Home Match Day Thread 18/12/2021 L1: OUFC v Wigan Athletic

[stokeu]

No more games ufn methinks

 

[Hackney Jack]

To be fair we lost more than a few key players! I agree that we probably aren’t good enough for top two, but don’t see that as a fault

me neither, just is what it is. As ever, we have hope, and if we string a solid run together again, who knows. But we must beat some of the top four/five sides - we've played all the other sides in the top six, with no wins this season. I hope this changes.

 

[OxfordYankee]

Wigan vile, limited, but effective, I ‘spose.

We win that game, home or away, with our missing players. They got very lucky in playing us today.

Onwards and upwards for us, I think.

 

[Concretebob]

Today sums us up. Good enough for play offs. Not good enough for autos.

Did you see the side we put out? Did you hear that KR said before the game we could have had the game postponed but we went ahead?

Totally agree with whoever said it. Pathetic comment.

 

[uptheus]

We had a chance to win that game today, but played right into their hands by slowing the game down when we were on top. Wigan were frightened shitless of us, hence their time wasting etc. If we had continued to keep the tempo/take the game to them and not going down with injuries to break up the game then I think we would have gone onto win, hence disappointed.

The performance today under the circumstances against another team in form was really impressive.

We were far the more superior team and played Wigan off the pitch, just a shame we couldn’t turn the performance into a win.

 

[werthersoriginal]

me neither, just is what it is. As ever, we have hope, and if we string a solid run together again, who knows. But we must beat some of the top four/five sides - we've played all the other sides in the top six, with no wins this season. I hope this changes.

We’ve typically drawn with them, esp away, which is an improvement on last season and also denies them points. I feel more positive about our chances in the playoffs this season, we've got tougher and a bit nastier and I’d back us against most sides over two legs, though I’d rather avoid Wycombe.

 

[uptheus]

Apparently Cheltenham want Dan.

How bad was his performance after coming up. It was set up nicely for him to make a name for himself, but his decision maker or shits (if you can call them that) was extremely poor today

 

[Orkney Islands Yellow]

Urgh, tough one to take. Great performance given the circumstances.

 

[Osei Yaw]

That was quality today, moments like Williams' goal and Taylor's equaliser are what I love about going to football. I really like that Karl wanted the game on today, people were complaining before we played Fleetwood and Rotherham and it proved to be the right decision to get those games on, and today I feel it was justified too. We put in a big performance despite the big names we had missing. It was going to be a struggle without Thorniley, let alone Brannagan and Kane and then losing Henry in the warm up was just another punch in the face, but the application from the team today was absolutely superb.

Shame about some of the Wigan fans. Seemingly some of the thickest and most entitled in the league. I heard some of them booing when Mickey Lewis' lad came out before the match. Did the same when the girls ran past at half time. Have some class.

 

[BigAlan]

That was a performance from way down deep, at 3pm I would have taken 0-1 all day, to do what they did was simply awesome and makes me proud to be a yellow, and the beer tasted excellent in the pub afterwards.

If thats the top of The league team then our second team ran them ragged, Williams, Sykes, Whyte, McGuane, Long got battered, even limping along they performed like giants.

As for Agyie I have tried my hardest to like him, but not any more, time for him to go and get someone else in.
I am a happy bunny even though we lost.
Up the Yellows.

 

[Big Ron]

Wigan vile, limited, but effective, I ‘spose.

We win that game, home or away, with our missing players. They got very lucky in playing us today.

Onwards and upwards for us, I think.

I listened to the Wigan manager on BBC Sport and you'd think they were some smoothly purring football machine! It'e effective but basic, laced with enough class in certain positions and being incredibly dangerous on set pieces. He also referred to our squad depth, rather than mentioning that half of the team and most of the subs were missing!

I can see why they will probably go up - and why they will probably come down again straight away.

 

[dickwalton1964]

We had a chance to win that game today, but played right into their hands by slowing the game down when we were on top. Wigan were frightened shitless of us, hence their time wasting etc. If we had continued to keep the tempo/take the game to them and not going down with injuries to break up the game then I think we would have gone onto win, hence disappointed.

