Home Match Day Thread 19/04/2024: L1 - OUFC v Stevenage

[Northstandboy]

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[chuckbert]

My resident 15 year old statto tells me our xG was 3. As is often the case, making enough chances to turn the game but not converting them.

 

[Barbadosyellow]

Hoping that turns out to be a critical point earned. The league table doesn't look as disastrous as some comments here would suggest. There will be plenty of twists and turns tomorrow and on the final day which will probably see us moving repeatedly in and out of the playoff spot in the live table. COYY.

 

[dickwalton1964]

Frustrating game against an even more frustrating opponent.


My Player Ratings

Cumming 7 - Did OK, not much he could do about the goal and was always alive to balls over the top, no complaints

Stevens 6 - Helped Browne out quite a lot going forward, looked worse as the game went on though, and that pass in the 2nd half was woeful

Long 6 - Relatively tidy but I think he does struggle in the air, we miss Moore on this front.

Brown 7 - Played well with the little he had to do, won a lot of his headers, Stevenage weren't the biggest test he's had all season.

Leigh 3 - Absolutely appalling performance, every single ball was back to Brown, had one great run but this the only thing worthy of praise, was also at fault for the goal in my opinion (wasn't even goal side of his man) and should be dropped for Bennett

Rodrigues 5 - Huffed and puffed but struggled to have much of an impact on the game, few moments that he will wish he'd done better with

Brannagan 6 - The guy battles so hard but today just wasn't his day, really wish he'd be taken off set-pieces, rarely are they good enough and for corners he's more dangerous on the edge of the box.

Goodrham 4 - Poor game, barely saw him the first half, ran around a lot though, not surprised he was subbed.

Browne 5 - Stuggled to beat more than one man without losing the ball.

Harris 6 - Feel sorry for him, must be absolutely shagged with the 3 games and sheer amount of running he does, was also feeding off scraps tonight.

Murphy 7 - Had their right back in his back pocket for most of the game but final delivery wasn't quite there, a week without a game will hopefully do him good.

SUBs - Don't think any of them added much worth writing about to be honest.

Agree with most of that. Thought Stevens was having a really tidy game until about the 70 minute mark then his touch and passing just seemed to desert him. I’d probably mark Long up one, thought he had a good game alongside Brown.

 

[chuckbert]

I’m catching up on Wasn’t at the game, and it’s lovely hearing Radiohead on the stadium PA blaring away in the background.

 

[West Oxon U’s]

I couldn’t understand how the ball ended up in our net for their goal from where I was sitting until I saw the Sky highlights.
There were plenty of yellow shirts in the box and just two attackers.

Initialling Long headed the ball out for a corner. Cumming elected to punch the ball away from the incoming flag kick.
We got overloaded - that was careless - down our left and the ball in is deflected high into the net off what looks to be Long’s chest or upper arm.

Can’t blame Cumming for what happened in the second phase but he didn’t get enough purchase on the corner and I question Long’s body position too.

It’s fine margins but conceding such a poor goal - the first goal was always going to be crucial last night - was incredibly frustrating.We huffed and puffed again but
lacked a cool head and our final pass often lacked precision. However Murphy’s centre at the death was a top quality ball in and a centre forward with aerial ability
heads the ball past MacGillivray.

Huge decision to start with Browne over Dale. Browne disappointed me but of course was taken out for what should have been a stick-on pen.

We missed McEachran too who gives us balance and quality in midfield.

We get far too many knocks and niggles and it could really cost us.

 

[Up The Manor]

The 400k signing looks very costly after the last 2 results .Not available until August suggests we need to hold an internal review of our operations .
A frustrating night with zilch end product .

 

[Horse]

Denied penalties not on the highlights? Protecting the ref??

 

[Osei Yaw]

He should have caught the initial ball in from the corner, was entirely unchallenged - and if he decided he had to punch, he should have gotten much more distance on it than he did - didn't even get it out of the area. No fault after that, but if he deals with it properly when he has the opportunity, there's no damage done.

He just hasn't convinced me these past three months. He's good with the ball at his feet, but makes too many errors and too many bad decisions. Hope we can find someone better over the summer.

He's good with the ball at his feet in terms of receiving a pass and getting himself set before moving it on. But I don't think his distribution with his feet is that good. Seems to be at least once a game where he goes to lob the ball over an opposition winger to our full back but ends up passing it straight to them or they manage to get their head on it.

Overall he's an upgrade on Eastwood, but he's nowhere near Beadle's level. Beadle was very good and beyond this level, but I think there is a standard between the two that I'd be aiming to get permanently over the summer.

