Home Match Day Thread 20/02/2024 L1: OUFC v Northampton Town

[Northstandboy]

Post Match Discussion

Interview - Des Buckingham

Interview - Will Goodwin

Interview - Jon Brady

Match Highlights

Match Report

Ref Watch

Fans View

 

[Followtheox1]

I sat in the away end with Reading fans recently and I have to say Oxford were quiet. Reading fans were chanting about libraries.
Even in the 4-2 win recently Oxford were hardly vocal

Why would you do that? I couldn't think of anything worse than sitting in the away end with Reading or Swindon fans. Would rather not go!

 

[Scrongo]

Age has nothing to do with singing.
Since when has it been ,so called to old to sing.
What... So you get to 30 & that's it, your to old & mature to sing??
Never ...music & singing is a very important part of life , through the ages..
Singing is not ageist....
The problem,is a lot deeper than that, it's people's faith has been dented.
No confidence, coming from all aspects of the club.
I won't be completely happy ,till a spade is put in the ground,at the triangle.
Then I still won't be 100% ,until a ball is kicked ,after the last fiasco at the K****m. 25 odd years ago..

 

[Siho]

Blame whoever decides that once we go 1-0 up that tactically we should just pass the ball around at the back. Bodin made the mistake but Brannigan nearly got caught 5 minutes earlier. Our players are not good enough to do it. Make a mistake in that area the chances are you conceed. I understand that doing it to try and pull your opponents team forward to create space but the pace at which we do it and the lack of control when we do it, makes the tactic niave.
When we attacked at pace we created so many opportunities, but when we play this awfully boring passing at the back the only option appears to be a long diagonal to the winger and hope something happens.

This 100%

Attack is the best form of defence. If you're going to try to defend a lead, make sure you are *at least* 2 goals up.

 

[RgYellows]

Why would you do that? I couldn't think of anything worse than sitting in the away end with Reading or Swindon fans. Would rather not go!

You’d have to deal with @ECYellow

 

[Sarge]

This 100%

Attack is the best form of defence.

wasnt that proclaimed on one of Jim Smith's motivational notes pinned up in the changing room during the back to back promotion glory years in the 80s

 

[ECYellow]

It would be pretty weird if everyone around you had the same feelings.

I personally think Ryan is bang on, so you can add me to those that are in the same camp as him.

 

[Common Villager]

Who do you expect brown to pass to when everyone is hiding Behind there marker he passes it to Bennet then Bennet will pass him it back his passes it brannagan , brannagan passes him it back no one moves for the ball in this team

I do agree that there was often a lack of options when Negru / Brown were on the ball, but at the same time the whole point of going backwards and/or playing along the backline is to drag the opposition out of position and create space further forward. When the passing is slow or a player dawdles on the ball for too long it allows the opposition to stay in or recover their shape. Des made the same point on Radio Oxford after the game yesterday, to be fair.

 

[McXal]

I do think there is an element of truth in some of the senior management decision-making, language and communication driving a wedge between fan & the club. If you want to manage the club in a way which doesn’t ’over-communicate’ with the ‘customers’, and concentrates on ‘match-day activations’, ‘retail launches’ and marketing campaigns because that’s what ‘Top 30 clubs’ do - but then on the pitch we perform like a team which looks in no way equipped to remain in the top 10 of this division on current form, let alone the league above - it naturally fosters an environment of uncertainty and disconnect from the fans. We are quite literally being held at arms length, but then told to back the team because we’re ambitious…without any material gains/evidence to support that.

Combine that with a really poor season last year, blowing up after Christmas the year before, getting smashed in the playoffs by Blackpool a year before that and messing up the Wycombe Playoff Final in Covid etc and there is understandably a bit of hesitance and lack of belief among long term supporters.

And that’s before you take into account that our ‘brand of football’ this season is incredibly dour and at times difficult to watch. Last night I thought we played ok and (as others have said) I could see a semblance of a ‘plan’ and a methodology in how we were trying to attack & score. But it wasn’t scintillating at all. It was methodical, plodding and - when we got it wrong - utterly bewildering to watch.

I brought my wife to the Wigan game last Tuesday and she commented on how boring it was - but also noted how the crowd seem to come to life for a few minutes after Brannagan’s shot that hit the woodwork. Basically making the connection between a moment of excitement/attacking intent and a rise in crowd volume. I think that’s pertinent. And why the atmosphere was somewhat better when KR’s attack-minded teams were playing well. When you watch us at the moment there is so little to ‘latch on to’ and bring a crowd to life.

