Home Match Day Thread 16/03/2021 L1 OUFC v Doncaster Rovers

[unification]

I wouldn't write off Gillingham either, seem to be coming into form at the right moment.

I wouldn’t be dismissive of our next opponents either. Eight unbeaten and one defeat in 11. Games in hand too although as we well know playing Saturday-Tuesday repeatedly can impact the side.

There could be a right old bundle to get into those final two playoff places.

 

[West Oxon U’s]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1371958527669977095

 

[West Oxon U’s]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1371958728333926404

 

[Essexyellows]

Lovely result. Good performance.

Brilliant that Matty Taylor got on the scoresheet again. Looked a different player after his 1st goal.

Superb from Barker, absolutely destroyed his full back. Likewise Mide had a very good game as well and what a calm finish.

A word for Jamie Hanson who had a very good game.

Rather enjoyed Alex Gorrin pretty much shutting down Taylor-Richards for large parts of the game.

Lincoln were suicidal with their playing from the back but our high press was excellent.

Interesting discussion on RadOx about the stats/points when Liam Kelly plays. He is doing something right.

And finally, that was a really enjoyable game to watch.

Erm, I don`t know how to tell you this... but....

 

[The mighty Aldo]

Have to say that the referee had a very good game and tried to keep the game flowing which suited us. He only brought play back if no advantage was gained.

 

[Sheik djibouti]

That performance last night should be the blueprint of how we play for the rest of the campaign.

The positivity and pace with which we moved the ball forward in attack was as attractive as it was refreshing. We made a decent Doncaster outfit (they were 5th after all) look like a struggling Sunday League team for the majority. They simply shrank in confidence when we took it to them and were abject at times

Brannagan and Gorrin back to their absolute best and I have to say that, although he misplaced a few passes and had that god-awful shot in the first half when the keeper fluffed his clearance, it is the presence of Liam Kelly that allows both Gorrin and Branners to be so effective, simply because he does part of both their roles for them IMHO.

That was by far Barkers best performance for us. That poor right back is going to be seeing him in his sleep for a while. He was everything you need a winger to be AND he also tracked back (most of the time) and helped out at the back on the rare occasion required. I'm extremely pleased that Shodipo got a goal last night, not only that but he could've had a couple more, but for a rushed shot and a very good block. That will do his confidence no end of good and he is a confidence player from what I've seen. As for Matty - form is temporary and all that and last night he showed WHY he is one of the best in the business at this level. I don;t think he'll look back from here, provided we play the way we did last night.

As for the defence - they looked really assured as ever. Atkinson and Moore are both class acts and we are lucky to have such a good pairing at CB and they form an important 3 with Stevens who has also proved his quality beyond any doubt. The fact that all 3 are so young is really exciting for our and their futures. Hanson slotted into that RB position really well last night. I like the way he plays and whilst he will get roasted for pace at times, he has good positional and organisational sense, tends to read the game well, can pick a pass and has no qualms about putting attackers on their a**e for as long as the ref lets him get away with it - he is more than adequate cover.

Hard to judge the subs on that last night as the game was won before they came on, but all performed well against an opposition who were already mostly back on the road home! Would've been nice for Dan to get another...and he was so close to getting it too.

I was interested to hear KR say that they had discussed playing with more freedom before the game last night and decided to throw more caution to the wind last night. It really paid dividends and unleashed the teams true potential. I see no reason why we can't continue to play like that - we should fear nobody, especially when we have such a competent defence and if we carry on playing like that, everyone becomes more familiar with their role, which makes us even harder to break down.

Final word on the ref - he had a really good game I thought - didn't want to be at the centre of the action and allowed it to flow and I don't remember a bad call all night.

More of the same please!

 

[DevilsAvocado]

Morning all.

A few thoughts about last night.

I was pretty confident about this game until i heard the news about Forde, that was a blow, and then when the team news came out
i`m gonna admit i was even less confident, the idea of playing both Barker and Shodipo in front of a midfield that has not been dominating
games worried me, Barker has been improving but was still a way off where he needed to be and Shodipo has been pretty inconsistent.
It seemed like a gamble that had more chance of backfiring than it had of paying off. I was wrong.

Massive credit to KR, he said a while back that you have to win the right games and this was one of them, the tactics were spot on and i
was really happy to hear during the build up on radox that he was noticeably more chipper for this game than he had been for a while, KR
mentioned in the post game interview that he had made an effort to be more positive and that effort was rewarded, people are going to
say thats part of his job but when you are knackered and under pressure with limited options, trying to be Mr Positive in a convincing way
is not easy. Well played sir !

All the players turned up last night but 2 that need a special mention that are going to be so important going forward are Barker and Taylor,
Barker was excellent, the guy still can`t tackle to save his life but his reading of the game was very good, on numerous occasions he broke
up Doncasters attacks by intercepting passes and setting up our own counters, it was really pleasing to see him as the instigator of our
attacks and not just the beneficiary, more of this please !

