Shrewsbury away

[bspittles]

My first game of the season, and although I would have been happy with a point beforehand, it was a dreadfully disappointing end to the game.

Two excellent finishes gave us the lead as the home side struggled to get any rythmn into their game. Whing was my man of the match for his first half performance in breaking up the play and getting the ball forward as required.

Unfortunately, the second half saw an invigorated Shrewsbury and keeping eleven men behind the ball meant the pressure was never properly relieved. Batt's distribution was woeful and Kerrouche didn't impress me in his short spell on the pitch.

Good to watch Oxford again though and I'm already looking forward to the Vale game!

[SmileyMan]

Four points from two games against two of the top teams in the division is not a bad return, but yes it does seem a bit flat after such a great start.

The 'English Disease' of defending too deep at the end of games seems to be insoluble for a lot of teams right up to the international side, so if anyone really knew how to fix it I suspect they'd be very rich.

Shame the Gills and Vale both won as well, but with Crawley in free fall and Vale potentially getting a deduction, the run in is starting to look promising.

P-word anyone?

[Baboo]

Obviously tired after Saturday's exploits but a massive factor was the referee in the second half - possibly the most biased display I have ever seen and that's saying something.

[bspittles]

Obviously tired after Saturday's exploits but a massive factor was the referee in the second half - possibly the most biased display I have ever seen and that's saying something.

There were lots of tackles/collisions that could easily have been given as fouls but weren't, but I thought all the 50/50s went our way in the first half.

Not a great refereeing performance, but not biased IMO.

[Baboo]

Obviously tired after Saturday's exploits but a massive factor was the referee in the second half - possibly the most biased display I have ever seen and that's saying something.

There were lots of tackles/collisions that could easily have been given as fouls but weren't, but I thought all the 50/50s went our way in the first half.

Not a great refereeing performance, but not biased IMO.

Not even in the second half? Within the first 5 mins of the restart there had been blatant fouls / pushing of our defenders. On the right Batt suffered and on the left we had someone taken out and shoved off the ball before the Shrews player was able to take the ball off him. 99 times out of 100 - free kick. Apparently radio Oxford thought it was a biased peformance as did CW - who said that he feared the worst when he got there and found the ref in the Shresbury dressing room chatting to their players on first name terms.

Whatever, we all see things in different ways and mustn't forget it was still a very good point.

[SWA]

@bspittles
Why was it your first game of the season if you don't mind me asking?

[bspittles]

@bspittles
Why was it your first game of the season if you don't mind me asking?

I don't mind at all!

It's a combination of living in rural Shropshire, having a new family (less than two years since I married and gained teenagers), having an eleven-week old daughter and also following my local non-league team, Leek Town.

I hope to be at Vale Park on the last day of the season, but have at least maintained my record of seeing at least one game per season since 1979.

[SWA]

Fair dos mate. SHame you didn't see a win...

[Kernow Yellow]

It's a combination of living in rural Shropshire, [...] and also following my local non-league team, Leek Town.

Something about these two points strikes me as slightly odd, what with Leek being the other side of Stoke-on-Trent from Shropshire...

[recordmeister]

One loss in 15 matches and 4 points in the last two games from two of the top 3 teams in the league.

I'd say Wilder is certainly an average manager and we really should be looking for someone who can give us a much better record to take the football club on.

Wilder out!

[bspittles]

It's a combination of living in rural Shropshire, [...] and also following my local non-league team, Leek Town.

Something about these two points strikes me as slightly odd, what with Leek being the other side of Stoke-on-Trent from Shropshire...

Leek is my home town (I left Oxford when I was three years old) and I became heavily involved with Leek Town (including being a director) until I left for Shropshire a couple of years ago.

[bspittles]

Regarding the issue of refereeing bias at Shrewsbury, I think the decision to book their striker for simulation rather than award a first-half penalty goes some way to disproving that he was favouring the home side.

He may have been a poor ref, but I still don't think he was biased.