BTW I also completely agree that modern football, the way ticket prices just keep going up and up at a pace wages just don’t, and the drive towards making football stadiums a more ‘family friendly’, inclusive environment - whilst very important and necessary (sorry to all the folk who think it isn’t) - has had a knock on effect on atmospheres. It’s not just our club that has this issue. We have some particular nuances on it, such as the poor treatment of the Ultras driving a wedge between the club and a huge chunk of previously loyal supporters of a certain age bracket, a crap stadium which doesn’t retain noise, has an open end and no amenities around it to foster community spirit, the spontaneous generation of songs, a pre-match meeting point etc - but take a look at other forums/social media outlets There are lots of clubs having this exact same discussion

 

[Osei Yaw]

The absolutely baffling thing is that so many things are massively in our favour for there to be a positive feeling amongst the fans and the club more generally.

We're as close as we've ever been to potentially leaving behind a stadium that virtually everyone hates
We've got the deepest potential pockets in our history with billionaire backers
We're in the play-off places and have massively turned around last year's car crash of a season
We've bought in a number of highly rated players and reverted back to something resembling a productive trading model
Crowds are generally on the up

That our senior management team have therefore managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in terms of how the mood of the fanbase is currently, is remarkable. Last night's game was therefore an excellent microcosm of the club generally.

Yes, exactly. It's all there to be made into a positive and the fact they have created such a stink instead is a major red flag. If we had some proactive leadership then things would feel different. Fans would be more engaged and there would be more of a buzz about the club. If we had 'football people' running the show then they could even incentivise groups of fans to start improving the atmosphere on match days by working with them to bring noise and colour back into the stadium. There is probably something in the other reasons others have said like age of fan base and style of football but for me, I can't remember feeling so disassociated from my club.

Instead, we're told that we've been overcommunicated with, despite senior management failing to deliver their promise to deliver a fans forum before the end of last season. They've also cut the 5 minutes fans forums and distanced themselves from OxVox.

You are not fit to call yourself a CEO unless you take responsibility for everything beneath you.

I have a feeling that the upcoming fans forum is timed so we only really talk about the new stadium, and Tim and Grant have seen to this so that they can dodge as many questions as possible about their stewardship of our club. If it does end up getting them too uncomfortable then I imagine it will be the last forum we see for a long time.

 

[Peterdev]

Why would you do that? I couldn't think of anything worse than sitting in the away end with Reading or Swindon fans. Would rather not go!

Swindon I would draw the line at

 

[Scrongo]

Most great wars & battles, was won on attack, you need to attack to defend...

 

[SirAndyOfCrosby]

2 more points dropped tonight. What is Des’s win % looking like now and how does it compare to what we will need to achieve 75/76 points?

I’d imagine we are currently a fair bit short of what is required.

1.22 PPG thus far for Buckingham.
So, on course for 71/72 points this season.

Won't take much improvement to get to 75/76 (probably another 5 wins) but I suspect we'll need more like 77/78 points (likely 6 wins).

Wigan aside, our inability to deal with mid-table fodder (Northampton, Bristol Rovers, Wycombe, Reading) in recent weeks has really hurt us.

Drop more points on Saturday (at home to another) and you're in to the realms of needing to go on a serious end of season run.

Massive game Saturday. Buckingham's record thus far in games against the current top half reads 'Played 9, Won 0'.

10th time's a charm eh?

 

[Horse]

I thought it was quite funny that Northampton refused to press so our defenders didn’t know what to do or how to react. I can see other teams picking up on this and we’re going to have to get used to seeing the defenders looking hopelessly lost.

 

[Mad Dog]

Last night proved yet again, that we simply don’t know how to defend, and it’s gonna cost us.

God knows what goes on in training, but whatever it is, it’s not being transferred to the pitch on match days.

Unless it is, then that’s even more of a concern, because it’s shite.

 

[Yellowlab]

Why would you do that? I couldn't think of anything worse than sitting in the away end with Reading or Swindon fans. Would rather not go!

I suppose it depends on whether you’re allowed to take a machine gun in with you

 

[38yearsofpain]

Yes, exactly. It's all there to be made into a positive and the fact they have created such a stink instead is a major red flag. If we had some proactive leadership then things would feel different. Fans would be more engaged and there would be more of a buzz about the club. If we had 'football people' running the show then they could even incentivise groups of fans to start improving the atmosphere on match days by working with them to bring noise and colour back into the stadium. There is probably something in the other reasons others have said like age of fan base and style of football but for me, I can't remember feeling so disassociated from my club.

Instead, we're told that we've been overcommunicated with, despite senior management failing to deliver their promise to deliver a fans forum before the end of last season. They've also cut the 5 minutes fans forums and distanced themselves from OxVox.

You are not fit to call yourself a CEO unless you take responsibility for everything beneath you.

