Away Match Day Thread 12/03/24 - L1: Bolton Wanderers v OUFC

[Northstandboy]

Post Match Pack

Post Match Discussion

Interview - Des Buckingham

Interview - Owen Dale

Match Lowlights

Match Report

Ref Watch

Fans View

 

[wolvercoteyellow]

My team for Port Vale, Matete isn't the answer, but nor is McGuane and I think Des needs to show some authority.

We need to go back to basics, two up front gives us an outlet, Leigh I would sit slightly deeper than Dale. I'd advocate for going a lot more direct too, we can't play with the ball without putting ourselves under immense pressure at the moment, so let's move it forward quickly and if we have to go long, have Harris run the channels while keeping Goodwin in the middle

View attachment 18315

errr yes, but what about being overrun in midfield?

 

[Wanderlust2]

I dont think Bolton played well at all, that defeat was totally down to us being absolutely pathetic. You did the basics well and worked much harder than us even in first gear.
Its no criticism of Bolton at all, but that was all on us tonight.

I think it was a bit down to us and this is why:
For the previous ten games we were awful - lots of possession, but mainly across the back, predictable balls to the wide men, unable to hold it up at the top and blunt in attack - every opposition team had that system worked out, knew how to force mistakes and how to beat us. Basically they were happy for us to ponce around with the ball, blunt our attacks, pounce on our mistakes and then sit back. We overcomplicated everything and the players were suffering under a restrictive system.
I have no doubt that your team prepared for this scenario - after all it had worked for just about everyone else.
Last night all that changed - and nobody was more shocked than the Wanderers fans. Perhaps out of desperation, Evatt seemed to remove some of the "processes", and backed the players to play with more freedom than we've seen in ages. Also didn't involve our erratic back up goalie so much in passing around the back to cut out errors that have cost us recently. Plus our two back up strikers held the ball up better than our usual starters.
Whatever game plan your manager has come up with and your team had practised went out of the window from the start because we were a different proposition - and because our players were given flexibility in approach we made it difficult to counter.
OK your lads didn't play well, but for once we weren't totally predictable so their preparation counted for nothing and they ended up focusing on what we were doing rather than what they wanted to do.

You're still in with a chance and bear in mind you still have games against Stevenage, Posh and Lincoln - win those and you have every chance of getting into the playoffs.
FWIW we have Derby away on Saturday and still have to play Stevenage and Posh away plus Pompey at home.
Don't write yourselves off just yet because there's a lot of football to be played yet before the medals are handed out.

 

[Osleroad]

I think it was a bit down to us and this is why:
For the previous ten games we were awful - lots of possession, but mainly across the back, predictable balls to the wide men, unable to hold it up at the top and blunt in attack - every opposition team had that system worked out, knew how to force mistakes and how to beat us. Basically they were happy for us to ponce around with the ball, blunt our attacks, pounce on our mistakes and then sit back. We overcomplicated everything and the players were suffering under a restrictive system.
I have no doubt that your team prepared for this scenario - after all it had worked for just about everyone else.
Last night all that changed - and nobody was more shocked than the Wanderers fans. Perhaps out of desperation, Evatt seemed to remove some of the "processes", and backed the players to play with more freedom than we've seen in ages. Also didn't involve our erratic back up goalie so much in passing around the back to cut out errors that have cost us recently. Plus our two back up strikers held the ball up better than our usual starters.
Whatever game plan your manager has come up with and your team had practised went out of the window from the start because we were a different proposition - and because our players were given flexibility in approach we made it difficult to counter.
OK your lads didn't play well, but for once we weren't totally predictable so their preparation counted for nothing and they ended up focusing on what we were doing rather than what they wanted to do.

You're still in with a chance and bear in mind you still have games against Stevenage, Posh and Lincoln - win those and you have every chance of getting into the playoffs.
FWIW we have Derby away on Saturday and still have to play Stevenage and Posh away plus Pompey at home.
Don't write yourselves off just yet because there's a lot of football to be played yet before the medals are handed out.

Nice sentiments thank you but atm most of us think we couldn't beat Oxford City in a bun fight.

