Rage Online

LONDON & SOUTH EAST

AFC Wimbledon, Charlton Athletic, Gillingham, Millwall,
Milton Keynes Dons, Oxford Utd & Southend Utd

MIDLANDS:

Coventry City, Northampton Town, Peterborough Utd,
Port Vale, Shrewsbury Town & Walsall

NORTH:

Bradford City, Chesterfield, Scunthorpe Utd
& Sheffield Utd

NORTH WEST:

Bolton Wanderers, Bury, Fleetwood Town,
Oldham Athletic & Rochdale

WEST:

Bristol Rovers & Slumdon Town

After the euphoria of promotion out of League Two and getting away from all those bottom tier clubs.....is it just me that is thoroughly uninspired by this list of teams?

What is it - Sheffield, Cov, Bolton and Bradford the only ones with any real pedigree?

Mooro - it sure beats playing the likes of
Crawley Town, Morecambe, Newport County, Accrington Stanley,
Grimsby Town and Stevenage.

Mooro wrote:After the euphoria of promotion out of League Two and getting away from all those bottom tier clubs.....is it just me that is thoroughly uninspired by this list of teams?

What is it - Sheffield, Cov, Bolton and Bradford the only ones with any real pedigree?

I suppose partly it's because we've played 14 of those teams in recent years in league 2, and also visited Charlton, Sheffield and Millwall in the cup the last few years.

So only seven new grounds to visit for me. MK Dons, Coventry, Peterborough, Walsall, Bolton, Oldham. There are some big grounds to go to though (MK, Coventry, Bolton + Sheffield).

slappy wrote:So only seven new grounds to visit for me. MK Dons, Coventry, Peterborough, Walsall, Bolton, Oldham. There are some big grounds to go to though (MK, Coventry, Bolton + Sheffield).

Although obviously anyone who loves football won't be visiting Franchise (or watching our home fixture with them). As far as I'm concerned, we have 44 league games next season.

Never forget, never forgive.

In terms of new grounds alone, I've been to both Wimbledon and Plimuff, so from that perspective it makes no difference to me who wins today. But I would love it to be Wimbledon, because they are a considerable way through the process of getting back to Plough Lane, which would mean a new ground in the future potentially, plus of course it would mean they catch up with MK Dons and potentially overtake them to reclaim their true place in the League, and I wonder how many of those who switched to MK Dons when they were allowed to buy their spot in the League, will return to their true club?

In terms of new grounds to visit next season, it will be a decent harvest. I have yet to visit MK Dons, Coventry City, Chesterfield, Bolton Wanderers, Fleetwood Town and Oldham Athletic and that will take me up to 66 out of 92 current League grounds, all of which will have been to see Oxford play competitive fixtures, rather than going to a ground for the sake of ticking a box. Actually I lose The Boleyn Ground, so will be back down to 65.

Shame to have missed out on Barnsley, but there is always next season

I will then be missing Leicester City (went there for non-football), Arsenal (went to Highbury and indeed played at Highbury!), Tottenham Hotspur (went there and they locked the gates before I got in), Manchester City, Manchester United, Southampton (went to The Dell), West Ham United (went to The Boleyn Ground), Liverpool, Swansea City, Sunderland, Newcastle United, Aston Villa, Burnley, Middlesbrough, Brighton & Hove Albion (went to The Withdean), Hull City, Derby County, Cardiff City, Birmingham City, Preston North End, Blackburn Rovers, Fulham, Rotherham United (went to Don Valley), Doncaster Rovers (went to Belle Vue), Blackpool, Colchester United (went to Layer Road) and Barnsley.

OUFC4eva wrote:
WEST:

Bristol Rovers & Slumdon Town

Sw*nd*n in the West?! You're having a laugh. Birmingham is further west, as are Port Vale, Walsall and Shrewsbury that you've put in the Midlands. Come on Plymouth! Otherwise my nearest game next season is a mere 315-mile round trip. I guess North-East based fans are feeling a bit hard done by this year too.

Anyway, I remember when we got back in the League being slightly underwhelmed by the prospect of visits to 'the likes of' Bury and Rochdale. I'm feeling a bit the same now, though I'm very much hoping that the scheduling allows me to visit Coventry and Sheffield United. Other new grounds for me would be Bolton, Fleetwood, MK and Shrewsbury's new place.

