Romans go home

[recordmeister]

on the evidence of the last two games have we had a worse centre back than futcher

Steve Wood? And he was bought in by the same manager that bought in Gilchrist and Elliott, so that proves that you can't win 'em all...

[recordmeister]

I think we had (have?) a good player in Craddock but may be slowly destroying him. Like Midson he is not a wide player.

Absolutely 100% nailed-on correct. Craddock is a striker. He's not a centre forward, he's not a wide forward and, god help us, he certainly isn't a left winger.

Agreed. All I saw yesterday, esp in the last 10 mins, was us getting the ball down and then pushing it wide LEFT to Craddock who can't cross, as he isn't a winger. It seems really odd that the team didn't make an effort to get the ball out to Green / Potter, even when they had space.

The ONE HIGHLIGHT from yesterdays game was.... Simon Clist. He IMHO had a fantastic game. His touches were great, his tackling was great and, best of all, he seems to treat the entire team with the same respect: when he sees a pass on to a man in space, he makes it. He doesn't seem to take a second and think &quotNa, he's a bit pony, I'll wait to pass it to Beano&quot, like some of the other players do. He is indeed a team player and really won my respect yesterday. He nearly bloody scored with a free kick, too. Where the hell did that come from??

[slappy]

So we have a long trip to table topping Chesterfield on Tuesday night which I expect most are writing off already as a defeat. Thankfully a Saturday off with no rearranged games then gives us 11 days to prepare for the Barnet home game. I think we will have a couple of behind closed doors games to try and sort things out.

The manager has said in that SW Argus interview he has no more loan plans for now, so we will see what we can achieve with what is on paper a good squad of players.

And then it is hoping we don't start to make changes to this set of sequences, the first of which seems to be 6 consecutive league defeats in a season.

[Baboo]

The ONE HIGHLIGHT from yesterdays game was.... Simon Clist. He IMHO had a fantastic game. His touches were great, his tackling was great and, best of all, he seems to treat the entire team with the same respect: when he sees a pass on to a man in space, he makes it. He doesn't seem to take a second and think &quotNa, he's a bit pony, I'll wait to pass it to Beano&quot, like some of the other players do. He is indeed a team player and really won my respect yesterday. He nearly bloody scored with a free kick, too. Where the hell did that come from??

In more agreement here too.
Our MOTM by some way.
I also liked the way he spots danger and does his best to snuff it out. When we lost the ball on one of the many occassions yesterday he spotted a Gills player in acres of space and legged it back about 30 or 40 yards to mark him.

[boris]

Short memories:

Dave Woozley? Lee Molyneaux? Even Paul McCarthy?

Ian McGuckin, Colin Greenall.

I trump all of these with Dave Collins.

And for the record I agree with Wilder that Beast, Day, Midson and LSD aren't good enough for L2 (plus one or two others who are still at the club). The only question I have with CW's wheeling and dealing is whether he's brought better players in. Certainly MacLean looks promising and Wotton had a decent debut by all accounts, but on the evidence so far Futcher and Craddock look wanting. Let's just hope we don't get tonked at Chesterfield and that CW can rebuild confidence in time for Barnet.

[OUFC4eva]

Woeful Oxford central defenders must include Brian Wilsterman, Wayne Hatswell, Nick Lowe, Mark Warren, Ian Stott, Ian McGuckin, Lee Jarman, Steve Wood, Leo Roget, David Woozley &amp BEN FUTCHER.

[Baboo]

Woeful Oxford central defenders must include Brian Wilsterman, Wayne Hatswell, Nick Lowe, Mark Warren, Ian Stott, Ian McGuckin, Lee Jarman, Steve Wood, Leo Roget, David Woozley &amp BEN FUTCHER.

We've certainly got a lot to choose from.

[Old Abingdonian]

Excellent post, Boris.

Indeed, what a list, but unfair on Leo Roget, who had his wobbly moments, but does not deserve to be in the distinguished company of Woozley, Wood and Molyneaux.

....and how could I forget GNOHERE!

[Joey's Toe]

Woeful Oxford central defenders must include Brian Wilsterman, Wayne Hatswell, Nick Lowe, Mark Warren, Ian Stott, Ian McGuckin, Lee Jarman, Steve Wood, Leo Roget, David Woozley &amp BEN FUTCHER.

I'm going to make the case for Phil Whelan. Never before have I seen a player single-handedly so responsible for so many conceded goals through the same means. It felt like every other game he'd play a just-too-short backpass and allow a striker in to score.

Why on earth he wasn't just banned from playing backpasses and told to lump it in the stands instead, I will never know.

Terrible player. AND he cost us £150,000 IIRC.

[Isaac]

My first game of the season, I didn't pick a good one. Gillingham pressured us out of the game first half, too many of our players didn't want to take responsibility on the ball I thought, a sure sign of lack of confidence. It's possible we only saw more of the ball in the 2nd half due to Gillingham sitting back somewhat. We never really looked like scoring (did think we had a penalty late on though).

Good to know we have a new scapegoat in Futcher. I thought he was poor too but before lumping him in with our worst ever centre halves I'd be inclined to give him more than 2 games. Some of the players listed here were consistently bad for some time. Lots of players start badly (whether due to lack of match fitness/familiarity I don't know). He has plenty of league 2 experience so is unlikely to actually be a donkey at this level.

Wilders interview at the end of the game was pretty good I thought other than the unnecessary dig at the negative supporters. He has to expect some negativity when we've lost 5 on the bounce and would be better not mentioning it. It's possible he's trying to protect the players by deflecting the criticism to himself, but that's probably a generous reading of what was either just frustration or a clumsy attempt to point out the longer term progress made since he's been at the club. Mostly I was encouraged that he sounded determined and didn't choose to publically criticise any individual players (when plenty could have been criticised).

