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POSH away

Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2017 9:28 am
by OUFC4eva
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Out of form United travel to London Road or the recently named Abax Stadium
to take on Peterborough United. United won 2-1 at the Posh last March
after two home defeats to Bristol Rovers and Sheffield United.
I thought I would compare the sides that played that day:

U'S: Eastwood; Edwards (now Bury), Dunkley (now Wigan), Nelson, Johnson (now Middlesbrough)
Maguire (now Bury), Ledson, Lundstram (now Sheffield Utd), Hall, McAleny (now Fleetwood),
Hemmings (now Mansfield).

Subs: Stevens, Ribeiro, Skarz, Martinez, Sercombe, Ruffels, Rothwell

POSH: Luke McGhee (now Portsmouth); Michael Smith (now Hearts), Jack Baldwin, Ryan Tafazolli,
Andrew Hughes, Michael Bostwick (now Lincoln), Forrester, Da Silva Lopes,Taylor (now Bradford),
Craig Mackail Smith (now Wycombe), Tom Nichols (now Bristol R).

Subs: Mark Tyler, Anthony Grant, Martin Samuelsen, Harry Anderson (now Lincoln),
Brad Inman (now Rochdale), Junior Morias and Jerome Binnom-Williams (now Chesterfield).

So only four players who started remain at Oxford and five for Peterborough and illustrates how quickly
squads can be turned over in these times.

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Oxford need to recover from their recent travails and put in a solid performance.
Posh are set to be without key players Gwion Edwards and Junior Morias through injury.
Combative midfielder Anthony Grant returns from a one match ban.

LAST TIME OUT:

Posh were surprisingly beaten 3-2 at Boundary park, Oldham.
U's were beaten 3-0 at Gigg Lane, Bury.

HEAD TO HEAD:

Oxford wins 15
Posh wins 11
Draws 6

PLAYED FOR BOTH:

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Midfielder Gordon Hodgson joined Posh from Oxford in 1980.

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Jon Obika had a loan spell at Posh in 2011 from Tottenham.

Others include Joe Cooke, Francis Green, David Langan, David Oldfield,
Alfie Potter, Nick Cusack, Keith Cassells and Andy Woodman.

ONE TO WATCH: Jack Marriott - a goalscorer.

Re: POSH away

Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2017 7:46 am
by OUFC4eva
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Well I did not see that result coming but United were well worth the victory
over Posh at London Road, coming from behind to dominate large spells and score
four good goals after the break. Jack Marriott beat the offside trap to tap the ball
past Eastwood after 15 minutes - Grant's 30 yard pass holding up in the wind.
That was Peterborough's first real attacking foray.

After thirty minutes the U's started to dominate and should have levelled before
break. The midfield were winning all the second balls and there was some
excellent passing moves. Ruffels and Ledson were bossing it and there was good support from
Henry and Rothwell whilst Jack Payne tormented the Posh, playing in pockets and being
instrumental in all four goals. He was unlucky not to score himself. Payne was a bundle of
creative energy. Posh disintegrated as the game wore on but looked a threat going forwards.

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Oxford's players all performed well. I thought Christian Ribeiro had his best game for the U's.
Mousinho looked good at centre back and Payne behind Thomas stole the show.
Ledson was back to his very best and Ruffels breezed through the game. He has to be a regular
starter. He can run all day and won loads of ball in midfield. He is now adding goals to his
game, regularly.

A word on the match day experience at London Road. It was like being in a time warp.
Players from Peterborough's 1973-74 team on the pitch before kick-off , pre-match music from 70's
American disco band, Earth Wind and Fire and then we are subjected to Engelbert Humperdinck's
" The Last Waltz " from 1967.

We were also treated to the customary pitch entrance from Mr Posh and of course one of the
most annoying FL mascots around - Peter Burrow and his Carrot - had to be endured. The Oxford
fans told Peter where to put his carrot on several occasions !
Peterborough's fans made little noise all afternoon however.

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Re: POSH away

Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2017 8:09 pm
by Old Abingdonian
For those of us who weren't there, how did you account for this? I know all League 1 sides are unpredictable, but this was some turnaround.

Are we a side which can turn on the style, but lacks resilience? Do we sometimes click, and sometimes not? Is this going to be an exciting season, or a rocky one? I could not believe how rubbish we were against Walsall, after the performance against Gillingham.

Re: POSH away

Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2017 9:12 am
by Radley Rambler
Old Abingdonian wrote: Sun Oct 01, 2017 8:09 pm For those of us who weren't there, how did you account for this? I know all League 1 sides are unpredictable, but this was some turnaround.

Are we a side which can turn on the style, but lacks resilience? Do we sometimes click, and sometimes not? Is this going to be an exciting season, or a rocky one? I could not believe how rubbish we were against Walsall, after the performance against Gillingham.
I went and what a strange experience it was. The afternoon started very well literally just after Noon with a visit to Charters Bar which is a converted boat serving excellent real ales and a selection of Thai Food - all good. My 6 year old found the whole scenario of drinking (lemonade) on a boat very entertaining. Many OUFC fans in residence, good atmosphere.

Suitably refreshed and with resultant optimism, we arrived at the ground at 2 minutes to 3 with a 4 year old and a 6 year old and proceeded to the seats at the front after a near altercation with a steward who told us we had to sit in our designated seats. Stand two thirds full, two short people who wouldn't be able to see from our 'designated seats' due to everyone else standing and fuelled by 5 pints, it was head down, walk past the jobsworth who was muttering 'I'll have to talk to my supervisor' (where do they get these people) and suitable seats taken.

