Home Match Day Thread 07/10/2023 L1: OUFC v Bristol Rovers

[Mojofilter]

God, I'm checking the portsmouth score a little obsessively

 

[Northstandboy]

God, I'm checking the portsmouth score a little obsessively

They just went one up.

 

[bashamwonderland]

I thought we were second best today - some lovely spells but lost control a few times and nearly threw it away at the end.

The upside - we'd have lost a few of these recent games in seasons gone by. We are grinding out wins when playing poorly and that's the sign of a contender.

Referee was truly, truly abysmal for both teams today.

 

[notThisWayButThat]

1-0 to pompey

 

[Mike_H]

1-0 to pompey

But not the better team according to R5 Live - come on Vale!

 

[McXal]

Mills’ red card was harsh and he definitely got the ball - but no chance of that getting overturned. He jumped and scissored. You can’t argue he was in full control, therefore, soft as it was, there’s surely no grounds to overturn it. I thought a yellow for both him and their defender (who seemed to shove him in the face afterwards - totally unpunished) would’ve been sensible when watching it live. But sensible officiating was well beyond that ref. He was dreadful - for both sides.

I called it in pretty much the first minute when he failed to book one of their players for a shocking challenge on Ciaron Brown that he had no ability to control a game. From that point no amount of waving his card around at arbitrary (and at times seemingly completely random) incidents was going to work. Just an awful, awful display of how to control a football game by a referee. I’m surprised it didn’t boil over much earlier in truth.

But having said that - both Brown and Smyth’s red cards were absolutely right. The rules are pretty clear this season that you can’t do anything that remotely constitutes kicking the ball away. Both Brown and Smyth were unforgivably dozy for their teams. And I have no clue what Brown was protesting for his second yellow!

Other than a mindless 10 minutes at the end, I was impressed with that today. They were very good, played in a well-drilled manner to nullify our wingback system and Beadle was superb. That save at 1-0 on the brink of halftime was fantastic. To grind out the win when not at our best against a good side is incredibly positive. I thought Manning’s half time change of system was excellent, and a real example of how different he is from KR (who at 1-0 up would absolutely have left it for another 15 minutes of second half to ‘have a look’). Love that Manning identified the problem, didn’t hesitate to fix it and had the personnel to do so. Pleasing all round, and absolutely buzzing with a(nother) win.

(Say it quietly but we’re running out of wingers. Browne, Edwards, now Mills for three games. A problem for another day…)

 

[Leysboy]

2-0 Pompey

 

[Mike_H]

2-0 Pompey

 

[Eaststanding]

From watching it live in the East Stand Mills tackle looked bad, a both feet off the ground scissor lunge. Having seen it back though it’s a yellow at best. Poor, poor ref we had today, too many incidents he f***ed up to list.
We should have been out of sight second half but couldn’t take our chances.
But we won ugly, I’ll take that for now.

 

[behindthegoal]

Rovers have an excellent front Three so our defence will have to be at their best. Still fancy us mind. 2-1.

2-0 Pompey

Ah well....at least swine are losing

 

[Canterburyexile]

Never mind what Portsmouth are doing, the important results are below us. We are currently 6 points clear of 3rd and 8 points clear of 7th.

That is very pleasing after less than a quarter of the season.

 

[SteMerritt]

2-0 Pompey

Pompey not too bothered, I'd rather Bolton, Stevenage, and Peterborough were dropping the points to increase the gap to third.

 

[greatunclekip]

2-0 Pompey

Oh for a Colby Bishop!

 

[Mike_H]

Bolton 1 Carlisle 2

 

[Leysboy]

Bolton 1 Carlisle 2

If that stays that way, then that’s a great afternoon for us and Pompey. A bit of daylight between the top 2 and the pack below.

Pompey can keep top spot for now, I’d rather have it in April.

 

[Concretebob]

Oh for a Colby Bishop!

He's got nothing on Marriott

 

[notThisWayButThat]

The multicam setup at the Portsmouth game is nice.

 

[My Manor]

Oh for a Colby Bishop!

As it stands we've scored two more than Pompey so far this season.

 

[uptheus]

Not a great performance again, but we got the 3 points. There were fleeting moments of goodness, but generally a lot of players were very lackadaisical which I think started in the Shrewsbury game.

To me, you’ve got to keep the standards up to keep mentally switched on, from one game to next, but we managed to find a way to win again, even if it’s not pretty at times.

 

[chromeyellow]

Re the foul on Mills for the Bristol goal tyhe posters on the Rovers forum saw it.

Qatar Gas “Great finish from Collins. It was a foul on their player mind. “

Russgas “Was a foul on oxford player. Ref is abysmal.”