Best and worst of 2014; hopes for 2015

[Kairdiff Exile]

So, what were people's best and worst moments of watching OUFC in 2014, and what are our (realistic) hopes for 2015?

My best: Watching us take West Brom to penalties in the Milk Cup. Sure, we lost - but the performance was superb given the Premiershi* opposition, and it was good to feel proud of the team for once. Plus another ground to tick off the list, and a decent one at that.

My worst: Watching us get stuffed at Newport in February. We never looked like threatening a very ordinary team and it was clear then that our season was over. Plus it was freezing, and I realised at half-time that I was coming down with 'flu; by the time I got home I was so ill I was hallucinating.

My hope for 2015: That the more entertaining football starts to generate results and that we develop a nucleus of five or six players who will be at the heart of the team for the next three to four years. Do that before the end of the year and then maybe we can start to look at challenging for promotion.

[OUFC4eva]

I'm certainly glad to see the back of 2014 from a United point of view.
A terrible year results and points wise and only the takeover was a positive
really in my view.

THE WORST:
For me I did not see any league away wins in 2014!

I went to league games at Newport 2-3, Rochdale 0-3, Chesterfield 0-3,
This season - Exeter 1-1, Luton 0-2, Cambridge 1-5, Carlisle Utd 1-2,
Cheltenham 1-1.

THE BEST:
WBA was a good performance, very happy with the new ownership
and good to see young players coming through in particular James Roberts.

HOPES:
We don't let this season fizzle out. A good clear out in january
would be good with hopefully Brown, Hunt, Newey, Raynes and Potter leaving us.
I want to see a couple of decent acquisitions this window and far more
goals at home coupled with some good wins and hopefully some of the
fabled 2,000 missing fans come back!

[joepoolman]

The best and worst moments of the footballing year for me probably both came at Sixfields.
The defeat in May featured more or less everything that was wrong with last season, and was very painful despite the fact that it came at a time when losing was the norm.
Thinking about it the win in October was a good example of the two best things about this season; Hylton's goals and entertaining football, and to come from behind to lead in such a short space of time is always thrilling, with the icing on the cake being Hylton's Panenka penalty.

My hopes for 2015 would be that this team would develop a ruthless side to it's game which would lead us towards winning more points when we haven't played very well, and putting teams to bed more often when we're on top (see Tranmere home and away in Cup, Cheltenham away etc). If we can do that I think this team will be a real force to be reckoned with in League 2, but it is certainly more easily said than done.

[Kernow Yellow]

2014 was a horrible year for OUFC. The scene was aptly set as I wasted most of New Year's Day on a train (with a horrendous hangover) to a match that never happened in Newport. The best performance I saw was at Home Park - Gary Waddock's only positive day in a miserable United career, and one of Beano's best ever goals. Also enjoyed a good win at Ashton Gate and another more streaky win at Plymouth at the end of the year. Everything in between was basically shit - on the field obviously, but also the embarrassment of having our manager walk out when we were flying high (and then briefly denying he'd done so!), and then the farce surrounding the takeover, pie-in-the-sky talk of new grounds etc etc. But mainly because we hardly won any football matches all year.

My hope for 2015? That we win more football matches. Because that's what makes it enjoyable for me ultimately. Not DNA or weekly radio phone ins. Just 3 points more often. And maybe even a League promotion, or just League play-offs. God knows we've waited long enough.

Up the Manor!

[Sideshow Rob]

The best: The high point for me was at West Brom when for a time in the second half and in extra time both the team and the fans were outstanding.

The worst: The low point was Boxing Day were we were comprehensively beaten after and the feeling that optimism that had been generated over the previous few games had been dashed (subsequently resurrected by James Roberts at Plymouth).

The hope for 2015. The weakest part of the team is the midfield. Collins, Rose, Ruffles and Whing are all competent players but none of them are match-winners so I would like to see at least one good create midfield player signed. We have been linked with Marlon Pack of Bristol City and he would do nicely. With someone like him in the team the likes of Hylton, Roberts, Campbell and Hoban are going to score the goals that will see us pushing towards the play-off places.

[Mooro]

The best - the successful and, it seems, honest (as opposed to 'having to') introduction into the squad and the team of our own youngsters. Roberts (who I've enjoyed tracking through the YT) is taking the spotlight, but COD is now a fully fledged squad member and the signs are there for Long, Ashby and perhaps Humphreys too and two or three of the next generation as well . I just hope Crocombe gets his rewards.

the worst - I barely get to 'see' Oxford at all, so when the odd TV game comes along then that becomes more significant to me than many. So, when the Cambridge debacle occurred (and its not like its the first time it has happened on TV) and all these tales of wonderful football replacing less attractive methods are blown out of the water, then that was a pretty awful moment

2015 - I get angry after things like the Cambridge game, and start calling for heads to roll, but in general I'm seeing the Appleton 'chapter' as a two year plan, with the aim/hope/blind delusion that the end of the 2015/16 season will see us being promoted on the back of some good football. So for 2015 itself my hopes are that we can climb far enough up the table in the short term to put talk of relegation to bed, then see the rest of this season and beyond as the team learning and moulding into a unit that can play the football we want consistently enough and successfully enough for us to reach this time next year with eyes fully on League 1...

[Ancient Colin]

2014 was a really disappointing year for me and the frustration of making the long journey over to Oxford to watch miserable games in a soulless stadium eventually meant I resolved not to renew my season ticket - so this season, I've only seen a handful of games. I'm struggling to recall highlights - some of the heroic away performances with makeshift defences last season, the emergence of a number of our youth players as promise for the future and a possible business model, too. Low points are probably too many to list - what comes to mind is watching us being pulled to shreds from the Southend directors' box in the Waddock interlude, or the hideous thrashing on my own backdoor at Cambridge, but more than anything it's just a gnawing frustration at watching bad play, bad habits, poor movement and concession of tame goals. I'm still in the camp of wanting MApp to be given time, wanting the project to succeed, but not so much in that camp that I'm going to prioritise heading across to Oxford today over a cycling session.

[Jimski]

Best - development of promising youngsters, especially James Roberts, and also O' Dowda and Ruffels. (I thought Bevans looked really promising too, but he seems to have disappeared from the first team picture entirely. Results wise the year was awful, and best forgotten. (I didn't see either of the league cup performances, which seem to have been about the only high spots.

Worst - lots of matches, but the 5-1 to Cambridge really took the biscuit.

Hopes - that Appleton does at least well enough that it looks to the average fan that there is some hope that we challenge for promotion next season. (This season it's not yet impossible, but would be beyond anything I realistically hoped. A top ten place would do me now. We desperately need consistency rather than another manager gone, and thus I really hope Appleton can follow through on his plan. It's not great right now, but a manager does need time to implement a plan. Things can suddenly click.