Anyway, I hope we stick with/behind him, stay calm and supportive (the atmosphere yesterday wasn't bad, but was somewhat resigned to defeat). There is a massive amount of pessimism at the club that it will all go wrong, it happened last year when we slumped post-xmas, but he coped with that, re-grouped and got us promoted. It's never going to be a smooth ride. I think the idea that the wembley team, if kept together, would have continued victorious is a bit simplistic - apart from the fact 2 of the midfield 3 were unavailable at the start of the season, no team gets promoted and expects to survive with exactly the same set of players.

Wilder has not got, or is ever going to get, every decision about team/formation/players correct but if when he took over around 2 years ago you'd have offered us 4th from bottom in league 2 now, there's not a single one of us who wouldn't take it and be grateful.

[Dr Bob]

Rarely have I been happier to have been 6000 miles away from a home game. Several here have already made the point I was going to offer, that whilst we have had many postings lately questioning whether existing player x, y, or z is up to Division 4 standard, the more relevant question is whether the incomers are either. Last year, I seem to recall CW admitting that bringing in multiple players last Christmas/transfer window time had not been a good move. And yet here he is doing the same thing again (and we are not even in the official transfer window yet). The seeming inability to learn from a mistake he himself acknowledged is something that worries me greatly.

[GodalmingYellow]

My first game of the season, I didn't pick a good one. Gillingham pressured us out of the game first half, too many of our players didn't want to take responsibility on the ball I thought, a sure sign of lack of confidence. It's possible we only saw more of the ball in the 2nd half due to Gillingham sitting back somewhat. We never really looked like scoring (did think we had a penalty late on though).

Good to know we have a new scapegoat in Futcher. I thought he was poor too but before lumping him in with our worst ever centre halves I'd be inclined to give him more than 2 games. Some of the players listed here were consistently bad for some time. Lots of players start badly (whether due to lack of match fitness/familiarity I don't know). He has plenty of league 2 experience so is unlikely to actually be a donkey at this level.

Wilders interview at the end of the game was pretty good I thought other than the unnecessary dig at the negative supporters. He has to expect some negativity when we've lost 5 on the bounce and would be better not mentioning it. It's possible he's trying to protect the players by deflecting the criticism to himself, but that's probably a generous reading of what was either just frustration or a clumsy attempt to point out the longer term progress made since he's been at the club. Mostly I was encouraged that he sounded determined and didn't choose to publically criticise any individual players (when plenty could have been criticised).

Anyway, I hope we stick with/behind him, stay calm and supportive (the atmosphere yesterday wasn't bad, but was somewhat resigned to defeat). There is a massive amount of pessimism at the club that it will all go wrong, it happened last year when we slumped post-xmas, but he coped with that, re-grouped and got us promoted. It's never going to be a smooth ride. I think the idea that the wembley team, if kept together, would have continued victorious is a bit simplistic - apart from the fact 2 of the midfield 3 were unavailable at the start of the season, no team gets promoted and expects to survive with exactly the same set of players.

Wilder has not got, or is ever going to get, every decision about team/formation/players correct but if when he took over around 2 years ago you'd have offered us 4th from bottom in league 2 now, there's not a single one of us who wouldn't take it and be grateful.

I disagree with most of this.

Having got us into League 2, none of us would have accepted 4th from bottom at this stage. The only relevance of the last quoted paragraph is the opportunity to be out of the Conference. Being 4th from bottom gives too near an opportunity to return there.

Comparing Futcher to donkeys of the past is unfair on those from the past rather than unfair on Futcher, as many were playing at a higher level.

Futcher isn't a scapegoat, he's a donkey and at that standard would not even get in a step 6 side. If he wasn't up to standard and ready to play, he should not have been signed. we are not a charity to give out of favour/unfit/not good enough players a training camp. This is the real deal and we should only sign players who improve our squad, not players to fill gaps vacated by unnecessary release of players who are actually better.

[SWA]

good post that ^^^^
I am another who wouldnt have taken 4th from bottom League 2
NO WAY, we are a big club, we should be aiming for pormotion from League 2, not looking just to stay in it!!

[slappy]

As mentioned elsewhere, perhaps the digs at the supporters is to deflect criticism from the players.

The choices post-match are to say :- we did well when we didn't they're an honest bunch of lads or &quotPlayer X was woeful, Y too slow, Z should have taken his chances&quot.

The players are obviously low on confidence, and whilst we got behind them first half, it was difficult 2nd half and the boos didn't start until the final whistle in the OM stand that I noticed.

[JoeyBeauchamp]

I think what is strange about Wilder's attitude towards loan players is that he sees them as automatic first teamers - that is they go straight into the siode at the expense of regulars. It happened last season when he brought in the likes of Chalmers and Grant, who were quite obviously not as good as the existing squad. This is clearly going to cause two distinct problems - regulars are going to get pissed off and the loan players will take time to gel.

Loan players, imo, shouldn't be brought in to improve the squad by putting pressure on the established players and then taking their places if they do not perform. Bringing in someone like Wooton is fine to give the dressing room some much needed experience and grit is fine, but to start him and make him captain is a slap in the face to the other midfielders. Likewise Maclean - surely it would have had made more sense to play Craddock - a centre forward - in the middle!

No problem with loan players, and no problem with shipping out Conference players (Creighton, Midson) or one's who have attitude problems (LSD) but they cannot be automatic starters unless they are good enough and hungry enough.

On, and I was going to say Phil Whelan and Brian Wilsterman, but surely Wayne Hatswell has to take the prize hands down.