A deserved defeat. The first 15 minutes were reminiscent of the Stevenage game where we were getting battered and struggled. The difference was against Stevenage we had Long, Moore and Brown as our centre halves and eventually they got to grips with it, whereas here we had Negru and Thorniley and they didn't cope as well. The loss of Leigh is important as it limits being able to pick 3 centrebacks. Murphy did well when he came on but you wouldn't want him as a left wing back against Bolton. I agreed with Buckingham in as much as we conceded while we had just started to get on top, but really we were lucky not to be a couple of goals down by then. Largely the difference compared to some other games this season is we missed our good chances (Rodriguez twice, Bodin once and Brown with a header or 2), I guess this was going to happen eventually - we seemed to convert more than our fair share of chances up until now. It's a common theme over the last few seasons, but in some games Brannagan and McGuane are not physical enough to cope - both excellent technical players but they struggle when the opposition just want to get the ball in the box and then battle.
Listened to a bit of the post-match on Radio Oxford and Rodriguez was largely getting the blame for his "poor" performance (not to mention sending off and missed chances) but I felt he was our best player by a distance up until the red card (a big caveat, admittedly). He'll be a big miss against Bolton.
Completely bazooka'd
Re: Completely bazooka'd
Saturday was an interesting day for trains.
My planned train to Reading was cancelled, so I had a choice of catch the next one with only seven minutes to change, or get to Reading with an hour and seven minutes. Meanwhile problems outside Paddington meant trains subject to cancellation and delays. Luckily our train was on time and we had reserved seats, although the reserved indicators weren't working. As it was also a Gloucester rugby home game, the train was even busier than usual.
On the way back, all trains from Cheltenham Spa via Gloucester to Reading/Paddington were cancelled. So we had to go to Bristol Parkway and go that route back instead. Luckily the train to London was running 45 minutes late so we only had a few minutes to wait at Parkway. Finally got back to Reading only about 40 minutes later than expected, and in time for my 21:30 train home.
The train cancellation also meant full refund for the return journey.
Anyway, it seems like we were up against the cosh from the start, and struggled against a more physical team.
After Bolton beat Exeter 7-0, I wasn't confident for the midweek game, but was happy with a Nil NIl draw.
So will we continue to play well against the "good" teams?
Also have we abandoned "play it from the back" now? Both the Orient game and Cheltenham we seemed to be booting the ball up field rather than trying to pass it from defence. I guess it's early days with one league game under Short and Buckingham still finding his feet.
My planned train to Reading was cancelled, so I had a choice of catch the next one with only seven minutes to change, or get to Reading with an hour and seven minutes. Meanwhile problems outside Paddington meant trains subject to cancellation and delays. Luckily our train was on time and we had reserved seats, although the reserved indicators weren't working. As it was also a Gloucester rugby home game, the train was even busier than usual.
On the way back, all trains from Cheltenham Spa via Gloucester to Reading/Paddington were cancelled. So we had to go to Bristol Parkway and go that route back instead. Luckily the train to London was running 45 minutes late so we only had a few minutes to wait at Parkway. Finally got back to Reading only about 40 minutes later than expected, and in time for my 21:30 train home.
The train cancellation also meant full refund for the return journey.
Anyway, it seems like we were up against the cosh from the start, and struggled against a more physical team.
After Bolton beat Exeter 7-0, I wasn't confident for the midweek game, but was happy with a Nil NIl draw.
So will we continue to play well against the "good" teams?
Also have we abandoned "play it from the back" now? Both the Orient game and Cheltenham we seemed to be booting the ball up field rather than trying to pass it from defence. I guess it's early days with one league game under Short and Buckingham still finding his feet.
Re: Completely bazooka'd
Thought we were particularly poor in the first half at Cheltenham. We improved in the second half but the damage was done and they could afford to just contain us.
On the plus side, met some friendly locals whilst having lunch in the Hewlett Arms.
On the plus side, met some friendly locals whilst having lunch in the Hewlett Arms.