Away Match Day Thread 17/12/22: L1: Sheffield Wednesday v OUFC

[Upthecowboys]

For those saying yesterday - "show me the evidence that we can make the playoffs?" then that game was exactly how we could make it. We made Sheff Wed look pretty average for most of that game and had 2 great chances to win it. The fact that we didn't take those chances means that it's impossible to guarantee a top 6 finish, but there were plenty of signs to show that the second half of the season should be much better than the first. Murphy and Wildschut both looked decent and are like two new signings. Bate is getting better each week and Long had his best game of the season. A couple of smart signings and digging around the boot room for someone to find their scoring boots and we might just be able to put a good run together. Of course none of that will stop the usuals from finding fault in something or finding their scapegoat of the week! Bless them!!

Of course we could make the play offs, but according to the bookies (Skybet) there are 10 teams more likely to finish higher than us. They’ve got us at 13/2 to make the play offs and 18/1 to get promoted.

I thought we played well today, far more positives than negatives. Bate is looking good, defensively solid, Eastwood doing better than I thought. It was a good game to watch.

Normally I’d have been gutted with a penalty miss but today it was just a case of ‘oh well’. That was my non-forced natural emotion because I can’t get away from feeling this season will just meander on and by the end of Feb we’ll be in mid table obscurity. I still think we’ll be 10 points off the play offs by the time we face Arsenal.

I can understand Robinson’s frustration today but he completely screwed up our start of the season, just like he usually does. I don’t think the board will spend big in January because they’ll realise we won’t be getting in the play offs this season. I reckon there will be a couple of sensible long term signings in Jan with the new manager getting a bit of a war chest in the Summer.

Sorry my biggest frustration today is still the summer and early season balls up..

 

[windmill]

Well, Cass63, that's another point racked up on the plus side against the Wednesday, especially after the good kicking you got from the rozzers during the 6-1 Hillsborough defeat many moons ago ( unjustified if I may say so ). Enjoy the evening in the King and Queen.

 

[BigAlan]

Still seething, but it is what it is.

onwards and upwards.

 

[SirAndyOfCrosby]

Hard to believe we’ve lost that.

Impossible to believe, I'd say.

 

[Yellow There!]

Long was particularly good today, I thought.

Moore and Long could be a good CB partnership I reckon.

 

[Eaststanding]

Oh no… A whole two players on a whole two moments away at 3rd place… What about the rest of the players and the rest of the moments where we were largely the superior side playing by far the better football. We defended impeccably throughout and created a number of chances. What more do dot want? I thought for two thirds of that game we made them look terrible.

All the talk about budgets and they are one of the few that has a bigger one than us and we’ve just made their fans boo their own team after 20 minutes. Isn’t it right to use that argument in our favour for a change?

In the big moments, Henry’s in particular, we went missing. That’s why we are where we are and stood here with 2 less points than we deserve but we should still be incredibly positive about what we saw today. Absolutely no reason for tantrums but rightfully gutted we didn’t get more.

Don’t disagree with any of this; any neutrals would have thought we were the third placed team and it was one of the best if not the best I’ve seen us play this season, apart from our finishing, and they are the margins that get you promoted. As it stands we‘re destined to knock on the door of the playoffs at best, the worst? mid table mediocrity and a look back at the end of the season at what could have been unless we get ruthless in front of goal.
No tantrums here my friend, but if Robinson‘s frustration at dropping two points didn’t manifest itself in a Ferguson hairdryer moment after the game then I’d seriously question his ability to get us promoted.

 

[IsleofWightYellow]

Player Ratings:

Eastwood: 8 - Some very good saves and swept up nicely, high off his line.

Brown: 8 - Strong performance as usual, great challenge to prevent a headed goal near the end.

Findlay: 7 - Some good runs, let his man go at one point but wasn’t punished for it.

Long: 8 - I questioned him beforehand but I was wrong, he was everywhere at times; really put his body on his line for the clean sheet.

Anderson: 7 - Tired towards the end and left some holes but good attacking play again.