MK is an interesting one. I think boycotting the home match against them is a little strange - cutting off OUFC's nose to spite your own face as it were. In years gone by I would certainly have boycotted the away game and gone and supported AFC instead, which was the done thing when they were climbing the non-leagues and needed every penny they could get. But now the real Wombles are an established team, whose own fans have been happy to buy tickets to support their team in cup games at MK in the past. I'd feel uncomfortable giving Winkelman any money, but if we play there in a crucial match, when the team needs every fan to go and make as much noise as possible? I think I'd probably go. I know what OUFC would want me to do...

Kernow Yellow wrote:

OUFC4eva wrote:
WEST:

Bristol Rovers & Slumdon Town

Sw*nd*n in the West?! You're having a laugh. Birmingham is further west, as are Port Vale, Walsall and Shrewsbury that you've put in the Midlands. Come on Plymouth! Otherwise my nearest game next season is a mere 315-mile round trip. I guess North-East based fans are feeling a bit hard done by this year too.

Anyway, I remember when we got back in the League being slightly underwhelmed by the prospect of visits to 'the likes of' Bury and Rochdale. I'm feeling a bit the same now, though I'm very much hoping that the scheduling allows me to visit Coventry and Sheffield United. Other new grounds for me would be Bolton, Fleetwood, MK and Shrewsbury's new place.

MK is an interesting one. I think boycotting the home match against them is a little strange - cutting off OUFC's nose to spite your own face as it were. In years gone by I would certainly have boycotted the away game and gone and supported AFC instead, which was the done thing when they were climbing the non-leagues and needed every penny they could get. But now the real Wombles are an established team, whose own fans have been happy to buy tickets to support their team in cup games at MK in the past. I'd feel uncomfortable giving Winkelman any money, but if we play there in a crucial match, when the team needs every fan to go and make as much noise as possible? I think I'd probably go. I know what OUFC would want me to do...

Much as attending MK brings distaste to the mouth, and 10 years ago I would never have gone there, another point in favour of going is that the more away supporters there are, the better the chance of beating them on their own patch and contributing to their demise.

I wouldn't let them stop me from attending a home match, but I wouldn't go near their illegitimate ground, frankly. If you really feel the need to watch football when Oxford play at Franchise, then do some good and go and watch Wimbledon instead.

Jimski wrote:I wouldn't let them stop me from attending a home match, but I wouldn't go near their illegitimate ground, frankly. If you really feel the need to watch football when Oxford play at Franchise, then do some good and go and watch OXFORD CITY instead.

There, corrected for you! At least you'd be able to SEE the football!

Yep, fair enough. Anywhere but Franchise tbh.

Apologies - I really hadn't meant to derail the thread into a discussion about Franchise FC. Final word: some things are bigger than narrow loyalty to one's own team. Regardless of the impact on OUFC if none of our fans attended games against Franchise, it would (if replicated at every game the pariah club played) underline to the football establishment how abhorrent Franchise are, and would most likely hasten their welcome demise. It won't happen, of course, because (as this thread has shown) some people are quick to gloss over Franchise's shameful past if it suits them - but for me, and many others, I will never recognise this non-club. At least I know I'll be doing my bit for the wider interests of football whilst I go and watch some local non-league those weekends instead!

Anyway, back to more pleasant matters. Personally, I'm looking forward to the following next season:
Coventry - friends in the area
Sheff United - lovely city, and missed our cup trip there a few years back
Oldham - a ground to tick off
Bolton - biggest club we'll play next season
Millwall - couldn't make our JPT second leg, so haven't been there; hopefully a midweek game so I can combine with a work trip to London!
Shrewsbury - an easy train ride from Cardiff and a nice town to have a few pre-match drinks!

Shaping up to be quite a good season of away games.

The only one I'll be making a concious decision not to attend is Millwall. Too many disgusting people and I don't care if they are 'an award winning community club' because that's just papering over the cracks.

There will be plenty of others I won't get to for economic or domestic reasons but I'll do my best ...

Millwall not very pleasant at Wembley on Sunday. Most had teeshirts bearing the slogan 'No-one likes us', which seemed an extraordinary mixture of self-pity and aggression.

Jimski wrote:I wouldn't let them stop me from attending a home match, but I wouldn't go near their illegitimate ground, frankly. If you really feel the need to watch football when Oxford play at Franchise, then do some good and go and watch Wimbledon instead.

Expecting Oxford fans NOT to turn out for a home match v Franchise
as Kairdiff Exile hopes is surely fanciful!

I"ll be a Stadium MK too and hope that we
beat them