 

[Sarge]

I think it was a bit down to us and this is why:
For the previous ten games we were awful - lots of possession, but mainly across the back, predictable balls to the wide men, unable to hold it up at the top and blunt in attack - every opposition team had that system worked out, knew how to force mistakes and how to beat us. Basically they were happy for us to ponce around with the ball, blunt our attacks, pounce on our mistakes and then sit back. We overcomplicated everything and the players were suffering under a restrictive system.
I have no doubt that your team prepared for this scenario - after all it had worked for just about everyone else.
Last night all that changed - and nobody was more shocked than the Wanderers fans. Perhaps out of desperation, Evatt seemed to remove some of the "processes", and backed the players to play with more freedom than we've seen in ages. Also didn't involve our erratic back up goalie so much in passing around the back to cut out errors that have cost us recently. Plus our two back up strikers held the ball up better than our usual starters.
Whatever game plan your manager has come up with and your team had practised went out of the window from the start because we were a different proposition - and because our players were given flexibility in approach we made it difficult to counter.
OK your lads didn't play well, but for once we weren't totally predictable so their preparation counted for nothing and they ended up focusing on what we were doing rather than what they wanted to do.

You're still in with a chance and bear in mind you still have games against Stevenage, Posh and Lincoln - win those and you have every chance of getting into the playoffs.
FWIW we have Derby away on Saturday and still have to play Stevenage and Posh away plus Pompey at home.
Don't write yourselves off just yet because there's a lot of football to be played yet before the medals are handed out.

an accurate description of how Oxford have been playing of late spookily

 

[Bicester Yellow]

Manning was the first to admit that it wasn't down to him as an individual manager, it was down to the (pretty much hand-picked) team around him and he just happened to be the figurehead of it (who would ultimately carry the can).

The same logic needs to be applied to Buckingham and the "team" around him. Successful management is never down to an individual effort - it is ALWAYS a team effort, but one person will ultimately carry the responsibility for that success or failure.

And Des has not been given any adequate support, he’s dealing and relying on the s**t that were behind Robinson for months. The whole backroom staff & almost half of the playing side needs ripping out and starting again in the summer. With so many out of contract, there is a perfect opportunity.

 

[Swaby39]

McEachran and a few others from the squad are at Cheltenham races today...

I mean we all have a shitty time at work sometimes, doesn’t mean time with your mates and family should go on hold.

I think there’s enough evidence of a divided dressing room without worrying about what they do with their day off. I’m far more concerned about what the hell they’re all doing on their days of work over the last 6 months.

The journey Lincoln are on vs ours when changing managers within a week of each other sums it all up. Seen enough excuses to last me a life time.

 

[m]

Yay!

I've now read that McEachran might be the answer.

All I need now is to be told that we should never have let Jamie Hanson go and I think I can retire.

 

[Sheik djibouti]

Yay!

I've now read that McEachran might be the answer.

All I need now is to be told that we should never have let Jamie Hanson go and I think I can retire.

Have some ambition...we should never of let Jack Midson or Dannie Bulman go!!!

 

[ECYellow]

I mean we all have a shitty time at work sometimes, doesn’t mean time with your mates and family should go on hold.

I think there’s enough evidence of a divided dressing room without worrying about what they do with their day off. I’m far more concerned about what the hell they’re all doing on their days of work over the last 6 months.

The journey Lincoln are on vs ours when changing managers within a week of each other sums it all up. Seen enough excuses to last me a life time.

I'm far more concerned that they are being granted time off today - scheduled day off or not. Just because it is a scheduled day off, doesn't mean to say that it cannot be withdrawn should the manager see fit.

They should have been in this afternoon and made to sit and watch that s**t show like we had to, last night. Let's not forget that after Saturday, they will have 13 days between fixtures - plenty of time to catch up with mates and family.

 

[bashamwonderland]

Yay!

I've now read that McEachran might be the answer.

All I need now is to be told that we should never have let Jamie Hanson go and I think I can retire.

We need a no nonsense manager like Robinson. Someone who gets behind the lads.

 

[ECYellow]

We need a no nonsense manager like Robinson. Someone who gets behind the lads.

I'd rather s**t in my hands and clap than have Robinson anywhere near our club again.

It's bad atm but at least Des doesn't treat our club with contempt.

 

[Swaby39]

I'm far more concerned that they are being granted time off today - scheduled day off or not. Just because it is a scheduled day off, doesn't mean to say that it cannot be withdrawn should the manager see fit.

They should have been in this afternoon and made to sit and watch that s**t show like we had to, last night. Let's not forget that after Saturday, they will have 13 days between fixtures - plenty of time to catch up with mates and family.