I have a feeling that the upcoming fans forum is timed so we only really talk about the new stadium, and Tim and Grant have seen to this so that they can dodge as many questions as possible about their stewardship of our club. If it does end up getting them too uncomfortable then I imagine it will be the last forum we see for a long time.

I think the fundamental issue is our fans do not have and possibly do not want a top 30 mentality. We have a management team that wants and understands that philosophy. We have been brought up as a family based club, we thrive on togetherness, more like a family than a corporate entity.
Our journey from Maxwell to now has left fans mistrusting managements that want to dismantle that identity. Whilst Luton, Brentford, Bournemouth and possibly Brighton are top 30 in status they are not in terms of identity. All 4 clubs know awful times but they are living the dream as a family.
Tim only knows corporate football, nothing wrong with that btw, but we are not the best club to move to the corporate world. Rightly or wrongly we cling to our roots, we want sucess but we want it our way. We want it the Luton Brentford Brighton way we want no part of being mini MUFC. We effing hate prawn sandwiches. We dont want the impersonality, we dont want the bullshit, we want honesty, we want identity. We will aways be better suited to a SME culture than a FTSE business .There are too many clubs chasing a corporate riches dream that will become unsustainable. The idea that a corporate OUFC model will work is a cultural change that will take years and potentially a great deal of animosity.

 

[holdsteady]

I do think there is an element of truth in some of the senior management decision-making, language and communication driving a wedge between fan & the club. If you want to manage the club in a way which doesn’t ’over-communicate’ with the ‘customers’, and concentrates on ‘match-day activations’, ‘retail launches’ and marketing campaigns because that’s what ‘Top 30 clubs’ do - but then on the pitch we perform like a team which looks in no way equipped to remain in the top 10 of this division on current form, let alone the league above - it naturally fosters an environment of uncertainty and disconnect from the fans. We are quite literally being held at arms length, but then told to back the team because we’re ambitious…without any material gains/evidence to support that.

Combine that with a really poor season last year, blowing up after Christmas the year before, getting smashed in the playoffs by Blackpool a year before that and messing up the Wycombe Playoff Final in Covid etc and there is understandably a bit of hesitance and lack of belief among long term supporters.

And that’s before you take into account that our ‘brand of football’ this season is incredibly dour and at times difficult to watch. Last night I thought we played ok and (as others have said) I could see a semblance of a ‘plan’ and a methodology in how we were trying to attack & score. But it wasn’t scintillating at all. It was methodical, plodding and - when we got it wrong - utterly bewildering to watch.

I brought my wife to the Wigan game last Tuesday and she commented on how boring it was - but also noted how the crowd seem to come to life for a few minutes after Brannagan’s shot that hit the woodwork. Basically making the connection between a moment of excitement/attacking intent and a rise in crowd volume. I think that’s pertinent. And why the atmosphere was somewhat better when KR’s attack-minded teams were playing well. When you watch us at the moment there is so little to ‘latch on to’ and bring a crowd to life.

BTW I also completely agree that modern football, the way ticket prices just keep going up and up at a pace wages just don’t, and the drive towards making football stadiums a more ‘family friendly’, inclusive environment - whilst very important and necessary (sorry to all the folk who think it isn’t) - has had a knock on effect on atmospheres. It’s not just our club that has this issue. We have some particular nuances on it, such as the poor treatment of the Ultras driving a wedge between the club and a huge chunk of previously loyal supporters of a certain age bracket, a crap stadium which doesn’t retain noise, has an open end and no amenities around it to foster community spirit, the spontaneous generation of songs, a pre-match meeting point etc - but take a look at other forums/social media outlets There are lots of clubs having this exact same discussion

I think there is a difference between stopping fans knocking the s**t out of each other and turning games into a library where everyone sits down down, never says a word and is a customer. Its gone too family friendly for me, as a kid I liked the edge, the swearing, the noise etc and it keeps you interested as you get older into your teens, twenties. At the moment we are doing ok at getting kids along but once they get a bit older they lose interest, especially with the price of football nowadays, with ours, and football in generals, ageing fanbase who is going to replace the fans who get to old to go or pass away? Those people who stopped going at 18 because it was a boring, expensive experience where they were made to feel unwelcome just because they are young, boisterous and a bit rowdy, not the family crowd football wants? Can't see it, they will have found something else to do.

 

[MiddleBartonYellow]

The bottom line is we are not ruthless enough, we are unable to kill teams off because we don't score enough goals.
We are a good team but not a top team. Maybe 3-4 players short from the starting eleven if you are critical.
Hopefully Buckingham knows it as well, because he isn't going anywhere anytime soon so everyone needs to get on board with it.

