Game On!

Anything yellow and blue
Post Reply
Roo
Mid-life Crisis
Posts: 731
Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2007 10:16 pm

Game On!

Post by Roo »

Just confirmed on Newport County website!

See you there.....
slappy
Grumpy old git
Posts: 2884
Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2007 3:52 pm

Re: Game On!

Post by slappy »

Well that was disappointing. I left at 4pm for an expected 120 mile trip to arrive at 6:30. A pile up on the M4 had me sat there stationary for an hour and a half (later a fan at the game said he had been in the car next to me). Had the pleasure of Radio Oxford match build up until I lost the signal, then Radio Wales until around 8pm. Rather unhelpfully, the motorway traffic alerts said take J26a for Newport, but no further football stadium directions spotted once off the motorway. I parked up in a multistory and paid my £2, then realised it said it was open 7 to 7pm, and with a big barrier looking like it could be brought down, and not fancying a night in a locked car park, moved to some offstreet parking. Still a fifteen minute walk for what seemed a very convoluted way into the ground past which I guess is sandwiched in between various terraced housing.

I missed Constable's goal, thought we were a bit light in midfield, and Newport just seemed better prepared for an aerial game with big players like Rene Howe.

Disappointing to concede again in first half injury time (how many times this season?). The Newport fans seemed like the biggest moaners at football outside of the Kassam stadium, whining about every perceived offence. They only found their voice once 2-1 up from a curling free kick from Ryan Burge unmarked into the top corner of our net - I thought we'd sorted out our defence now? The third goal was the biggest defensive cock-up I've seen from us in a long while, I assumed it was Clarke and one of the young players it was so bad, so surprised it was Mullins. They were both at the edge of the area attempting to block/lay off a floated ball to one or the other, and it ended up rolling across the box for the simplest of tap ins from Zebroski.

The Newport fans started singing "1-0 up and you ****it up", I don't count losing a 1-0 lead as ****ing it up, two perhaps. Still Potter managed to get a 2nd for us, and then it was down to Newport to manage the game out through some careful possession up near the Oxford corner flag.

Despite the state of the pitch, I quite liked the ground, a decent new all seater stand to our right with bar at the top (only open pre-match), a seated open terrace for us behind the goal, a standing open terrace for them behind the goal, but more popular was the covered terrace along the side of the pitch.

The Newport chairman said they'd been expecting 6,000 for the New Year's Day game, with 250 hospitality packages sold, but attendance ended up as 3757 and apparently just 100 hospitality taken up.
SWA
Puberty
Posts: 405
Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 9:59 pm

Re: Game On!

Post by SWA »

The pitch looked decent - probably better than our home pitch to be honest.
I was surprised the bar was only open pre match, they missed out on a fair bit of trade at half time - seems a strange decision. Also slightly odd, that you can only get to the bar by first going into the seated area of the stand.
Left Oxford around 415PM and was in Newport just after 6. Saw no hold ups on the M4 at all from J13 to J25a?
We deserved nothing from the game. Clarke at fault for the second goal, and arguably for the 3rd also (obviously Mullins very culpable also)
All in all a disappointing evening. Nice ground though...
Kernow Yellow
Grumpy old git
Posts: 3075
Joined: Thu May 11, 2006 5:16 pm

Re: Game On!

Post by Kernow Yellow »

Our first trip to Rodney Parade, our first defeat post-Wilder and of course our first away defeat in the league this season. Was it also the first time this season we've scored first and gone on to lose? I can't be bothered to look it up, but it's certainly not a good habit to get into.

Beano's goal was quality, a good move and a very smart finish - the first (and possibly only) time we strung two passes together in that first half. Newport were just sharper all over the pitch. I haven't seen a team press quite that hard for 90 minutes for a while. We wondered before kick-off whether their lack of recent games would mean a lack of match fitness or plenty of energy, and it was certainly the latter. What we did well in the opening period though was defend. Crosses were dealt with, and the hosts were restricted to pot-shots which flew harmelssly off-target. It looked like we'd just about done enough to hold the lead until half-time, but a spawny deflected goal meant we were up against it after the break.

And then, frankly, we fell apart for half an hour. We lost our shape and our heads. It was all Newport, and we gave their midfield players as much space as they wanted to launch attack after attack on our goal. Chapman was getting closer and closer with efforts from the edge of the area before another ex-U Ryan Burge struck a decent free-kick beyond Ryan Clarke, whose positioning looked a bit suspect.

There then followed a couple of situations where Mullins wanted Clarke to come for through balls - on the first he didn't, the second he did but only after several invitations from the captain. There was clearly poor communication between the pair already by the time Mullins played a blind backpass into the goalmouth only to find Clarke stood behind him on the edge of the area. It might have been on own-goal on a better pitch, but as it happened yet another Oxford reject had the simplest task of smashing the ball into the empty net.

The shame of this goal finally provoked us into some attacking football, and a scrappy goal of our own almost lead to a grandstand finish, but we were powerless to stop Newport's blatant timewasting which ensured about 45 seconds of football was played during the 5 minutes added time. A frustrating end to a disappointing evening. And, honestly, anything other than a defeat would have flattered us.

It's no shame losing to a team like Newport with their fantastic home record. And it was inevitable that our run would come to an end before long. What matters is how we react to the defeat. If Mickey can get the boys playing more positively again and come away from Morecambe with three points, then that will be a very encouraging sign.

That's not to say that I think everything's still likely to turn out rosy. I haven't seen us win since August(!) despite watching us play a veritable smorgasbord of mediocre opposition since then. Talk of automatic promotion is very optimistic in my opinion. Last night we had an opportunity to take a big step towards cementing a play-off spot at worst. There will be further opportunities, as we play more teams up and around us in the next month or so. We need to show we're capable of competing against the best teams in this division again or we could find ourselves worrying about dropping out of the top seven altogether quite quickly.
Radley Rambler
Grumpy old git
Posts: 2249
Joined: Fri Jun 30, 2006 4:36 pm

Re: Game On!

Post by Radley Rambler »

[quote="Kernow Yellow"]Our first trip to Rodney Parade, our first defeat post-Wilder and of course our first away defeat in the league this season. Was it also the first time this season we've scored first and gone on to lose? I can't be bothered to look it up, but it's certainly not a good habit to get into.

Yes it was.
joepoolman
Mid-life Crisis
Posts: 834
Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2011 11:22 am

Re: Game On!

Post by joepoolman »

Radley Rambler wrote:
Kernow Yellow wrote:Our first trip to Rodney Parade, our first defeat post-Wilder and of course our first away defeat in the league this season. Was it also the first time this season we've scored first and gone on to lose? I can't be bothered to look it up, but it's certainly not a good habit to get into.

Yes it was.
The first time we've been ahead at any stage of a match in any competition and lost this season.
GodalmingYellow
Senile
Posts: 5178
Joined: Tue May 16, 2006 10:22 am

Re: Game On!

Post by GodalmingYellow »

Kernow Yellow wrote:I haven't seen us win since August(!)
May I politely request that you don't come to any more games until we have secured promotion then!!
Post Reply