The performance today under the circumstances against another team in form was really impressive.

We were far the more superior team and played Wigan off the pitch, just a shame we couldn’t turn the performance into a win.

We were swarming all over them for 5 minutes after we equalised but the game got broken up and they sort of regrouped and got a foothold for 10-15 minutes, culminating in the goal. They are up there for a reason and I think it’s too easy to just say we should have kept our foot down.

A decimated squad, makeshift team, two goals down to the team in second, I think we could be excused for not continuing to throw the kitchen sink at them and undoing all the hard work. That said, they obviously scored and in hindsight, yes, throwing players forward might have been the way to go but I’d excuse us for being caught between a rock and a hard place in this instance.

The vast majority of Oxford fans would have taken a point.

 

[werthersoriginal]

I

That was quality today, moments like Williams' goal and Taylor's equaliser are what I love about going to football. I really like that Karl wanted the game on today, people were complaining before we played Fleetwood and Rotherham and it proved to be the right decision to get those games on, and today I feel it was justified too. We put in a big performance despite the big names we had missing. It was going to be a struggle without Thorniley, let alone Brannagan and Kane and then losing Henry in the warm up was just another punch in the face, but the application from the team today was absolutely superb.

Shame about some of the Wigan fans. Seemingly some of the thickest and most entitled in the league. I heard some of them booing when Mickey Lewis' lad came out before the match. Did the same when the girls ran past at half time. Have some class.

I actually didn't know they had fans, I thought they might be like Accrington or one of those little Lancashire teams. Sweet to see them get all excited.

 

[Orkney Islands Yellow]

I hope they're having a f*****g torrid journey home.

 

[PottersRightBoot]

Wigan off and on the field obnoxious bunch. Really really dislike that cynical carousel approach in sharing out the bookings.

To be fair they showed some set piece talent and some ruthless finishing. Would love to play them - and beat them - in the playoffs. Our full team would have beaten them today.

Sad to say Forde is not up to it defensively against the best wingers in this league.Seddon sadly also cocked up for the second goal.

Plus side, Whyte, Williams, Sykes and Taylor fantastic. McGuane infuriates. He’s potentially superb at this level; but simply doesn’t get involved enough. Is it lack of confidence? Anyway, Robbo sort out the guy’s head because he’s got enough talent to go a long way in the game.

10 out of 10 for our manager today; he’s a great motivator and a cute tactician. To get so close today after all thoss shenanigans was almost miraculous.

 

[ttg17]

I

I actually didn't know they had fans, I thought they might be like Accrington or one of those little Lancashire teams. Sweet to see them get all excited.

Thought it was quite weird hearing the fans of a team that has won the FA Cup in the last decade singing that ‘to the championship, we’re on our way’ chant. Fair play for embracing your fall from Grace, I suppose.

 

[ttg17]

I didn’t realise KR had been told we could postpone the game today. Think it’s quite interesting. He would have known that going into a game against the side in second without Brannagan, Thorniley/McNally, Kane, Henry or Holland was pretty suicidal, and, while our performance was far better than I’m sure anyone really expected, we did still drop points against a promotion rival.

Especially after we played the Fleetwood & Millers games, I’m sure it’s partly ‘playing the game in the right spirit’, but I think another part of it is a bit cuter: I think the idea is that it gives us a moral high ground if, at some point, a team tries to call off a game against us because they have players out with covid. I’m obviously not too certain how the process of calling off a game goes, who has a say etc, but I would imagine it makes it much more difficult for other sides to say, ‘we can’t play - we have too many players out,’ when we can turn around and say, look what we did when we had players out - we got a team out regardless.

Whether that would actually make a difference in the decision-making process I don’t know, but gaining a reputation for taking it on the chin and getting together an 11 to play a match surely makes our case to insist on a game being played much stronger.

