Welcome to the Minchery madhouse Mad Dog

[Paul Cooper]

I think it important for IL to make an appointment as soon as possible (he has been looking for more than a month now and must be close to finding the right person)

Disagree, sorry. The key is to get the whole team right pre-match and do the half time-talks and Lewis is the right man for the job until the rest of the season imo, with or without Fordy. Even WPL can surely see that changing the management structure now would have a negative effect on the dressing room.

p.s. Tim Midgely is still alive

Let's agree to disagree Snake. ML and AM are going to be part of any new management group so the changes will not be huge. But in my view we need a spark.

ML is from the CW mould (but less of a manager), and I just worry that we are missing out on an opportunity to get an automatic promotion spot.

[Brahma Bull]

I think it important for IL to make an appointment as soon as possible (he has been looking for more than a month now and must be close to finding the right person)

Disagree, sorry. The key is to get the whole team right pre-match and do the half time-talks and Lewis is the right man for the job until the rest of the season imo, with or without Fordy. Even WPL can surely see that changing the management structure now would have a negative effect on the dressing room.

p.s. Tim Midgely is still alive

Let's agree to disagree Snake. ML and AM are going to be part of any new management group so the changes will not be huge. But in my view we need a spark.

ML is from the CW mould (but less of a manager), and I just worry that we are missing out on an opportunity to get an automatic promotion spot.

Paul my sentiments exactly. ML and AM are well regarded as coaches and integral to the set-up moving forward. We are not in a position to bring in a new broom and new management team, assistants and coaches.

I don't think ML is the long term answer and would prefer a new manager to be installed to work with ML, who would need to be heavily involved to enable the new man to bed in - even to sit and just tinker slightly until the season is defined. Then the new manager gets to work implementing his new way of playing.

We have a great opportunity to chase down the top 3. With Mickey and recent form/performances we will be in the lottery of the play-offs - which by the way still a successful season. We haven't ever been in a FL play-off.

[Eric Pollard]

And we're still not in the play offs yet BB!

Don't count' tha' chickens yet me old flower.

[SmileyMan]

My current estimate is 81 points for an auto spot, which would mean we need to win at least half of our remaining games, esp. against highly motivated rivals. I've seen nothing in the last four weeks that gives me any hope we'll acheive that.

I also estimate 71 points for a playoff place, so we'd have to completely implode to miss out. Luckily that sort of thing is unheard of at OUFC......

[Snake]

And we're still not in the play offs yet BB!

We are at least in the play-offs, end of. Shame about Wigan Warriors not being crowned the best Rugby team on the planet in a competition held somewhere in Australia recently as WPL would have had even more sporting cash to flash at Minchery Farm.

Under Lewis I'm starting to believe again.

[Hog]

Under Lewis I'm starting to believe again.

Are you sure?

Not impressed with Wright's post match interview this afternoon either. The usual stuff but also a rather outrageous attempt to force the chairman's hand which isn't helpful and I'm sure he'll be told just that! By all means have your say in private but personally I don't think he should be so public about what he says ALL the players think.

Starts about 28:30

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01s8s3b

[Snake]

Under Lewis I'm starting to believe again.

"Are you sure?"

Not impressed with Wright's post match interview this afternoon either. The usual stuff but also a rather outrageous attempt to force the chairman's hand which isn't helpful and I'm sure he'll be told just that! By all means have your say in private but personally I don't think he should be so public about what he says ALL the players think.

Starts about 28:30

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01s8s3b

Not at all sure, Mr. U., but at least the thread title is half right.

[JoeyBeauchamp]

And we're still not in the play offs yet BB!

We are at least in the play-offs, end of.

Really? Seven points clear of Plymouth, who have a game in hand and are winning for fun, and us having to play Burton, Chesterfield and Southend in the next few matches? I wish I shared your optimism.

[JoeyBeauchamp]

Are you sure?

Not impressed with Wright's post match interview this afternoon either. The usual stuff but also a rather outrageous attempt to force the chairman's hand which isn't helpful and I'm sure he'll be told just that! By all means have your say in private but personally I don't think he should be so public about what he says ALL the players think.

Starts about 28:30

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01s8s3b

I thought that was great - a player, for once, saying what he thinks and backing the temporary manager. he also said the players would back whoever came in, but it's clear that the players are 100% motivated; something that, maybe couldn't be said until CW.

[GodalmingYellow]

As I have said on another thread, ML has turned around home form at the sacrifice of away form, at a time when we have had a lot of away games.