 

[McXal]

I think there is a difference between stopping fans knocking the s**t out of each other and turning games into a library where everyone sits down down, never says a word and is a customer. Its gone too family friendly for me, as a kid I liked the edge, the swearing, the noise etc and it keeps you interested as you get older into your teens, twenties. At the moment we are doing ok at getting kids along but once they get a bit older they lose interest, especially with the price of football nowadays, with ours, and football in generals, ageing fanbase who is going to replace the fans who get to old to go or pass away? Those people who stopped going at 18 because it was a boring, expensive experience where they were made to feel unwelcome just because they are young, boisterous and a bit rowdy, not the family crowd football wants? Can't see it, they will have found something else to do.

Look, I’m a parent - I bring my younger kids to football and intentionally don’t sit in the ‘family’ section because I prefer a bit of atmosphere, a bit of ‘industrial’ language etc. That was how I was brought up, how i was indoctrinated into being a lifelong OUFC fan despite only spending less than a year of my life actually living in Oxford (grew up in MK, as an adult live in Reading). It’s the same way I’m bringing my kids up. Inherently i agree with you about the edginess being appealing.

And you make a great point around what is being done / what more could be done to retain the ‘young adult’ (17-25??) demographic. Presumably those with limited income and the most ‘competition’ for ways in which they can spend their limited ‘leisure income’. The honest answer is I don’t know if we as a club do enough. I suspect not (but as I’m nearly 40 I’m not best placed to answer!)…

But it’s 2024. Inclusion is relevant, extremely important and a desirable direction of travel for all elements of society. More people than not want to feel ‘safe’ at a football ground. And that means accepting that more people than not probably won’t want that edginess.

Football needs to react to that if it wants to preserve atmospheres. That means ticket pricing and recognising that if you want to stop football becoming a gentrified, entirely sanitised sport played in front of polite applause like Lords cricket ground then the pursuit of pound and profit at the expense of the supporter who actually wants to attend in person needs to cease (that social media image of beds in executive boxes at Stamford Bridge ). That means allowing fans to select their seats for away games avoiding the farcical ‘sit in your allocated seat’ scenes at almost every away game which literally pisses everyone off. That means embracing safe standing. It means pivoting from linear, singular approaches to crowds and provide a more diverse, inclusive ticketing/crowd management strategy which caters to all.

I do know that pricing people out of the game, not retaining young adult supporters, not fostering an environment where vocal supporters are able to freely group together and generate atmosphere which then cascades out and encourages others to get more vocal too are dangerous and detrimental to atmosphere/crowd noise - and yet none of those impossible to achieve alongside making football stadiums more safe, inclusive and welcoming.

Getting annoyed because it’s 2024, blaming inclusion and complaining that too many families aren’t joining in with the Sparky Harris chant or going ‘duh duh duh duh duh duh, Cameron Brannagan’ chant seems a little too simplistic to me.

 

[AbsoluteZero]

The absolutely baffling thing is that so many things are massively in our favour for there to be a positive feeling amongst the fans and the club more generally.

We're as close as we've ever been to potentially leaving behind a stadium that virtually everyone hates
We've got the deepest potential pockets in our history with billionaire backers
We're in the play-off places and have massively turned around last year's car crash of a season
We've bought in a number of highly rated players and reverted back to something resembling a productive trading model
Crowds are generally on the up

That our senior management team have therefore managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in terms of how the mood of the fanbase is currently, is remarkable. Last night's game was therefore an excellent microcosm of the club generally.

We're as close as we've ever been to potentially leaving behind a stadium that virtually everyone hates - and equally close as we've ever been to losing the club entirely or have to face the prospect of playing in somewhere like Milton Keynes for one or two seasons

We've got the deepest potential pockets in our history with billionaire backers - but only if the stadium gets signed off, the 2 year contracts maximum offered are already showing everybody that if the stadium doesn't happen they pull the plug

We're in the play-off places and have massively turned around last year's car crash of a season - only if the teams behind us don't win their games in hand and even then our current form doesn't bode well against a team coming out of the pack and catching us

We've bought in a number of highly rated players and reverted back to something resembling a productive trading model - no argument with this one after the more recent KR signings disaster

Crowds are generally on the up - yet the atmosphere and match experience is shockingly bad

Re your last paragraph, have to agree the disconnect between the senior management and the fans has become as wide as it possibly could be at such a critical stage in the clubs history. It would be interesting to know what the actual owners think, do the senior management actually represent their views and actions they want taken or is there concern at the very top about how things are really working out whether that is stadium, board, marketing, communication, team, on pitch performances. It's really not gone well in the last 18 months yet there is still a chance of promotion this season, and there is a chance the stadium gets a yes, and no doubt should these successes happen the board will be all over it saying they knew what they were doing all along and it was never in doubt and they are the saviours of the club. But we all know they have not considered the bigger picture, and particularly without the fans there isn't much left anyway.