Fair enough. I think each of us would take a different approach. Perhaps Des himself needed the day to decompress. I think he’s damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t now which makes his position untenable - if he hooks them all in on their day off it isn’t going to command respect, it’s just going to make him more unpopular, especially if they believe he’s the problem. Rightly or wrongly, that’s what’ll happen. They aren’t going to go ‘this guy means business’ and suddenly take him seriously. My observation of it now is he’s completely unable to pull rank. Manning by comparison got reactions from poor performances/results and individuals would sit out the minute they fell below the bar. I suspect if he cancelled a day off it would land totally differently.

You’ll know better than me how much of this Des has inflicted on himself. Did he give them too much yardage in the early months to the point they now think he’s a doormat? I don’t know. But with every game it looks more of a group that couldn’t give less fcks about what he thinks. Very hard position to come back from and unfortunately it is largely a self-made problem.

 

[captainox]

Waited a long time to post my thoughts on last night, in a bid to try and find some rational thinking.

I watched that in my local pub in Derby, thankfully due to a combination of Derby being at home, and the Champions League being on, I had the entire lounge bar to myself. At 3-0, the barman came through with a free pint and asked why I hadn't gone home yet!

I was so determined to give Des some time, on the basis, that surely we would improve once he had been in the building for 20 odd games, made some signings, got some injured players back and generally had the time to mould things to his way. Last night has stomped all over that - I just don't see what we're trying to do or any sign that the players are playing to a particular plan.
I expect that it has completely written him off for those who had already begun to turn.

I tweeted the following after 37 minutes "Has the analyst started? Can't believe anyone can watch the home game against Bolton and our recent performances and think this is the right way to setup. Ruben an absolute passenger."

Whilst we played a lot better in November, their wing-backs that night had been given so much space and we got very lucky not to concede. So last night, to see us allowing it to happen again, and concede a first goal like that was infuriating. It was clear from the kick-off that we were giving Ogbeta and Dacres-Cogley far too much room to run into and move into off the ball and we did nothing to counteract it.

Second goal was a joke, I lie a lot of blame at Greg Leigh's door initially, as he had that situation perfectly under control, until he decided to not head the ball, either away, or back to Cumming. However, as Cumming clearly made moves to come out for the ball, he should have done so either by screaming for Leigh to get away, or by calling for the ball himself, and if needs be claiming it and clattering through Leigh and the Bolton player. Neither of them did anything to deal with the ball, Leigh decided not to head it, and started trying to shepherd it back too early, to the extent that it was still too close to him and hit his knee. Cumming never got into any position that would have enabled him to collect that ball himself and was always going to need a touch from Leigh. Shambles - both have played enough first team football for one of them to take total charge and deal with the ball - even if you have an argument after.

And then we just rolled over. Can't believe we didn't make any attacking changes at half-time. Ruben and McGuane were passengers but somehow played over 150minutes between them. Movement off the ball was terrible, passing was terrible, defensive shape was terrible. It was shocking.

The biggest concern for me, was that everyone's heads seemed to go down. After a more positive week in the build-up, with a better performance at Pompey and a late winner, you'd have thought confidence might be a lot better than that.

Were Bolton that great? If you give Josh Sheehan 10 years every time he has the ball, then he's going to run a game at this level.

The saddest thing about it is we're one point off the playoffs currently, and still have to play the team we're chasing. Yet it feels as if last night has completely broken even the most optimistic of people and I totally get it. How can you take anything positive from last night, and actually it felt like the total sum of the last few weeks.

The January signings don't look great after that either

Burey - looked bright, and now not picked due to *alleged* off the pitch things.
Cumming - errors galore.
Dale - "Rescued" from Blackpool to come and play on the wing, looked bright so far but ends up playing at Wing-Back when 2-0 down away from home
Goodwin - not been given more than 45mins
Matete - Arrived not match fit, failed to impress in minutes so far and now has a knock

I'm going to Port Vale, mainly because it's an easy one for me from Derby and because it's probably the last time I see us this season as I get married at the end of May and have a lot of time and monies to commit to that between now and then.
We took 975 last season on Easter Monday when we were needing to get ourselves from the relegation zone. Looked to be less than 300 sold this morning which given our league position is horrendous. But given the performances and feeling - sadly not surprising.

 

[uptheus]

My team for Port Vale, Matete isn't the answer, but nor is McGuane and I think Des needs to show some authority.

