Home Match Day Thread 18/5/2021 Play Off L1 OUFC v Blackpool

[OX14]

Ok let me think

Rochdale away

MK Dons away

Crewe away

Gillingham home

Burton home

Bottom 4 at xmas to play offs not bad for useless players and manager that can't rise to the occasion

Many would be happy to reach the play offs at the start of the season but many forget it's not a given when you do as it's just a lottery

Sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and say the opposition were better on the day,

The problem on this forum is we are not allowed to lose a game of football without having to read the same negative repetitive stuff and it just becomes boring

If the same negative repetitive stuff keeps being spoken after every loss then maybe Karl is not learning from his mistakes and maybe he is not the man to get us out of this league. There is being beat by a better side but last night was a wimper it was more we lost the battle rather then blackpool blowing us away with excellent football.

 

[Mad Dog]

I don’t feel to bad compared to last year, much rather go out like this than throw it away at the end like against Wycombe.

I had a nagging feeling before last night that is what might happen though, we are not good enough against the better teams in the league.

Agree.

To be honest, in a weird way, I’d rather get promoted after a season where the fans have been there for the whole journey, not empty stadiums all season, and then just a percentage of them for the playoffs, as there will always be that little black mark against it.

Last season hurt more, because although we weren’t allowed fans for the run in and playoffs, before the season was cut short, the fans had been there for most of the season, so had still been on much of the journey with the team, although even that would still have been tainted as well, due to all the disruption of COVID.

It’s a bit like when Ronnie O’Sullivan won his 6th title last year, great achievement, but it will always be slightly tainted and undervalued, due to the fact it was behind closed doors, until a small amount of fans were allowed in for the final.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d have loved to have gone up last season, or this season, but I’ve felt pretty disconnected from the team since before last season’s playoffs, due to not being able to go to the games, which is what it’s all about, the journey, with the team, up and down the country, all season, not sat watching at home on the sofa, in my slippers!

Hopefully, next season, things will go back to normal, fans can go to games again, connect with the team again, and we can do it properly, and get promoted, with no disruptions to take the shine off!

 

[Northstandboy]

Is the game on sky Friday?

Yes, Sky show all Football League playoff games

 

[IsleofWightYellow]

I don’t feel to bad compared to last year, much rather go out like this than throw it away at the end like against Wycombe.

I had a nagging feeling before last night that is what might happen though, we are not good enough against the better teams in the league.

I’d much rather make the playoff final and then lose, rather than go out in the semis, in the same way that I’d rather make the playoffs and lose the semis than not make the playoffs at all. I want our club to be as successful as possible.

 

[Paul Cannell]

Is the game on sky Friday?

Yes, but watching it isn't mandatory.

 

[m]

Can I just say one thing (for now) - I am really quite disappointed by how vocal the crowd, and also the players were tonight? If I was there tonight (Dad couldn’t get a ticket so instead, we sank a few large glasses of merlot and had a chicken tikka jalfrezi instead - every cloud and all that) I would have been giving it everything, and then some.

99% of those in attendance tonight, wouldn’t have seen live football in how long? Moreover, when was the last time we got to see live football that mattered as much as tonight? I might feel the way that I do because I watched on in envy. That’s highly probable, but I’m not bitter - promise. However, when you’re watching 4000 HOME fans (65/70% of our average attendance) spread all over the stadium and the only thing you can hear is your belly rumbling, that’s not good enough.

Tonight was a chance to really get behind the team and sing your heart out, with the blessed freedom that we are now so fortunate to have. I expected more, and I’m sorry if that doesn’t match the opinions of others on here. That was very poor. It was like watching a pizza cup match.

You criticise and yet you contributed less than everyone who was there.

 

[m]

Yes, but watching it isn't mandatory.

Plastic that I undoubtedly am I'll not be shelling out for a Sky pass.

 

[Thomas/Brock/Jones]

People were very complimentary about the wins to get us here. People are rightly very cross at what they have been served up tonight.

I'm bloody cross as well and we all complain, moan, are critical its the OTT slagging off of players/ manager which turns a bit personal and not supportive . We all get enough sh** from other clubs fans without doing it from people who are meant to be supporting the club. Thick and thin etc ...

 

[Essexyellows]

Roll on Friday when we turn it around and batter them.

It`s only half time..... remember we were going down before Christmas, we were never going to make the play offs.

Stick a £10 on us turning it around............. Year of the Ox.

 

[Upthecowboys]

Some big moments went against us last night, possible red card for them early on and the shove on Sykes which probably did affect his finish, but how much of last night's result was self inflicted? Self inflicted through poor decisions or tactics?

Credit to Blackpool, they may have only finished 6 points ahead of us but I thought they looked a very good team. Solid, minimal mistakes, 2 great centre forwards etc.