Taylor, well, well, someone has his mojo back, how good was that to see ! If KR is the driver of the positive train, then Taylor is the conductor,
after that first goal went in you could see the confidence in him grow, he wanted the ball, encouraged those around him and was involved in
a lot of decent moves, when Taylor plays at this level and is fit he needs to start, no doubt about that.

10/10 to KR and the squad for last night, i think we made Donny look worse than they are.

 

[The mighty Aldo]

That performance last night should be the blueprint of how we play for the rest of the campaign.

The positivity and pace with which we moved the ball forward in attack was as attractive as it was refreshing. We made a decent Doncaster outfit (they were 5th after all) look like a struggling Sunday League team for the majority. They simply shrank in confidence when we took it to them and were abject at times

Brannagan and Gorrin back to their absolute best and I have to say that, although he misplaced a few passes and had that god-awful shot in the first half when the keeper fluffed his clearance, it is the presence of Liam Kelly that allows both Gorrin and Branners to be so effective, simply because he does part of both their roles for them IMHO.

That was by far Barkers best performance for us. That poor right back is going to be seeing him in his sleep for a while. He was everything you need a winger to be AND he also tracked back (most of the time) and helped out at the back on the rare occasion required. I'm extremely pleased that Shodipo got a goal last night, not only that but he could've had a couple more, but for a rushed shot and a very good block. That will do his confidence no end of good and he is a confidence player from what I've seen. As for Matty - form is temporary and all that and last night he showed WHY he is one of the best in the business at this level. I don;t think he'll look back from here, provided we play the way we did last night.

As for the defence - they looked really assured as ever. Atkinson and Moore are both class acts and we are lucky to have such a good pairing at CB and they form an important 3 with Stevens who has also proved his quality beyond any doubt. The fact that all 3 are so young is really exciting for our and their futures. Hanson slotted into that RB position really well last night. I like the way he plays and whilst he will get roasted for pace at times, he has good positional and organisational sense, tends to read the game well, can pick a pass and has no qualms about putting attackers on their a**e for as long as the ref lets him get away with it - he is more than adequate cover.

Hard to judge the subs on that last night as the game was won before they came on, but all performed well against an opposition who were already mostly back on the road home! Would've been nice for Dan to get another...and he was so close to getting it too.

I was interested to hear KR say that they had discussed playing with more freedom before the game last night and decided to throw more caution to the wind last night. It really paid dividends and unleashed the teams true potential. I see no reason why we can't continue to play like that - we should fear nobody, especially when we have such a competent defence and if we carry on playing like that, everyone becomes more familiar with their role, which makes us even harder to break down.

Final word on the ref - he had a really good game I thought - didn't want to be at the centre of the action and allowed it to flow and I don't remember a bad call all night.

More of the same please!

Agree with most of this but most teams we meet won’t play like that
Only MK spring to mind, most teams will get behind the ball and make it difficult and certainly won’t play out from the back and will disrupt play
Having said that if we get the ball to Barker and Shadipo quickly we can see they are a real threat

 

[outsidethebox]

Injuries are killing us to the extent that I almost put my GUK hat on and predicted doom and gloom. Luckily my optimistic outlook returned so a dour performance relying on a pen or OG to secure a point.

Well, that's my prediction for Saturday sorted!

 

[Sheik djibouti]

Agree with most of this but most teams we meet won’t play like that
Only MK spring to mind, most teams will get behind the ball and make it difficult and certainly won’t play out from the back and will disrupt play
Having said that if we get the ball to Barker and Shadipo quickly we can see they are a real threat

Yes you are probably right and that there need to be a certain amount of horses for courses. That said, I really think few if any teams in the division would cope with that first 60mins last night. They may park the bus in the hope of not conceeding and may knock it long to the big man/look to hit on the counter, but I saw nothing from out defensive performance last night that suggests we would have much to fear from that if they all stick to their game.

We've got enough options and enough intelligence in the team to both create the attacking options to create the chances and to defend astutely when needed...it just all needs to click!

 

[Marked Ox]

Erm, I don`t know how to tell you this... but....

Oops.

 

[Marked Ox]

Morning all.

A few thoughts about last night.

I was pretty confident about this game until i heard the news about Forde, that was a blow, and then when the team news came out
i`m gonna admit i was even less confident, the idea of playing both Barker and Shodipo in front of a midfield that has not been dominating
games worried me, Barker has been improving but was still a way off where he needed to be and Shodipo has been pretty inconsistent.
It seemed like a gamble that had more chance of backfiring than it had of paying off. I was wrong.

Massive credit to KR, he said a while back that you have to win the right games and this was one of them, the tactics were spot on and i
was really happy to hear during the build up on radox that he was noticeably more chipper for this game than he had been for a while, KR
mentioned in the post game interview that he had made an effort to be more positive and that effort was rewarded, people are going to
say thats part of his job but when you are knackered and under pressure with limited options, trying to be Mr Positive in a convincing way
is not easy. Well played sir !

