Home Match Day Thread 16/12/2013 L1: OUFC v Burton Albion

Who was your MOTM?

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I was impressed with the outfit Des had on today, he is surely heading straight out to All Bar One after the game.

Burton were awful today, there are some dreadful teams in the league this year. Possibly the worst to visit the Kassam this season, with Shrewsbury pushing them close.

RR offers something a little different in this team. I would play Bodin up top when he returns, Harris needs a break as it's just not happening for him at the moment.
 
What a difference 45 minutes makes. Thought first half was very much more of the same, generally insipid with the difference being one moment of individual brilliance. Players body language seemed flat and the play mirrored that. But then Burton crumbled second half and we looked world beaters. Loved that we kept going for goals even when the game was clearly won, showed a pleasing hunger and ruthlessness.

I didn’t actually think RR did much first half. The game plan seemed to be much more isolating our wingers against their fullbacks, with not much going through the middle, so it wasn’t really his kind of game. (Incidentally, you can absolutely see how an Edward’s will fit into that style of play - promising.) Second half we got the balance much better. We used the width given by Mills and Murphy to pull their defense apart and find good pockets of space in the middle, and Rodrigues thrived.

I would have liked us to score one from a pullback or a more orchestrated, open play move - we can’t keep relying on bangers from distance - but my word those two second half goals were superb. MacGuane’s will probably get the plaudits because it was proper postage stamp, but that Cruyff turn first time touch from Rodrigues to set up his second was just unbelievable. Ridiculous technique at league one level.

Brannagan my man of the match. He was brilliant. The flat balls pinged out to the wingers were so, so good, he was standout. Special mention to Bennett too. My first time seeing him and he looked a lot better than I had expected, seems another very good pickup from the recruitment team. Typical that you wait years for a left back and then you get two good ones in the same half season!

Crocombe was excellent for them. Didn’t actually realise it was him until he came out applauding the east stand second half. I’d thought before then that his distribution looked very good first half, and he made some very good saves second half. When Beadle leaves in the summer, if we’re still in this division, on that showing we could do worse than to pick him up as keeper.

Easy to say after a comfortable win at home against relegation fodder, but you got the sense the green shoots of the Buckingham era are finally starting to show. Good to finally have a week off and hopefully we can continue this form against Northampton next weekend.
 
As we know with recent results against Cheltenham and Reading there are no easy games in this league. Credit to manager and team for today’s performance, better. Deserved win.

I want to give a shout out to Steven’s, he made 2 maybe 3 perfect last ditch tackles at 1-0…. Saving potential 1v1 striker keeper situation. He has to keep spot in team when long returns.
 
Yeah, Stevens was really good today. As was the entire team. Burton looked worse than Maidenhead in that second half, but I think a lot of that was down yo our attacking play.
 
It's difficult to know how good today was as Burton were hands down the absolute worst team I've seen this season. However, I'm also not sure we have created as many good chances in a single game this season as we did today. The green shoots were definitely there during the second half on Tuesday so hopefully this a sign of things to come.

Definitely the balance is better with Brown as a CB and I thought on the whole Bennett was very composed and tidy. Always looking to push forward. If that is how he plays every week, I'm surprised he was available on a free.

Been wondering for a while whether Bodin and Rodrigues are that effective when both play together without Bodin playing as a no 9. They both seem to drop into the same spaces etc. Today, as a one off, obviously doesn't proof anything but Rodrigues definitely looked good alongside CB.

Murphy was excellent. He will need to be managed carefully as I just hope we don't have to overuse him too much before January due to our lack of any cover on the wings.
 
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