 

[East Stand Fan]

Poor display overall and a far cry from last Saturday. If we’re going to start Harris then you have to start Dale - it’s simply not good resting some players and not others. If you bring in Browne then you can easily play Bodin. Harris looked spent very early and was chasing shadows as we offered little press. Defence also went back to being slow out the back and that goes all the way back to Cummings and it really hampered our urgency. The goal conceded was a mess and we failed to stop the cross a few times before being punished.

Although we had chances against a poor Stevenage side, I think game management before and during was costly. Our lack of options in key areas has proven fatal.

 

[Big Ronaldo]

He's good with the ball at his feet in terms of receiving a pass and getting himself set before moving it on. But I don't think his distribution with his feet is that good. Seems to be at least once a game where he goes to lob the ball over an opposition winger to our full back but ends up passing it straight to them or they manage to get their head on it.

Overall he's an upgrade on Eastwood, but he's nowhere near Beadle's level. Beadle was very good and beyond this level, but I think there is a standard between the two that I'd be aiming to get permanently over the summer.

I would argue that Losing Beadle is what has put us in this position.
We would be at least in a play-off spot if he had been here.

 

[Gregortheox]

First and foremost it was a good experience sitting in the SSL with dad yesterday. We both said that the colour and noise was excellent. Credit to the fans who were superb.

It was a frustrating night on the field again. Our performances have certainly got better which bodes well, but for me we are undercooked in a number of areas.

Tactically, we are starting to make sense, but we do need to recruit well in the summer to maximise its effect.

 

[uptheus]

25 shots to 2

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1781438704063562136

And not many of them actually making their keeper work.

We are so poor at set pieces!! And why oh why do we try and head the ball directly in when a header back across the box would be more effective!

 

[Osleroad]

I would argue that Losing Beadle is what has put us in this position.
We would be at least in a play-off spot if he had been here.

Would agree with that and the list is long on that one - write in Mills and Edwards for example so to still hold our own in the place we are is really a bit of a miracle - still a deflated feeling if we don't make playoffs.

 

[PottersRightBoot]

First off, it was one hell of a game. The Oxford way on a national stage.

Cracking terse funny banner re demise of FA Cup, corking atmosphere. There was a lot to like about Oxford United the club, and Oxford United, its supporter base.

But a number of players melted at key moments. Stevens, Leigh, Cumming to name but 3.

Calmness wins games and we didn’t have enough of it last night . Have no idea why Dale didn’t start, maybe his stats were down in training. This is a player who delivers, more often than not.

I agree the table is not as awful as some are making out. Blackpool v Barnsley is the key game; still fancy Barnsley to stuff it. And our goal difference is better than theirs.

We played pretty well and I’m looking forward to next season, Even though it will be in League One.

It will be fun, I like Desball.

 

[Nadi-]

Can see the ref getting a dressing down from the assessor over the penalty decisions.
Got all 3 wrong, whether poor positioning or lack of official team work. To get 100% wrong is some achievement.
When it comes to division one, both games this week, show it’s just not good enough

 

[Thomas/Brock/Jones]

What about tactical changes, instead of sticking with the same routine…

Blame the officials all you want, we wasn’t good enough to break down a very poor Stevenage.

We broke them down time after time, the final ball / finishing let us down this evening.
Again why is every team we play ' really poor ' they were very well organised and defending deep.

 

[uptheus]

Denied penalties not on the highlights? Protecting the ref??

The penalty we got was very dubious! Think the referee evened that up from his mistake in the first half.

 

[Osei Yaw]

I would argue that Losing Beadle is what has put us in this position.
We would be at least in a play-off spot if he had been here.

I agree it's been a massive loss. I don't think it's been mentioned enough either.

 

[MC Yellow]

Good morning all,

Well, I hope we have all had a decent nights sleep and are waking up this morning with an uptick in optimism and hope once again.

Looking forward to the watching the scores play out later today. It's not over, till it's over.

This may well turn out to be a "so near yet so far" season, but we've had lots of bumps and turmoil along the way and to still be clinging to some hope going into the last game of the season is such a significant step forward compared to last season. I will take that any day of the week.

Atmosphere has stepped up hugely these past few games and as a team we have shown the good, the bad and the ugly, so I refuse to be down about things, it really isn't worth it.

Des has earned the right to the summer and next season. He arrested the slide and got us back in with a fighting chance. To those that said in January that sticking with Des will see us end the season in mid table mediocrity, well, you were wrong.

The sun is shining, it’s the weekend, enjoy

 

[dickwalton1964]

Harris, aerially, is a concern. That’s three or four on a plate for him in the last few games that he’s either missed completely, misdirected or just not got a good contact on. He needs better timing obviously but also has to launch himself at the ball with a bit of intent, do that and he might get one in off a shoulder, his back, his chest. Out of his 18 goals will be interesting to see how many headers because that looks a very weak part of his game.