If anyone thought we had a right to win at Rochdale, then I think they seriously misunderstand football. On top of this, a lot of recent football has been played on terrible pitches not dissimilar to Hackney Marshes. Even though the conditions are the same for both sides, some sides rely more heavily on passing football like OUFC, which is reliant on flat, firm, zippy surfaces, and some teams are set up to play long ball, so will care less about the state of the pitches.

Having got the excuses out of the way, ML however is not turning out to be the man for the job. Our passing game has lost too much patience in trying to deliver the incision that was lacking under Wilder, and so we face longer periods without the ball and on the back foot. It's a fine line to draw, but that is what the best managers are capable of doing.

I have defended IL over most things, but his response of being half way through the recruitment process is not good enough, and having the board in Australia during this period is negligent in my view. 4 weeks is plenty of time to have at least got a strong short list in place, if not having whittled it down to the final two candidates. Having a third party undertaking the recruitment process on behalf of the club is not a justifiable excuse for being in Oz.

Time for IL to be giving full concentration to the recruitment process methinks, and he is already two weeks behind schedule.

[Kairdiff Exile]

Reading between the lines of IL's interview, he has been away for a bit and had decided before he went to see what applications came in, see how Mickey Lewis got on and then evaluate when he got back. Although he said he wouldn't over-react to yesterday's game, he sounded pretty cross/disappointed about the result, and I think that's probably curtains for Lewis' prospects of getting the job. He's obviously attending to OUFC business this week (hence sitting down with Beano's agent and others to discuss contracts), and I would expect him to make some fairly swift progress on the appointment - deciding on structure, and possibly also making an appointment. That person will have to work with the existing coaching setup.

As I say, I'm reading between the lines, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if by the end of the week we had at the very least a Director of Football to steady the ship and support Lewis as well as move forward on contract discussions - if not a permanent managerial appointment.

[The Enforcer]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01s8s3b

Yet another match where, as I set out on another thread, our opponents managed significantly more total shots and shots on target. This time, being a top 3 side they had a striker able to convert these chances and really exposed our team's frailties that have been somewhat glossed over in previous matches. I hope this will serve as a wake-up call and our management/players will change their approach. What's really worrying is that Wright was insistent that the squad's application/togetherness can't be faulted, however, this still resulted in only a single shot (off target) in the second half. The least I would have expected from going 3-0 down is a bit of a late rally to try and force some respectability into the scoreline and then take that momentum into the Burton match.

[Mooro]

I guess they did rally to the extent that they didn't give away any more goals in the last half hour.

I agree that IL will be probably 100% OUFC this week, and I also suspect that when he said "more than 50% through the process" (he did say 'more than' even though most people appear to have missed that in subsequent comments here, on RadOx and the other side) he is actually a LOT more than 50% through - or at least in terms of knowing who he wants. The amount of time it takes to navigate the processes to make it happen remains to be seen, but I would not be surprised to see a new face within the next week, if not the week after.

Would love to know the content of the chat that IL and ML had in the week.....

[Mr T]

On the theme of the team being together, what was the reason that Kitson walked straight off at the end yesterday, while the rest gathered in the middle before applauding the fans?

We must remember that IL is primarily in charge of Wigan Warriors, who are a bigger club than us I'm afraid. You need to live up here in Rugby League land to appreciate that. Hopefully now that Oz is out of the way and the Super League season has begun, he will be able to give the important Oxford position(s) his 100% attention.

They say that time is a healer, and hopefully those of us present at Spotland yesterday will be able to look forward to Burton with more optimism than we have at the moment.

Having been to both Morecambe & Rochdale I am most concerned about the number of times that we gave the ball away. Rochdale taught us a lesson in how to play. They looked comfortable in possession and bided their time, and were more precise about where they passed the ball, rather than punting passes into an area hoping that a yellow shirt would collect.

PS I don't think Hogan will score an easier hat-trick than the one we presented to him on Saturday.

[Kernow Yellow]

We are at least in the play-offs, end of.

I'm another that disagrees with this. Recent form would see Plymouth overtake us by the end of the month, let alone the end of the season. I still think a top 7 spot is likely because plenty of teams around us don't seem to be any more consistent. But it doesn't take a massively surprising set of results to see us lose out - we have still to play several of our promotion rivals and our return from those fixtures thus far is very poor indeed.

My biggest worry is that Ian L also seems to think we're in the play-offs already - he said as much on RadOx last night. While he may well have a long-term vision which takes the overall reins away from ML, he also implied that all the current coaching and fitness staff would remain in place, so Mickey's going nowhere by the sounds of things. The longer time goes on the harder it gets to make a managerial appointment this season. But a few more bad results could see Lenagan pressured into making a change - he wouldn't want it to look like he had taken his eye off the ball.

The two upcoming home games are absolutely massive for our season.