What was Sykes doing for their first goal? Ridiculous challenge. Their set pieces beat us last time, so surely reducing those opportunities was a priority. Then it was a poor clearance from Ruffles. Not much Robinson could have done about that.

Not sure how much of the following is hindsight but:-

1) Knowing they would play 2 up top, should we have gone 4-2-3-1. Should we have looked to protect our back 4 a bit more with Gorrin and Brannagan? Maybe Gorrin in for one of Lee or Henry?

2) Forde to me is a better right back than Hanson, but it's neither of their natural positions. Forde can also switch the play well, Barker was our most effective attacking force on the left and I think Forde would have found him more. I thought Hanson did OK though.

3) Agyei came on for the last 22 minutes, it almost feels predetermined. 'Right it's the last quarter, lets get Dan on!' He deserves more minutes, he causes problems and scores. I'd like to have seen him on the pitch after 50 minutes.

4) 2 up top is not fashionable these days, but Blackpool play it well. Matty Taylor works his socks off, and even when feeding off scraps he looks a pain to deal with. We could have switched to a solid 4-4-2, and played Agyei and Taylor down the middle. Taylor and Agyei down the middle would be a right handful. Barker on the left, and Henry (or Forde) on right with the sole intention of creating for our front 2; Barker through beating a man and pulling the ball back and Henry / Forde swinging in crosses.

If we can keep our squad together, make a couple of permanent additions (McGuayne is a great signing) then we could be pushing for top 3 next season. Just through more minutes on the pitch Stevens, Moore and Atkinson will become even better, so I'm reasonable positive about things. I do think the time to be ruthless is now with some of our squad players, and I do think Robinson needs to reflect on the fact that we have not really played well in 4 play off games now.

 

[Yellowlab]

I'm bloody cross as well and we all complain, moan, are critical its the OTT slagging off of players/ manager which turns a bit personal and not supportive . We all get enough sh** from other clubs fans without doing it from people who are meant to be supporting the club. Thick and thin etc ...

I think that nowadays there are fans and supporters, sadly not necessarily the same thing.

 

[arthurturner]

He also has to sell his best players each year to balance the books. It's better to be where we are rather than the Wigans or Boltons of this World. We all know that the present model where rent has to be paid to Mr Kassam every year is unsustainable.

Selling Rob Dickie and replacing him with Rob Atkinson doesn't seem to have done us to much harm. Losing Tarique Fosu though has been a big blow to us. He has been an ever present in the promotion chasing Brentford site and you could see last night how we miss a player with his impact.

Rent or interest on borrowing has to be paid by almost every club. If we get a new stadium it's not going to be given to us.

 

[Manorlounger]

Some big moments went against us last night, possible red card for them early on and the shove on Sykes which probably did affect his finish, but how much of last night's result was self inflicted? Self inflicted through poor decisions or tactics?

Credit to Blackpool, they may have only finished 6 points ahead of us but I thought they looked a very good team. Solid, minimal mistakes, 2 great centre forwards etc.

What was Sykes doing for their first goal? Ridiculous challenge. Their set pieces beat us last time, so surely reducing those opportunities was a priority. Then it was a poor clearance from Ruffles. Not much Robinson could have done about that.

Not sure how much of the following is hindsight but:-

1) Knowing they would play 2 up top, should we have gone 4-2-3-1. Should we have looked to protect our back 4 a bit more with Gorrin and Brannagan? Maybe Gorrin in for one of Lee or Henry?

2) Forde to me is a better right back than Hanson, but it's neither of their natural positions. Forde can also switch the play well, Barker was our most effective attacking force on the left and I think Forde would have found him more. I thought Hanson did OK though.

3) Agyei came on for the last 22 minutes, it almost feels predetermined. 'Right it's the last quarter, lets get Dan on!' He deserves more minutes, he causes problems and scores. I'd like to have seen him on the pitch after 50 minutes.

4) 2 up top is not fashionable these days, but Blackpool play it well. Matty Taylor works his socks off, and even when feeding off scraps he looks a pain to deal with. We could have switched to a solid 4-4-2, and played Agyei and Taylor down the middle. Taylor and Agyei down the middle would be a right handful. Barker on the left, and Henry (or Forde) on right with the sole intention of creating for our front 2; Barker through beating a man and pulling the ball back and Henry / Forde swinging in crosses.

If we can keep our squad together, make a couple of permanent additions (McGuayne is a great signing) then we could be pushing for top 3 next season. Just through more minutes on the pitch Stevens, Moore and Atkinson will become even better, so I'm reasonable positive about things. I do think the time to be ruthless is now with some of our squad players, and I do think Robinson needs to reflect on the fact that we have not really played well in 4 play off games now.