McGuane: 8 - Did so much good work defensively, really neat and tidy and filled in nicely when needed.

Brannagan: 6 - Industrious as ever before he went off injured.

Bate: 8 - My MOTM, moved the ball superbly well, kept us ticking over, and played some great through balls.

Bodin: 5 - Couple of nice touches but overall pretty anonymous really.

Browne: 6 - Yes he didn’t score, but they couldn’t live with him at times.

Taylor: 5 - He wasn’t terrible but he also didn’t exactly play well. I’m worried that this malaise is more than a temporary loss in form.

Subs:

Murphy: 6 - Disappointing when demanding the penalty then hitting a soft, easily saved shot, but apart from that he was very promising, danced past a defender with ridiculous ease at one point

Henry: 5 - The miss was ridiculous, but he also didn’t exactly light up the pitch. Seemed a bit slow and heavy-legged.

Wildschut: 6 - I didn’t think he played that well, but it seemed more like a good player who was rusty, rather than a bad player. Didn’t seem to have express pace but definitely strong

O’Donkor: 8 - Taylor in his current form would never have won that penalty. Strong, backed in, turned sharply and was clever enough to go down in a way which won the foul but didn’t seem a dive. Also won a free kick in the left back postition, and generally looked like he should have got 30 mins+ instead of 10.

 

[werthersoriginal]

Player Ratings:

Eastwood: 8 - Some very good saves and swept up nicely, high off his line.

Brown: 8 - Strong performance as usual, great challenge to prevent a headed goal near the end.

Findlay: 7 - Some good runs, let his man go at one point but wasn’t punished for it.

Long: 8 - I questioned him beforehand but I was wrong, he was everywhere at times; really put his body on his line for the clean sheet.

Anderson: 7 - Tired towards the end and left some holes but good attacking play again.

McGuane: 8 - Did so much good work defensively, really neat and tidy and filled in nicely when needed.

Brannagan: 6 - Industrious as ever before he went off injured.

Bate: 8 - My MOTM, moved the ball superbly well, kept us ticking over, and played some great through balls.

Bodin: 5 - Couple of nice touches but overall pretty anonymous really.

Browne: 6 - Yes he didn’t score, but they couldn’t live with him at times.

Taylor: 5 - He wasn’t terrible but he also didn’t exactly play well. I’m worried that this malaise is more than a temporary loss in form.

Subs:

Murphy: 6 - Disappointing when demanding the penalty then hitting a soft, easily saved shot, but apart from that he was very promising, danced past a defender with ridiculous ease at one point

Henry: 5 - The miss was ridiculous, but he also didn’t exactly light up the pitch. Seemed a bit slow and heavy-legged.

Wildschut: 6 - I didn’t think he played that well, but it seemed more like a good player who was rusty, rather than a bad player. Didn’t seem to have express pace but definitely strong

O’Donkor: 8 - Taylor in his current form would never have won that penalty. Strong, backed in, turned sharply and was clever enough to go down in a way which won the foul but didn’t seem a dive. Also won a free kick in the left back postition, and generally looked like he should have got 30 mins+ instead of 10.

I bet if Brown had taken the pen he’d have broken the net without raising a sweat.

 

[bicesterox]

That was overall, a bloody good performance from the team today.
Obviously gutted about the result but that was down to 4 bits of poor finishing from Browne, Taylor, Henry and the penalty from Murphy.
Eastwood made a couple of good saves, Long was superb, Bate probably had his best game for us.
If we can carry on playing like that and add decent finishing to our game we can climb the table but I'm not sure if we can get to the play offs, left it to late.

Roll on boxing day, see you at Portman Road

 

[QR]

For those saying yesterday - "show me the evidence that we can make the playoffs?" then that game was exactly how we could make it. We made Sheff Wed look pretty average for most of that game and had 2 great chances to win it. The fact that we didn't take those chances means that it's impossible to guarantee a top 6 finish, but there were plenty of signs to show that the second half of the season should be much better than the first. Murphy and Wildschut both looked decent and are like two new signings. Bate is getting better each week and Long had his best game of the season. A couple of smart signings and digging around the boot room for someone to find their scoring boots and we might just be able to put a good run together. Of course none of that will stop the usuals from finding fault in something or finding their scapegoat of the week! Bless them!!

