We Move On

[GodalmingYellow]

No Steve, we cannot afford to spend more, and even if funds were there, there is a wage cap to remember.

Maybe we were simply so poor we made Chesterfield look good. No, they were good when they visited us. I wonder if they have lost a player or two recently.

The sad fact is that some of the Wilder team tendencies are starting to rear their very ugly head again and Wilder isn't getting the best out of the squad that is available. Seems a bizarre thing to say when we are 4th in the table, but I saw the same things as in each and every year Wilder has been in charge.

Pumping long balls up to a central striker, who tries to control the ball, either gives a free kick away, or controls it, but takes an age to move it on. There is no movement off the ball, everyone takes up a position and waits to receive (or is that tries to hide?). Lack of creativity in central midfield. Lack of working to close the opposition down. Tepid passing along the back line or back to the keeper rather than trying to move the ball forwards. Taking an age to make a pass anywhere on the pitch. Dropping deep at the earliest opportunity. Making insufficient use of the wide men. This is all basic stuff isn't it?

Clarke kept the score down for us.

The two full backs ain't good enough. I don't care where they've come from, they make too many mistakes and their positioning is awful, and they provide no forward threat. I'm desperate to see Batty powering down the line again, and likewise Davis. It was a big mistake to release those two.

Raynes had a reasonable game, as did Mullins. Rose was barely in the game. Hall was awful, and consistently gave the ball away. Potter did very little to merit his wages. Rigg did his share. Kitson's and Potter's form have both tailed off badly since the opening 3 or 4 games. But like Beano, Kitson does a lot of work for the team, coming deep to collect the ball, often found in defence as well. Sure he hasn't scored enough yet, but he is some way from being our weakest player, so I don't get the criticism being levelled at him. Beano gave it a good go. Davies certainly put in more of a shift than Hall and had noticeably more quality. Very unfair to load too much criticism onto O'Dowda. He slipped on his first attempt to gain the ball and that won't have helped his confidence, but his run and cross for Beano's diving header showed what he is capable of.

Southend in contrast had done their homework. They knew we couldn't cope with being closed down quickly. They knew we were open to attack behind the full backs. They knew that putting multiple players on our wide men would nullify our attacking options.

Very disappointing performance and match.

[Myles Francis]

To play devil's advocate slightly, those who are saying that we won't be able to maintain our away form seem to be willing to accept that the home form will remain poor. At the moment, I don't see it like that. I would expect that the away form will drop off (we're not going to go the whole season unbeaten away!), but for the home form to improve.

We've taken 18 points from 10 games. That's 82 points when extrapolated to a full season. That ain't bad.

However, from what I've seen this season, one of our biggest problems seems to be the amount of space the opposition manage to create against us and our failure to do the same. Even when Burton were down to 10 men, they had a knack of creating space and still being a reasonable threat. We just don't seem able to do the same - our players always seem to be under pressure to move the ball on, resulting in some wayward passing. So, yes, there is work to be done and improvements to be made, but what I don't want to see is the baby getting chucked out with the bathwater.

[Dr Bob]

Myles (cliche alert) - I hear what you are saying - but right now I expect our away form to dip, whilst I merely hope our home form will improve. That is not only down to me being a miserablist, but to what I have seen this season and too often in recent seasons.

Lots of positive noises have been made about the spirit in the club, which we have seen in late goals being scored. But what lots of comments on here point to is a lack of quality - whether in specific areas (eg the full backs, midfield 'general', etc - and I apologise for yet another cliche), or more generally, in terms of not being able to have the ball without panicking, hoofing it forwards, or simply not being very good.

Or maybe we are so dependent on a spine of Wright, Whing and a fit Beano that the real issue is a lack of quality down through the squad (I do not want to re-open the whole Dev Squad issue, though).

[Kernow Yellow]

I would expect that the away form will drop off (we're not going to go the whole season unbeaten away!), but for the home form to improve.

I would also expect both of those things to happen. The question is, if (when) the away form drops off, will the home form improve enough to make up for it? Let's hope the away form continues for as long as possible, so we don't have to worry too much about it. But it should be noted that even with our frankly remarkable run of results away from home, we are still outside the automatic promotion places thanks to our home form (or lack of it).

