The Rotherham Game

[slappy]

In the last eight days, we've played three of the current top four teams in the division, and taken six points from the nine available. I'd have taken that after the York performance.

[ty cobb]

I would also have taken 6 points from the 3 games but last night was just strange. As others have said you don't play with wing backs when you've got two wingers and playing with 6 defenders at home - what is that about? Chappers may misplace a few passes but at least he trys to drive forward, Whing is a good hlding midfielder but what has Heslop done to deserve his place?

And the subs were just strange, Smalley trys hard but Beano is a better player - we scored against the Gills when Beano was on for Smalley and leaving him on the bench all night must be a huge knock to his confidence.

Play offs aren't impossible but they were made a lot harder after last night and it was very very frustrating.

[Isaac]

Slappy - after 36 games you need to look at the whole season, not just the most recent games after a particularly poor performance. And over the season we've not been good enough, we've mixed very good with very bad and I can't see why or how that is going to change. Ultimately the players are inconsistent, we lack a core of a team that can regularly produce good performances (either through ability or lack of fitness). I think the formation as ever is a red herring, it's all about mindset.

I wasn't at the game jerome, but if the advertising hoardings were moved to deal with a perceived long throw tactic by Rotherham then that is very disappointing. Especially as the starting XI had Whing, Duberry and Raynes in it, if those 3 aren't expected to cope, we might as well just give up (which is what sounds like happened). Seems to me we were too worried about the opposition, rather than thinking about how to win the game, I'm all for using home advantage, but it should be in an attacking sense, not as a method of showing your fear.

We can certainly claim to be unlucky with injuries this season but I'm not convinced that even with the majority fit we'd have been up in the top 7. I like Wilder in general and think for the most part he's done a good job, however I do think the time is right to try someone else, some new ideas and above all else a more positive outlook. I often refer back to when he first arrived, he encouraged the team to attack, possibly because he didn't trust the defence. Over the years I sense he's become more pragmatic and possibly overthinks things, I've no doubt he'll do a good (potentially better) job elsewhere at some point, but he needs time to reflect and I don't think he can have that time with Oxford.

[Mooro]

In the last eight days, we've played three of the current top four teams in the division, and taken six points from the nine available. I'd have taken that after the York performance.

Agreed, in truth we'd have probably been alright if we'd only taken three or four...or at least having taken the 7 from the 12 from the three games || York...or 9 from those three and the next two...the difficult thing is to get to the bottom of why we have been so inconsistent.
It is this inconsistency which sort of derails the injury excuse, as a weakened squad should mean that on occasions we draw we would normally have won, and lost those we'd have normally got a point out of, but instead our results have almost born no relation to the position of the opposition.
Is it pressure - he seems to be able to handle the massive games (Slumdon, Wembley), but less so those at say the next notch down, where there is a more underlying combination of nervousness and expectancy - did it go wrong last night because of the revival of playoff hopes that weren't there when we played the Gills and Vale, and did we falter against BRizzle and York because of the expectancy of victory which wasn't there for the trip to Plymouth? Or alternatively, were the results against Gills, Vale and Plymouth a response to the threat of the drop, whereas last night, York and Brizzle were the result of an inability to motivate a team marooned in mid-table?

OR, is it neither and instead just something specific about Rotherham and/or Evans that spooked him big time and that all will be well again come Saturday?

Inconsistency is the hardest thing to make a decision around, as as soon as one leans one way, the next result takes you back the other. Perhaps it is when the only thing that is consistent is an inability to eradicate the inconsistency over a period of time, that a decision can be made...

[The OXman Cometh]

This was a psychological battle that Chris wilder lost absolutely - we'd come off the back of two wins against the top two and had Evans talking of adapting his approach (whether he meant it or not?), so to select three centre-backs and move the hoardings just sent out a massive signal that Wilder was scared of Rotherham, and if anyone at our level is likely to pick up on that and use it to drive his own players on it is Steve Evans....
The question is why? Does he really think that Rotherham are better than Gillingham and Port Vale? If he didnt think we were good enough to take on the top teams then why didn't he do it at Gillingham where, in truth, we'd probably have been far more forgiving?
In the last few weeks there has been a discernable softening of feeling towards Wilder, even from before Gillingham, but I think it takes quite some resolve to put this one aside and move on - as you say, the kind of surrender before a manager gets sacked....
We are now safe, we are ten points (because of GD) behind the playoffs with only ten games to go, are we into 'mutual consent' territory yet?

Wilder said as much on the radio last night, in fact he called them a 'Championship team'.

[SWA]

The Championship team line he uses was pathetic. I nearly burst out laughing!
WHy were the advertising hoardings so close to the pitch??

[Mooro]

WHy were the advertising hoardings so close to the pitch??

Either (i) To stop Rotherham players taking long run-ups to make long throws.....or (ii) to say &quotHere you are Steve, we're scared of your team in the air, so we''ll do this to give you something to add into your pre-match team talk

[A-Ro]

Why were the advertising hoardings so close to the pitch??

To stop long throws.

[joepoolman]

If you've been out two weekends on the bounce and pulled a stunner each night, you leave the house on the third week with a massive packet of jonnies in your jacket and a one-way ticket on the bus in to town. That's the attitude and set-up I thought we'd have this evening, going out with confidence that we could beat them, but instead we did the footballing equivalent of staying at home with a pot noodle, crying and having a wank.

While I don't think your analagy was perfect it was one of the best things I've ever read on this forum

Play offs aren't impossible but they were made a lot harder after last night and it was very very frustrating.

Mathematically not but realistically they are as good as impossible.