Then for the next 30 minutes - we were rubbish. Yes, we had plenty of the ball but did absolutely nothing with it - not one shot on or off target - not even close to one. P'Boro then unlocked our defence with one simple long ball over the top (Nelson shocker for that one but good game apart from that), Marriott took advantage and it all started to look a bit difficult. P'Boro should have gone further ahead, they had plenty of chances but football's a funny game - it's about 60% luck and they were frankly unlucky that some of their efforts didn't extend their lead. If they'd got a second, I'd have feared for the final result.

Rob Hall then limped off and we all thought that's the end of any creativity. Just before half-time a decent effort from a Ricardinho free-kick but that was the only spark in an otherwise very poor first half. At half-time the 'view from the bogs' was that we'd be very lucky to get anything from the game and that it would be a long hard season ahead.

Second half and what a turnaround - great header from Ruffels for the first but where was the P'Boro marking? Ledson made a cracking tackle in midfield for the second and fed Payne who played in Wes. I thought he had no chance of getting to the ball but due to Steven Taylor's tortoise-like speed, Wes duly got there and delivered. I'm not a great fan of Thomas due to his being so injury prone which unsettles the team's consistency but his strike rate for minutes on the pitch ain't bad. BTW - left field fact - my Aunty taught Steven Taylor to read (but not how to read the game - ha!).

Confidence and momentum are funny things in football and suddenly there was only one team in it. The third goal was cracking, Henry showed some pace (!) down the wing, played it to Payne who fed Rothwell and he's a cool finisher. Call-out here to Ty Cobb who can be seen at on the highlights at the front of the stand celebrating with the players having abandoned his 4 year old further up the stand :).

Then Agon was in the right place at the right time - good for him to get a goal as he'd been kicking every ball when warming up in front of us. The players obviously like him as well given the celebrations in front of us.

So........in summary, we can be very very good and very very ineffective much like most teams in Leagues 1 & 2. Jack Payne seemed to be more influential once Rob Hall left the field as the main source of creativity. Whilst the scoreline was comprehensive, don't kid yourself - P'Boro should have put the game to bed prior to us scoring and went on to hit both post and bar.

As I said above - football is about 60% luck.

Re: POSH away

Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2017 9:53 am
by Kernow Yellow
Radley Rambler wrote: Mon Oct 02, 2017 9:12 am Ledson made a cracking tackle in midfield for the second and fed Payne who played in Wes. I thought he had no chance of getting to the ball but due to Steven Taylor's tortoise-like speed, Wes duly got there and delivered. I'm not a great fan of Thomas due to his being so injury prone which unsettles the team's consistency but his strike rate for minutes on the pitch ain't bad. BTW - left field fact - my Aunty taught Steven Taylor to read (but not how to read the game - ha!).
I saw the highlights yesterday and just kept wondering when the keeper was going to come out and collect the over-hit through ball for Wes' goal - he never arrived. I was also wondering where Ty's young child was during the celebrations!

Re: POSH away

Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2017 2:40 pm
by ty cobb
After celebrating our rather unexpected first goal by lifting Ty Cobb jr up a little too vigorously I decided to take my celebrations for the rest of the goals down a couple of rows where I was free to pump the air and jump up and down with no risk of doing anyone any harm.

RR jr on the other hand was chucking glasses about in Charters before the match when his father had taken leave after the 5th of those pints ;)

As for the game I thought we were the better team in the first half, we just looked pretty brittle at the back and toothless going forward. We knocked it about really well and coped with Hall going off pretty well. Second half thought, wow, and what a game real end to end stuff with both teams breaking at pace and leaving gaps behind. Payne exploited those to great effect and Thomas had his best spell for us, held the ball up well and looked a threat. Good to have Ribs back although noticeable that they got quite a lot of joy down his side when he got caught up the pitch.

Brilliant away day though, nice walk through the town to the pub and pitch and lovely old stand. Rip off prices though - twenty is more than plenty for league one footy.

Re: POSH away

Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 5:29 pm
by Radley Rambler
ty cobb wrote: Thu Oct 05, 2017 2:40 pm After celebrating our rather unexpected first goal by lifting Ty Cobb jr up a little too vigorously I decided to take my celebrations for the rest of the goals down a couple of rows where I was free to pump the air and jump up and down with no risk of doing anyone any harm.

RR jr on the other hand was chucking glasses about in Charters before the match when his father had taken leave after the 5th of those pints ;)

As for the game I thought we were the better team in the first half, we just looked pretty brittle at the back and toothless going forward. We knocked it about really well and coped with Hall going off pretty well. Second half thought, wow, and what a game real end to end stuff with both teams breaking at pace and leaving gaps behind. Payne exploited those to great effect and Thomas had his best spell for us, held the ball up well and looked a threat. Good to have Ribs back although noticeable that they got quite a lot of joy down his side when he got caught up the pitch.

Brilliant away day though, nice walk through the town to the pub and pitch and lovely old stand. Rip off prices though - twenty is more than plenty for league one footy.
He thought he saw a Slumdon fan so fair play to him - whether you're 6 or 60, that's suitable provocation.

Re: POSH away

Posted: Sun Oct 08, 2017 8:20 pm
by ty cobb
Your dad's a scummer - shame!