The biggest worry about all this is the effect on home crowds - and therefore on club finances and player budgets etc. As a reasonably distant exile I don't feel like making any effort to try and get to home games at the moment, and I'm sure there are plenty like me. The combination of poor football and appalling 'matchday experience' in and around the stadium is a real turn off.

I'll still try and find any excuse to go and watch us away, but sadly that doesn't benefit the club at all. That's why the club HAS to sort the issue out, and ultimately make our style of play more focused on winning home games than away ones.

[tomoufc]

I would say that the club and the fans have done much to add to the match day experience. Their efforts should be rewarded with attendance at home matches. They can't gaurentee us a win each game, but that's obviously impossible. Improved home performances will help the atmosphere no end, which I'm sure everyone's aware of.

[Kernow Yellow]

I would say that the club and the fans have done much to add to the match day experience. Their efforts should be rewarded with attendance at home matches.

Really? I'm not belittling the efforts of the Yellow Army groups at all, and anything they put in to try and improve things is much appreciated. But has it really added much to the match day experience? The Priory is a HUGE loss imo. A place where people could gather, meet friends, eat decent grub, drink real ale and real cider (and everything else besides), and even smoke if they wanted to. If the game was poor, at least you could go home with memories of a decent day out in the company of fellow yellow fans - something that exiles like me with young families get to do very rarely. And even better, you could park there and it was a five minute walk to the turnstiles. It's not the club's fault that Tim left the Priory, but the new bar (same as the old bar) is not even nearly a replacement. Shit drinks selection, no food (I'm guessing, or rubbish stadium food maybe?), no area for smokers to continue enjoying their pint, very few seats, massively overpriced.

Inside the stadium, the concourses and toilets are an embarrassment. I like the new flag displays, but once the game gets going they don't really add to the atmosphere. In their end-of-season questionnaire, the club asked for opinions on an 'unreserved seating' section. At least this would allow like-minded fans (ie those who want to stand up, sing, be with their mates and create a bit of atmosphere) to gather together and enjoy the day a bit more. But nothing seems to have come of it.

United We Stand is the slogan, but only if you're a season-ticket holder it seems. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against ST holders getting priority tickets and club shop discounts and the like, but the club needs to do more to attract people who can't attend nearly enough games to make an ST viable, and not make us feel like second-class citizens. Especially when the football on display at the Kassam is generally not entertaining enough to get people to make the effort.

[YF Dan]

I agree with KY about the matchday experience, but I wonder what realistically can be done without the club owning the stadium...

For me the biggest gripes are:

1) the public transport...for it to take 55 minutes from train station to ticket office is a disgrace.

2) The ridiculous system of having to buy tickets from the counter. Even with a sub 6,000 crowd, I had to queue for 10 minutes to buy my tickets on Saturday. Whatever happened to paying on the gate...why can't we just do that?

3) Agree with KY about allocated seats. Do away with them. Let people congregate behind the goal and sing if they want to. I understand that season ticket holders who've bought a chosen seat might be annoyed but I'm sure they'd sacrifice their seat for a good atmosphere and hopefully better results? How about a small discount for buying an unallocated seat season ticket?

4) The empty end. I'd put a mosaic, a la highbury, (and big speakers) instead of the fence. Anything to make it feel more enclosed.

5) Have we really exhausted all ideas for filling the stadium? Every empty seat is a waste, and on Saturday over half the ground was empty. If I was a season ticket holder, sure I'd be a little annoyed if I was surrounded by people who'd got in for less than me, but you know, I'd see the bigger picture. And if the ground was full, I'd be happy.

6) The kids for free thing is good - I brought two kids with me - but my seat in the SSU was still £23 - that seems a lot for Division Four. My train tickets from London were £24. The bus fares each way came to £8. That's £55 to watch Oxford lose badly in front of a small, grumbling crowd in a stadium we all hate. Honestly, I can't afford to do that too often, and I've got an ok job. It would be fascinating to see what would happen if the club slashed prices...would the squeezed middle and lower income families start coming again? Is 10k people paying £10 better than 5k people spending £20? My instinct would be yes, because of all the spin-offs, but I know it's not that simple.

