Painful Posh Pummelling
Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2023 3:22 pm
First, a huge apology to all concerned at OUFC. I went yesterday. Guaranteed defeat (unlike last season's 0-0 and the 1-4 win not so long ago). Will I never learn...
In the pub before the match, I was chatting to some Posh fans and one bit of the conversation went - THEM: we have a front four who are young and quick. ME: our defence is not. That pretty much summed up the first half for me - except that the "slow" bit extended to describe all of our players and their attempts at playing football, whilst at times we were simply chasing shadows.
There was no tempo, the only patterns of play consisted of creating Cat's Cradles of passing across the back, and we never built up any forward drive because we would repeatedly either give the ball away or be tackled in the midfield - rather too easily (eg Moore getting dispossessed for the first goal). At one point with all this playing 'out' from the back, I actually wondered if Brown had been seeing Thorniley's missus, given the number of times the latter simply turned round and passed to Moore or Beadle when he had the ball, rather than look for a forward option wide left.
The pitch was awful and Beadle slipped as he started to move towards the attacker with their second goal - but on that and other occasions, the Posh players managed to stay upright and keep control of the ball.
OK, so there was more urgency and at least some forward drive (great to see Murphy starting to show how good he can be), but still so few clear-cut chances. Over quite a few years now, Posh have built success at this level on a pacy attack. More often than not they win against us (regardless of my presence). But Oxford showing nothing in the first half and not a lot more in the second, that we might even score, was so dispiriting. A long way to go still, of course, but something has to change - and it has to happen well before the transfer window reopens.
In the pub before the match, I was chatting to some Posh fans and one bit of the conversation went - THEM: we have a front four who are young and quick. ME: our defence is not. That pretty much summed up the first half for me - except that the "slow" bit extended to describe all of our players and their attempts at playing football, whilst at times we were simply chasing shadows.
There was no tempo, the only patterns of play consisted of creating Cat's Cradles of passing across the back, and we never built up any forward drive because we would repeatedly either give the ball away or be tackled in the midfield - rather too easily (eg Moore getting dispossessed for the first goal). At one point with all this playing 'out' from the back, I actually wondered if Brown had been seeing Thorniley's missus, given the number of times the latter simply turned round and passed to Moore or Beadle when he had the ball, rather than look for a forward option wide left.
The pitch was awful and Beadle slipped as he started to move towards the attacker with their second goal - but on that and other occasions, the Posh players managed to stay upright and keep control of the ball.
OK, so there was more urgency and at least some forward drive (great to see Murphy starting to show how good he can be), but still so few clear-cut chances. Over quite a few years now, Posh have built success at this level on a pacy attack. More often than not they win against us (regardless of my presence). But Oxford showing nothing in the first half and not a lot more in the second, that we might even score, was so dispiriting. A long way to go still, of course, but something has to change - and it has to happen well before the transfer window reopens.