All the players turned up last night but 2 that need a special mention that are going to be so important going forward are Barker and Taylor,
Barker was excellent, the guy still can`t tackle to save his life but his reading of the game was very good, on numerous occasions he broke
up Doncasters attacks by intercepting passes and setting up our own counters, it was really pleasing to see him as the instigator of our
attacks and not just the beneficiary, more of this please !

Taylor, well, well, someone has his mojo back, how good was that to see ! If KR is the driver of the positive train, then Taylor is the conductor,
after that first goal went in you could see the confidence in him grow, he wanted the ball, encouraged those around him and was involved in
a lot of decent moves, when Taylor plays at this level and is fit he needs to start, no doubt about that.

10/10 to KR and the squad for last night, i think we made Donny look worse than they are.

Agreed on KR. He gets criticism for tactics etc when we lose but the way he set up the team and the attitude last night was absolutely spot on.

 

[Siho]

When we started and a few passes were wayward, I was worried that we were going to revert to our slower backwards/ sideways passing game. I was very glad to see that they continued and had faith, and it really paid off.

So glad to see Taylor break his scoring drought.

Can't wait for next match now!!

 

[Manorman]

That performance last night should be the blueprint of how we play for the rest of the campaign.

Whilst exciting we couldn’t play like that every game as physically the players would not be able to sustain it twice a week. Barker was drained after 60 mins and clearly Brannegan Shodipo and Kelly didn’t last much longer. Sykes is the only option to sustain presses like we used in the first half and there will be a lot of teams who won’t come to play with the kamikaze freedom that Doncaster used.

 

[Sheik djibouti]

Whilst exciting we couldn’t play like that every game as physically the players would not be able to sustain it twice a week. Barker was drained after 60 mins and clearly Brannegan Shodipo and Kelly didn’t last much longer. Sykes is the only option to sustain presses like we used in the first half and there will be a lot of teams who won’t come to play with the kamikaze freedom that Doncaster used.

Yeah - I know. It would be nice to think that we could sustain that for 90+ minutes twice a week, but it is not humanly possibly. I do however wonder if we are able to sustain it for long enough periods within individual games to really give us the edge

As you say, not everyone will play with the kamikaze approach of a Doncaster, but few could live with that level of intensity in D1 - even in 15-20 minute phases. We really rattled Donny almost from the off and it paid off. Knowing when to use it, when to sit off, when to rotate and rest players will be the conundrum that KR will have to solve!

 

[tonyw]

It's a strange league this year. I thought Pompey were nailed on a play off place atleast a month ago. Any team down to 13th are in with a shout to get in the top 6 and with 36 points still to play for its going to be interesting. Need to get a result on Saturday to put some real pressure on.

Since beating us, Pompey have taken one point from the last 15.
By contrast, Gillingham have won four our of their last five, and are suddenly right in the mix.
At the beginning of the month, Plymouth looked like they were muscling in on the playoff picture. They've now lost five in a row, and are back to glancing over their shoulders again.

It's that sort of league this season - very little consistency, and spotty form for (almost) everyone.

The key now is timing. Make sure you've had a good run and are in the playoff places when the music stops!

 

[oufc1991]

This season has been a marathon with lots of different teams sprinting to quickly only to fall over and have to pick up the pace again us included with our 9 game winning streak the last 10 games of this season are going to be interesting there is everything to play for nobody in the bottom half are safe and nobody in the top half has ran away with the league
It’s not just this league tho I mean other than norwich the championship is still quite open and the same could be said for league two

 

[DevilsAvocado]

Whilst exciting we couldn’t play like that every game as physically the players would not be able to sustain it twice a week. Barker was drained after 60 mins and clearly Brannegan Shodipo and Kelly didn’t last much longer. Sykes is the only option to sustain presses like we used in the first half and there will be a lot of teams who won’t come to play with the kamikaze freedom that Doncaster used.

Forde back by the weekend ? And now that Winnall is ready for the bench i think we are going to see Agyei used on the
wings even if its only to give others a rest.

 

[Berliner]

Forde back by the weekend ? And now that Winnall is ready for the bench i think we are going to see Agyei used on the
wings even if its only to give others a rest.

Oh dear Lord strap yourselves in...

 

[Bigfella72]

Since beating us, Pompey have taken one point from the last 15.
By contrast, Gillingham have won four our of their last five, and are suddenly right in the mix.
At the beginning of the month, Plymouth looked like they were muscling in on the playoff picture. They've now lost five in a row, and are back to glancing over their shoulders again.

It's that sort of league this season - very little consistency, and spotty form for (almost) everyone.

The key now is timing. Make sure you've had a good run and are in the playoff places when the music stops!

I’d expect Pompey to hit form again with the appointment of Cowley