An empty three sided stadium I think does give the players a negative vibe, so anything that addresses this must be looked at.

[GodalmingYellow]

I agree with KY about the matchday experience, but I wonder what realistically can be done without the club owning the stadium...

For me the biggest gripes are:

1) the public transport...for it to take 55 minutes from train station to ticket office is a disgrace.

2) The ridiculous system of having to buy tickets from the counter. Even with a sub 6,000 crowd, I had to queue for 10 minutes to buy my tickets on Saturday. Whatever happened to paying on the gate...why can't we just do that?

3) Agree with KY about allocated seats. Do away with them. Let people congregate behind the goal and sing if they want to. I understand that season ticket holders who've bought a chosen seat might be annoyed but I'm sure they'd sacrifice their seat for a good atmosphere and hopefully better results? How about a small discount for buying an unallocated seat season ticket?

4) The empty end. I'd put a mosaic, a la highbury, (and big speakers) instead of the fence. Anything to make it feel more enclosed.

5) Have we really exhausted all ideas for filling the stadium? Every empty seat is a waste, and on Saturday over half the ground was empty. If I was a season ticket holder, sure I'd be a little annoyed if I was surrounded by people who'd got in for less than me, but you know, I'd see the bigger picture. And if the ground was full, I'd be happy.

6) The kids for free thing is good - I brought two kids with me - but my seat in the SSU was still £23 - that seems a lot for Division Four. My train tickets from London were £24. The bus fares each way came to £8. That's £55 to watch Oxford lose badly in front of a small, grumbling crowd in a stadium we all hate. Honestly, I can't afford to do that too often, and I've got an ok job. It would be fascinating to see what would happen if the club slashed prices...would the squeezed middle and lower income families start coming again? Is 10k people paying £10 better than 5k people spending £20? My instinct would be yes, because of all the spin-offs, but I know it's not that simple.

An empty three sided stadium I think does give the players a negative vibe, so anything that addresses this must be looked at.

I agree with a lot of the above.

The lack of public transport is a disgrace. The planning conditions were arse about face when they said the club could not charge for parking. That just encourages everyone to arrive by car, with the parking and traffic problems that are associated. Far better would have been to charge on a season ticket basis for reserved parking spaces, with any remaining spaces being offered on first come first served but still charged for, and use the money raised to subsidise a bus service joining the city centre train station to the various park and ride stations onto the stadium on a twice an hour circular service from midday until 6.00pm, excluding match times (with something similar for mid-week games). That would have relieved a lot of traffic and parking problems and enabled far more to get to the stadium not to mention be able to have a matchday drink without driving their car, raising further money from the sale of alcohol. £2 per game in advance, and £3 on the day could raise almost £100,000 per year in parking charges alone, which would be more than enough to subsidise a bus service.

Quite agree about lack of payment on the turnstiles. The queues are too long at the ticket office and this must put people off.

I agree about unallocated seating as well for certain areas. Whether existing ST holders would be happy to give up their seat I'm slightly less sure about.

At least a net behind the open end surely? But a mosaic would make the ground feel more enclosed and help to improve the atmosphere.

As an ST holder, I have no objection to the club offering deals on unallocated seats if it brings more in, provided my ST price is not undercut on a regular basis. Buy one get one free must surely be worth exploring, either for bring a friend or come to one match and get a second match free type deals to get people interested, especially for games with anticipated lower gates.

Personally I think one child 11 and under should be free with each full paying adult anyway. And the prices for under 16s are far too high. I think football generally is too expensive thanks to the Premier League, but I'm not convinced we are materially worse than other clubs any more.

[YF Dan]

Good post, GY. Totally agree about the parking, buses.

I was filming at Accrington a few weeks ago, and they had a great system in operation regarding kids.

Rather than just giving free tickets to young kids who turn up on the day, they proactively went out and gave bundles of them to local schools to give to the children.