We need to go back to basics, two up front gives us an outlet, Leigh I would sit slightly deeper than Dale. I'd advocate for going a lot more direct too, we can't play with the ball without putting ourselves under immense pressure at the moment, so let's move it forward quickly and if we have to go long, have Harris run the channels while keeping Goodwin in the middle

View attachment 18315

So you’ve basically gone for the same team as me, but swoped McGuane for Matete which I can sort of understand. I guess it’s a case of having to pick the best from a bad bunch, but I’m not even sure if there is a best option on the current performances.

I went for McGuane more in hope he might just find the form he had in the early part of the season (I know, more chance of me picking the winning euro lottery numbers this Friday - god that would be nice £110m - which would get me 3 sides built at the new stadium!), and that I haven’t thought much about Matete whatvI’ve seen of him!

I considered only playing 10 men or even 9 which we’ve effectively done for the majority of the games lately, as McGuane & Rodrigues might as well not have been on the pitch for what they’ve contributed!

 

[Sheik djibouti]

There are huge disconnects all over our club.

Between the board and footballing management side
Between the footballing management side and the players
Between the football management and the fans
Between the fans and the board
And now between the players and the fans.

There was a time when the club spoke about something that bound us all together in a common cause and a common passion that made us all feel we were part of it.

Sadly and rather depressingly that has all now evaporated and I have never felt more like we're heading back to the dark days of Kassam at the helm than I do now, but just with a board that have deeper pockets and aren't quite such tight-arsed sociopaths.

I distinctly remember one particularly poor season under Kassams reign, where the only bright spark was the fact that Jamie Brooks was just about breaking into the first team towards the end of another depressing failure of a campaign. He brought at least a bit of hope and optimism. We entered the next season with at least some hope...and then Kassam tried to sell him to Arsenal just before he got ill - a real low point.

Yeah, well, that's about how I'm feeling right now, but without the promise of another Jamie Brooks on the horizon to at least give us something the cling on to.

 

[uptheus]

We need a no nonsense manager like Robinson. Someone who gets behind the lads.

And the women!

 

[uptheus]

Yay!

I've now read that McEachran might be the answer.

All I need now is to be told that we should never have let Jamie Hanson go and I think I can retire.

Hope you enjoy your retirement

 

[Bitter]

I think it was a bit down to us and this is why:
For the previous ten games we were awful - lots of possession, but mainly across the back, predictable balls to the wide men, unable to hold it up at the top and blunt in attack - every opposition team had that system worked out, knew how to force mistakes and how to beat us. Basically they were happy for us to ponce around with the ball, blunt our attacks, pounce on our mistakes and then sit back. We overcomplicated everything and the players were suffering under a restrictive system.
I have no doubt that your team prepared for this scenario - after all it had worked for just about everyone else.
Last night all that changed - and nobody was more shocked than the Wanderers fans. Perhaps out of desperation, Evatt seemed to remove some of the "processes", and backed the players to play with more freedom than we've seen in ages. Also didn't involve our erratic back up goalie so much in passing around the back to cut out errors that have cost us recently. Plus our two back up strikers held the ball up better than our usual starters.
Whatever game plan your manager has come up with and your team had practised went out of the window from the start because we were a different proposition - and because our players were given flexibility in approach we made it difficult to counter.
OK your lads didn't play well, but for once we weren't totally predictable so their preparation counted for nothing and they ended up focusing on what we were doing rather than what they wanted to do.

You're still in with a chance and bear in mind you still have games against Stevenage, Posh and Lincoln - win those and you have every chance of getting into the playoffs.
FWIW we have Derby away on Saturday and still have to play Stevenage and Posh away plus Pompey at home.
Don't write yourselves off just yet because there's a lot of football to be played yet before the medals are handed out.

Just the sort of tripe we have been dishing up for the last 15 games. Hopefully Buckingham will see what Evatt has done and remove the 'processes' and let the players play with some freedom. We can only hope................

 

[Sheik djibouti]

Just the sort of tripe we have been dishing up for the last 15 games. Hopefully Buckingham will see what Evatt has done and remove the 'processes' and let the players play with some freedom. We can only hope................

Yeah, but they don't want to play for him apparently, so we're fucked either way

 

[Eric Blair]

We tried to match Bolton but we did nothing to change the game or take it to them. I cannot for the life of me understand why he won't play Goodwin and Harris up top together?

I'm not saying I want him out (I'm probably one of very few that won't call for his head just yet), but he needs to get his act together very, very quickly.

I agree with a lot here. Is there genuinely a reason why he doesn’t play Goodwin and Harris together. They would work well together.

I’m not calling for Des to be sacked but I’m very worried and there has to be a change of approach.