 

[Jason N]

That was quality today, moments like Williams' goal and Taylor's equaliser are what I love about going to football. I really like that Karl wanted the game on today, people were complaining before we played Fleetwood and Rotherham and it proved to be the right decision to get those games on, and today I feel it was justified too. We put in a big performance despite the big names we had missing. It was going to be a struggle without Thorniley, let alone Brannagan and Kane and then losing Henry in the warm up was just another punch in the face, but the application from the team today was absolutely superb.

Shame about some of the Wigan fans. Seemingly some of the thickest and most entitled in the league. I heard some of them booing when Mickey Lewis' lad came out before the match. Did the same when the girls ran past at half time. Have some class.

I totally agree about missing Thorniley, but it was really a double whammy missing McNally also. In the league he has come in and been brilliant.

Forde had probably his best game at right back but he and Longy are not comfortable enough in those positions. Longy did well but you could see that he was really hesitant to pass the ball out to the left hand side when being pressured. I'm not sure why Long did not play on the right side of the defence as he is more natural on that side.

I actually thought that Mcguane got stronger as the game went on. I was really worred when he went down and was shocked that he come back so strong. He looks to be getting fitter.

I must admit that when I saw the team, I thought we might get battered. Missing Brannagan or Kane, is not a problem, but missing both and then losing Henry at the last minute, OMG!!.

 

[Andy1505]

I think Wigan are one of the poorest teams we have played this season, their long ball hoofball is admittedly effective but it must be so dismal to watch week after week, yeah we should have learned from the first goal and defended better but the spirit and application and fight from our makeshift team was outstanding and we were unlucky not to at least get a point.

-Forde was fantastic today, we could see he was struggling but he kept on going, always showed up for the ball and put some better dead balls in. Shame he got caught out for their winner but he hasn't played much football lately.
-Long put in a shift, he missed a few headers and was a bit shaky at times but he fought, he battled, and put up with the frankly disgusting and dirty tactics from Wigan.
-Moore was much better, he is using his head much more lately (literally!-finally he is using his height to good effect!) Great sliding challenge in the box but I also thought he stood off too much the player for the the third.
-Sykes was a real driving force and I like him central as he brings that energy, some great tackles but he was guilty of some over playing at times. Wish he'd shoot quicker too!
-McGuane shows all the potential of a really top player but he drifted a bit too much today, I know he was playing the DM role and when he got involved he looked great but still think he needs to do more on the ball.
-Seddon was playing attacking left midfield for a lot of the first half, not sure he was that effective there but he put in a shift 2nd half defensively too.
-Easty has done well for us but his kicking is really not up to standard (nor is Stevens' btw!). Not sure he can really be blamed for the third goal, the second maybe as possibly he shouldn't be beaten from that far out.
-Williams was great today, all over the pitch, always moving, putting the press on. Maybe he's played his way into the team?
-Taylor is such a good striker at this level, he works hard, fight for every ball, and ploughs a pretty thankless furrow up front, his chivvying of the team, his s***housery tactics and his constant harassing of the defenders shows what a quality player he is, we'd be lost without him.
-I see flashes of Whyte regaining some form and showing his quality but I'm desperate for him to run at players more and make them commit, he can scare the life out of defenders at this level and I wish he'd do it more.
-Agyei tried and showed a couple of nice touches but his decision making is not really good enough and he's had lots of chances, admittedly not an extended run in the team but unless he starts scoring he won't find a place here I fear.
*Edited- forgot about Bodin! He was ok but nothing special, flitted in and out but not very effective. Needs to do more.
We were absolutely disgusted at the behaviour of the Wigan fans, climbing over seats to come towards the Oxford fans itching for a fight, they really were possibly the most classless, ignorant, and tasteless fans we've had visit for a long time, no wonder most clubs hate them and some of their players! Let's hope they blow up in the worst kind of way and spend many more years at our level.

All in all I'm unbelievably proud of my team, my club and my fellow supporters tonight, we are a decent club on and off the pitch and some of the Wigan players and their fans would do well to be a little more humble and honest and not behave like thugs. Rant over!

 

[Horse]

Wondering if the Wigan fans are home yet. Let’s hope they are still south of Birmingham