As true as what you have said is, it could have been said at about the same time last season or the session before with a few tweak of names etc. And that the problem if the expectation is we win promotion. We're always playing catch up due to poor starts.

 

[Lincoln.yellow1]

Just back home in Lincoln
Where do we start with that.......,!
We stamped our authority for the first 20 minutes with our intent of going at the South Yorkshire side and how we were not one or two up in that period was mind blowing.
We allowed the home side back into it however their long, hopeful balls over the top were dealt with OK by our centre backs.
The 2nd half was a bit stop start with the yellows still carving out dangerous situations then came the reasons why we will finish mid table this season.
Taylor doing every right except finding the net, James Henry blazing over the bar from 6 yards in the same move and then the penalty miss at the death.
The performance leading up to the chances was excellent, the performance in the last third left me fuming.

 

[Swaby39]

Don’t disagree with any of this; any neutrals would have thought we were the third placed team and it was one of the best if not the best I’ve seen us play this season, apart from our finishing, and they are the margins that get you promoted. As it stands we‘re destined to knock on the door of the playoffs at best, the worst? mid table mediocrity and a look back at the end of the season at what could have been unless we get ruthless in front of goal.
No tantrums here my friend, but if Robinson‘s frustration at dropping two points didn’t manifest itself in a Ferguson hairdryer moment after the game then I’d seriously question his ability to get us promoted.

Think we have common ground!

I suspect Karl did lament the missed opportunity to win the game but I hope he used his brain and did it in a way that keeps the likes of Murphy motivated to go again next week because we need the same performance.

It’s swings and roundabouts today because I absolutey agree you must take the chances we have today to go up. I’d also say you have to come to places like this and keep a clean sheet to up - we did that at least. And as the old cliche goes, if it’s not your day to win, just don’t lose.

We currently have a very, very commendable knack of staying in games and picking up points but severely lacking a ruthless edge and that’ll be what leaves us outside the play offs if we can’t find it. Shef Wed were awful. They reminded me of a coach I had once who through training should be 2 hours of drop balls and ‘finding solutions yourself’ as football was too unpredictable for a game plan…. I thought Morecambe were a better and more courageous side on the ball but nonetheless that’s a point nobody fancied us to get and we were more than worthy. It gives us all a reason to be positive.

 

[christenedinjericho]

If you were a neutral at today's game 99.9% of the neutral persuasion would have said that the team in yellow and blue were far far above the silentnight northerners technically and in clear cut chances to have won the game by at least 2 or 3 goals.

Normally after the game you can sometimes cringe at what Karlster is going to say but today he was spot on in his aftermatch thoughts.

Dare I say it but with one or two tweaks there were signs today that this team may yet be the surprise package that comes up along the rails. Let's hope so.

I know Murphy missed the pen but give the lad some kudos as he had the bottle to 'try' and score the winner and by doing precisely that could/would have made up a little bit of ground that he'd probably had lost with the majority of 'Oxford' support up to now. However, his cameo 'again' performance today had some promise attached prior to his penalty miss and he really could be a player. Yanic, on the other hand looked solid in the few minutes he had and hopefully from the ninety minutes witnessed live today I have more rosier round specs than John Lennon's at this time of the year!

COYY'S

 

[werthersoriginal]

If you were a neutral at today's game 99.9% of the neutral persuasion would have said that the team in yellow and blue were far far above the silentnight northerners technically and in clear cut chances to have won the game by at least 2 or 3 goals.

Normally after the game you can sometimes cringe at what Karlster is going to say but today he was spot on in his aftermatch thoughts.

Dare I say it but with one or two tweaks there were signs today that this team may yet be the surprise package that comes up along the rails. Let's hope so.

