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- 5 Dec 2017
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Hah, true. Which really does suggest something is up there, because he's desperately needed on the bench.Burey.
Even seeing it late Beadle would likely have got to that being 5 inches or so taller - one of the great let downs of the seasonYep all sides should just roll over and make it easy for the better one. Football is all about struggling teams going and disrupting games , making it a hard watch then grinding out points or even wins .
Wonder what the Barnsley, Stevenage, Bolton forums are saying about their matches yesterday.
Actually going into Tuesday strangely confident that we are going to pull off a result .
Winning , any way you do it , breeds confidence .
Certainly having doubts about GK Cumming , if that had been Easty or Jack S they woukd have been getting pelters on here .
COYY
It's these comments that are embarrassing.All the Des lovers you can't be pleased with what you are watching ?
Yes , so far . Had extremely high hopes when we signed him.Even seeing it late Beadle would likely have got to that being 5 inches or so taller - one of the great let downs of the season
Exactly this.It's these comments that are embarrassing.
I'm an Oxford United fan first and foremost, and I was happy to see a battling win yesterday.
It wasn't the free-flowing football that we'd all want to see, but it's 3 points and that is the most important thing right now. In the two games I've seen Portsmouth play, I've not seen anything particularly entertaining from them. But they are top of the league because they've had plenty of performances like ours yesterday.
And its not like yesterday was even that bad. In the first half we created several chances, particularly thtough Dsle. His link up play with Rodrigues gave him a really good chance but he blazed over. Harris cut through the middle and forced a good save from their keeper. Brannagan had a couple of decent efforts and I think Murphy too had one saved before his goal.
The second half wasn't as good, but both Murphy and Dale were bring targeted on and off the ball and neither got any protection. Yet both still looked dangerous in possession and twice Murphy had chances to put it on the plate for others to finish but the final ball couldn't quite come.
But on any other day, had be been 2 or even 3 nil up before Cheltenhams goal then it wouldn't have been a surprise.
Bolton's form has been iffy for a while and they were held by the mighty Exeter yesterday. They have also drawn against Barnsley, Charlton and Northampton recently as well as being beaten by Blackpool and Wigan. So absolutely no reason why we can't get a result there. We then have Port Vale and Shrewsbury to play before the end of March (assuming that the Lincoln game is moved) and there's no reason why we can't get 7 points from these 3 games.
We would then go into the final month of the season with 4 out of 6 games at home to cement that play off place.
There's so much to play for, and the outcome is so much more important that a few people loving or hating the manager!
Heโs been here two thirds of a season Steve, itโs plainly not good enough to see that group of players winging it one game to the next. That might not be what it is, but thatโs what itโs looked like in his every game in charge bar Portsmouth where, shock horror, we played forward as a team with tempo and upstaged them on their own soil. Yesterdayโs performance suggests it was a complete flash in the pan as we reverted to type - making football look remarkably difficult.Overall though the way Des wants to play has been clear for a few games now, play into the midfield then they will play it to the wingers to run at the full backs and get crosses in, you also have the late runners and the ones that hang on the edge waiting for the ball to come out.
ok, but Cheltenham have beaten Portsmouth and Blackpool and have only lost by a goal away at Derby and Bolton, also drawn away at Portsmouth and drawn at home to Derby. so although they are crap they are much more difficult to play against than people may think. They are a team to get past rather than a team you want to play against.Greg Leigh I bloody love you!!!! Brilliant work from Dale to make the winning goal.
But letโs not hide away from the fact, that for large parts of that game it was bloody awful. It was poor slow and lethargic and turgid. Yes itโs 3 points and yes thatโs what matters, but weโve just played a team, that has been in the relegation zone all season, and weโve scrapped a win, and I mean no disrespect to Cheltenham when I say this, but we really should be beating these far more easily. I thought the ref missed a few bookings, and possibly even a sending off for them.
Luckily results around us went our way. Iโm not sold on Buckingham at all, and if he is to last, then things need to improve in terms of performances/results because it wasnโt a great watch!
I hope they go down, f*****g horrible team to play against.Yes that take down and pass forward when he was 20 yards out was fantastic. I hope they stay up they battle well.
I'm guessing somewhere off the south west coast of Cornwall. Ramon Diaz will skew the average significantly.Wow, that's going to take some working out. But when you consider Appleton, Wilder, Jim Smith (the real one, I mean, not Baldy), were all from up north I'd guess our average manager is from somewhere north of Birmingham. So I'm anxious to hear the answer, BTCW
To pick up the last bit first, being reactionary in football generally gets you nowhere. The modern day managers all seek control of games in their own way for that very reason. Then factor in that we are in the top handful of clubs for our playing budget with some of the best players in the league and there is an inherent expectation that you assert yourself on games. Des doesnโt appear to know how to do that consistently.This obsession with "Des' style" is peculiar. What does that even mean? Yesterday we didn't play at our best against a very physical side, yet we were able to raise our game when it mattered.
Burey.
A decent post on the reality of how things stand at the moment.So 20+ games into Desโ term as manager (almost half a season) we are still too slow, still need tweaks and still need to play the ball forward quicker? And only in the last few games itโs become clearer to you at least the way Des is trying to play. Iโm honestly not trying to be awkward or deliberately negative but doesnโt that set the alarm bells ringing and tell you something? Even in Mannings first game we could see a change and a proper system from the previous manager. That system seems to have been what Des has tried to maintain but we no longer high press, no longer defend as a unit, and look like 11 individuals told to just get on with it.
Appreciate your view and clearly mine is different, but honestly as happy as I am with 3 points we were simply shocking and not a team with any sort of coherence or tactics or system. Iโd love Des to lead us to success, but other than the odd glimpse (like some of last weeks performance) Iโm just not seeing it. I expected to build on a great performance from last week but we didnโt. We got 3 welcome points thanks to Cheltenham being so poor, we barely deserved them though despite what the statistics might say. Iโve enjoyed 80 minutes of watching paint dry more than I enjoyed most of todays game.
Criticise my negativity by all means but Iโm being realistic rather than trying to paint a false picture of optimism as we managed a win at last after only 1 in the 10 previous games.
Letโs hope we get something at Bolton on Tuesday, a point at least would be most welcome and something Iโd take right now.
McGuane just refuses to offer any positivity and always sends us backwards. And then he never looks for the ball. I could count on one hand the times there is any interplay between Brannigan and McGuane. The only blame I would attribute to Des is not hooking himPoor today but we'll take the 3 points. Points are important but you also need to look at how you get there. We wer excellent against Pompey but poor today bar a couple of spells, all well and good when you're playing Cheltenham but against the better teams it won't fly. Purkiss made the point on The Dub that the best teams set the tempo regardless of the opposition, we raised it against Portsmouth but against some incredibly limited cloggers we dropped right off again.
Dale clearly man of the match and I wish a few more had his attitude. Watch him before the game geeing his team mates up and he also plays to the crowd a bit, it's such an easy win but not many do it. Brannagan did well and Rodrigues was involved in the spells when we played some good stuff at the end of the first half but overall not involved enough. Moore was also good as usual and you can see the extra composure and quality on the ball he has above all our other centre backs.
McGuane miles off it, Stevens was really poor too. Cummings is a concern, if that were Eastwood who conceded that goal then he'd have got pelters and it's far from the first time he's cost us. Southwold looked alright, anyone know if he's local?
Obviously a fall out.Should have been on the bench yesterday, he would have given us a different option to what we had on there.