable than Us at the moment, and there's a whole pack of strong teams waiting for Us (or Plymouth) to slip up. The Pilgrims are definitely catchable, and we should certainly be aiming to haul them in sharpish to give us a bit of a cushion. I remain convinced that Accrington is the really big game this week, not tomorrow.

And it shouldn't be about Wilder at all. I'm kind of glad I'm not going to be there to witness the pathetic baiting of one of our best managers of recent years. He's doing very well and good luck to him - as long as it's not ultimately at our expense.

Don't get me wrong I'd be absolutely delighted to beat the Cobblers - who wouldn't? But if I knew we were 'only' going to get 4 points this week I'd want the draw to come tomorrow...
Mr T
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Re: The Six Pointer

Post by Mr T »

I dispute that we have slipped in recent weeks compared to sides around us. Since the turn of the year up to Saturday morning, only Northampton have increased their potential points on us (5 more); everyone else has dropped behind us; Accrington -1/Carlisle -2/Plymouth, Portsmouth, Bristol -3/Wycombe -7.

Before 'the six pointer' game tomorrow the Potential Points compared to us are:
Northampton +9
Plymouth +1
Oxford 0
Stanley -1
Carlisle, Portsmouth -7
Wycombe -9
Bristol -11

This is why Saturday is more important than the Cobblers. Northampton is more about "doing one" over a local side managed by a man that some fans never saw eye to eye with, especially the manner in which he left us to pursue security for his family (at what was considered a financially superior set up). Let's hope that the curse of the ex-Oxford players stays away...
Bring back the black away shirt!
SmileyMan
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Re: The Six Pointer

Post by SmileyMan »

ty cobb wrote:The wobble we've had is seeing our rivals gain space on us in the title race - we've gone from title contenders to hoping we can hold onto third. A win tomorrow night will mean the chase is back on, a loss will mean it's probably over for the title. Should be a great match and lets hope these fans who deserve it ours can turn up in bigger numbers than last week.
Wish I'd put it this way in the first place! :)

I don't wish Wilder ill (or anything more than a polite round of applause really) But I don't want him to win at our place. I appreciate the argument that strategically, Accrington is the 'bigger' game in terms of being promoted. But we haven't been champions of anything since the eighties. Why can't we have some glory for once?
Jimski
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Re: The Six Pointer

Post by Jimski »

Yeah, I don't wish Wilder ill at all. I always quite liked him as our manager. I'd be happy for him to take Northampton up as long as we go up as well. And I badly want us to win tonight. (Ok, I'd probably take a draw. As others have said, Saturday is the more important one to win.)
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