I know Murphy missed the pen but give the lad some kudos as he had the bottle to 'try' and score the winner and by doing precisely that could/would have made up a little bit of ground that he'd probably had lost with the majority of 'Oxford' support up to now. However, his cameo 'again' performance today had some promise attached prior to his penalty miss and he really could be a player. Yanic, on the other hand looked solid in the few minutes he had and hopefully from the ninety minutes witnessed live today I have more rosier round specs than John Lennon's at this time of the year!

COYY'S

I didn’t see the game but Murphy must either have balls of steel or be dangerously self confident

 

[Oslernorth]

Really enjoyed today’s game, disappointed we didn’t get the result we deserved. For my money we were the better team today.

 

[FalmouthOx]

It's not Karls fault and if you think so you're going to get a visit from Krampus! Believe!

 

[ChamonixOx]

Initial disappointment now diminishing, lots of positives to take from that game.

- Bate brilliant again. What a player he's becoming.
- Lots of very good performances; McGuane and Brown solid as ever
- Long had one of his best games of the season
- Easty had a couple of worldy saves and I think he's actually getting better as the season goes on
- We didn't just match, we bettered probably the 2nd best team in this division
- Both Murphy and Wildschutt showed flashes of what they're capable of. If they both stay available for the rest of the season they'll contribute to our climb up the table
- Gatlin O'Donkor continues to show he's getting close to being L1 ready
- Decent clean sheet against one of the best attacks in the league

Negatives:
- How on earth did we not win that. I don't begrudge Murphy, that could have been a much needed confidence boost if he won it for us late on and you have to admire that he backed himself. He didn't Harry Kane it, pens are a lottery, he picked his side but unfortunately the keeper picked the same side.
- Matty Taylor... What a servant to OUFC the last few years. But his age appears to have caught up with him. We really need a striker in January.
- Oh James Henry. You've scored so many important goals for us, but somehow you also keep managing to miss so many important chances for us too.
- 2 points dropped.
- CamBran going off injured - fingers crossed it's not too bad or another midfielder is also required in Jan and a bloody good one at that.

Agree with most of this. Most positive I have felt all season.

Strangely on Matty Taylor, whilst I was not his biggest fan early on when others were idolising him, I grew to appreciate his effort, notwithstanding his finishing at this level, and now feel compelled to defend him. The service he has had this season has been dreadful, so I dont feel it is right to judge him until we play to his strengths, balls to his feet in the box. Considering the service he has had, generally I feel he has worked hard and played as well as anyone else would have when fed scraps (at best). Do we need another goal scorer, who doesnt, but that does not make Matty passed it in my view.

 

[Theox07]

Matty Taylor is finished we need a striker 15 games and 2 goals centre backs score that

 

[Golden Dr Otto]

Think we have common ground!

I suspect Karl did lament the missed opportunity to win the game but I hope he used his brain and did it in a way that keeps the likes of Murphy motivated to go again next week because we need the same performance.

It’s swings and roundabouts today because I absolutey agree you must take the chances we have today to go up. I’d also say you have to come to places like this and keep a clean sheet to up - we did that at least. And as the old cliche goes, if it’s not your day to win, just don’t lose.

We currently have a very, very commendable knack of staying in games and picking up points but severely lacking a ruthless edge and that’ll be what leaves us outside the play offs if we can’t find it. Shef Wed were awful. They reminded me of a coach I had once who through training should be 2 hours of drop balls and ‘finding solutions yourself’ as football was too unpredictable for a game plan…. I thought Morecambe were a better and more courageous side on the ball but nonetheless that’s a point nobody fancied us to get and we were more than worthy. It gives us all a reason to be positive.

I’m glad you are friends again. This is the true story of Christmas

 

[ChamonixOx]

Long was particularly good today, I thought.

Moore and Long could be a good CB partnership I reckon.

Long had one of his better games today. But to discount Findlay? He may not been one of the prettiest ball playing centre halves of recent times, but he is a man mountain. Rarely beaten in the air, solid on the ground, and deceptively quick when he needs to be for a man of his stature. Would be one of the first on my team sheet.