Kid goes home, tells parents, "look I've got a free season ticket, please can we go to the football". They think it works, and is great PR for the club.

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Accrington, lovely club, so friendly, really don't want them to get relegated. They look doomed though.

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I don't think our pricing is necessarily worse than other clubs, but it's definitely not better, and when crowds are so far down on what they could be, that's something we should look at.

[OUFC4eva]

We've been having this debate every year since 2001 - what's changed ?

You would think that Grenoble Road Stadium had been opened for a few months !

Until both the FC and Stadium Company decide to work positively together to improve
many basic aspects on matchdays - some of these aspects are so basic it's scary - this debate will come round quickly again.

Whether it is toilets and concourses and the overall cleanliness; matchday parking being organised and controlled
to how the new bar is run - stad. co. need to get their act sorted in particular.

[ty cobb]

As someone who is now living away from Oxford I can't get back enough to justify a season ticket. The thing that puts me off most is the price. Quite often (due to a baby) my plans will change at the last minute so buying a ticket in advance doesn't really work for me. Then when it comes to deciding whether I should go to the match or not I must admit paying £20 for a seat with a poor view and a good chance of getting wet in in the East Stand (all the good ones have gone) completely puts me off more often than not. Going to watch Charlton costs £20 for the majority of their games they are a London team playing in the Championship.

I refused to go and watch Oxford at Forest many seasons ago because of the £20 cost I know things have moved on somewhat but psychologically paying £20 to watch a football match (especially one at our level) just doesn't work for me. What is an equivalent?

It’s also true the matchday experience is awful at the moment, no Priory, a stadium which is over half empty but without owning the stadium there is really a limited amount we can really do and with no prospect of that anytime soon I can’t see it improving much.

We’re also not playing good enough football at home to make it worthwhile to make the journey. We’re a functional team but we have little creativity and no player who you can describe as a joy to watch or will do something that makes you think yep I can see why you’re being paid to play football, someone like Leven or McLean.
Think Wilder is doing a good job with the hand dealt to him, think the Board are right to reign in the spending but it all feels like a bit of a slog at the moment and as a club we can’t move forward unless we own the stadium.
Mind you if I lived 20 minutes drive away I would imagine I would be going regardless of all the above – I maintained my season ticket through the Atkins and Talbot eras after all!!

[Geoff]

It's a bit late for Southend comment but here goes anyway.

The main problem for me (who watches a totally different game to everyone else obviously) was a combination of Chris Wilder and Ryan Clarke. We're playing two wingers but insist on hoofing the ball up the middle of the pitch. I find it difficult to blame the midfield for that. The strikers are then looking for a ball 20ft in the air with their backs to goal. If the ball was played via the wings they would hope to receive the ball in front of them facing the goal. If the hoof ball was CW's idea it was a bad one. If it wasn't his idea he should have passed a message to RC via Newey to desist immediately. To be fair the second half was slightly better.

[Kernow Yellow]

It's a bit late for Southend comment but here goes anyway.

The main problem for me (who watches a totally different game to everyone else obviously) was a combination of Chris Wilder and Ryan Clarke. We're playing two wingers but insist on hoofing the ball up the middle of the pitch. I find it difficult to blame the midfield for that. The strikers are then looking for a ball 20ft in the air with their backs to goal. If the ball was played via the wings they would hope to receive the ball in front of them facing the goal. If the hoof ball was CW's idea it was a bad one. If it wasn't his idea he should have passed a message to RC via Newey to desist immediately. To be fair the second half was slightly better.

I wasn't at the Southend game (Jerome), but in the games I have seen this season Ryan Clarke looks for a quick throw-out almost every time he gets the ball, but the outfield players - and the full backs in particular - just turn their backs on him and wander up the pitch. It's similar to when we get a throw-in - no-one makes any kind of effort to find space. We just look devoid of energy and intelligence in such situations. To be fair I've been saying this since well before Chris Wilder became our manager, but I wish he'd sort it out.

[Geoff]

I shall keep an eagle eye on Ryan today to see which route he employs.

[A-Ro]

He threw a lot, some of his throws nearly got to the half way line.