A lot of my thoughts echoed here. From our wonderful vantage point of row C Northstand (away section) we could observe the second half performance from the back quite closely. It was more than apparent that there simply wasn't any outlet to find from in front of Moore, Atkinson and Brannagan. Time and time again those three exchanged passes before giving up and allowing Stevens to hoof the ball. (and then watch it come straight back)
Both Hanson (in particular) and Ruffels were so far forward that passing out to them was not possible. Blackpool simply swamped the midfield and left our front four to fend for themselves. How many times have we seen this throughout the season? Why does KR not learn and change the tactic?
Certainly now, the opportunity has presented itself to change. 3-0 down and nothing to lose in the return fixture. Can he set up the team to play differently? Can he even field a fully fit team out of the squad left?
Why not make changes, some will have to happen anyway if the injuries last night are serious. Change the formation.
At least make a game of it, give us the fans something entertaining to watch.

 

[horseman]

Just as we’re not allowed to win a game of football without it turning into a “told you so” fest, where one result means anything that anybody has ever said previously that others have considered to be negative is magically and universally wrong.

It’s a shame that the bitterly divided, tribalistic society that we all have to live with outside of football seems to have made its way onto a lower league forum, but there we go. I guess the solution is that we all say nothing, or we all say the same thing as each other. Apparently anything even an inch either side of the line warrants teams being drawn up and mud being slung.

I don’t know why people care so much about what others think to be honest, nor why anybody would come here knowing they’re only going to get upset. There are plenty of times when I can’t be arsed with it and give it a swerve for a night, rather than reading page upon page of stuff that will wind me up. It takes more effort to show up and post than it does to do nothing.

It’s all a bit weird. Think I’ll go and watch a few episodes of Forged In Fire until everybody calms down.

Well I for one have never reacted to a positive result with a "I told you so" the point i have always attempted to make is that it does rear it's head after a loss

Many people have Rightly stated how good a side Blackpool are and yet others just want to have a dig for the umpteenth time about us having poor players + Manager and even talk of a team of Bottlers. Blackpool would not of needed to be much cop if that were the case yet it's clear they have a very solid defensive unit from front to back yet we still created 5/6 fair chances which would not happen with a team of bottlers.

What we also see is when we do win comments of it was only due to the opposition being so poor rather than like Blackpool last night were the better team on the day, I have not looked at their forum but I doubt there's any talk of We only won because Oxford are poor or have poor players full of bottlers with a poor manager.,Even their fans came on here saying how different it just might have been.

 

[Andy1505]

One thing I thought while watching last night (only on tv tho, not in the ground), is that Jack Stevens did ok with his saves and handling, but his kicking is really not that good or consistent at the moment, he really needs to work on it a lot if he is going to make the move up the leagues sometime. He has deservedly made the step up to first choice this season and he has been a major reason why we have got this far....

....but I thought too many of his kicks were like pitching wedges, high up but not very far - ok he doesn't need to be like Pickford who feels the need to whack the hell out of it every time (why does he need to do that btw?!!!) but if Jack struck the ball cleaner and flatter then it would go further up the pitch and maybe push them back a bit further, too many times he chipped it to the area where our wingers to full backs were, and mostly Barker/Henry/Lee/Ruffles/Hanson lost out and it immediately put us back on the defensive. Yes I know we don't play with a big target man so I understand why he targets those areas but without Long who can actually win a header we looked a bit devoid of ideas. I just thought that was an area where we must improve.

Ah well, it was one game too far for us this season, let's build and go again, if we can keep most of this squad then I'm thinking we'll be up there or thereabouts again, but we certainly do need an injection of quality in areas. McGuane will help certainly (if he stays fit) but I'd like to see two LB's, CB, two first choice wide players, a fit striker and maybe a new DM all come in to help Gorrin.

 

[Foley]

Rent or interest on borrowing has to be paid by almost every club. If we get a new stadium it's not going to be given to us.

Is that right?
I would have thought that Crewe and Accrington as examples don't but I could be wrong.
In addition of course many clubs benefit from income from facilities in and around the ground.

 

[AbsoluteZero]

So is our style of play good enough to get out of League 1? We are a quiet progressive passing 'nice' side that need things to click to work. Last season we got battered by Rotherham who had a team full of giants, press high and were brilliant at set pieces. Wycombe did the same to us without having the same control over the match that Rotherham dominated. Blackpool are very similar, they have a team full of tall players, fitness is excellent, good at set pieces, press high, players up front that are awkward that can win the ball hold the ball up and even when not winning the ball make it difficult for defenders to clear. They also play very direct with balls over the top continuously. They play the percentages very well, they don't concede many goals because they don't allow the ball to be near their goal for very long as they just pump it forward into spaces for the forwards to compete for and the onrushing midfielders to pick up second balls. In fact Blackpool don't even have a midfield. Their so called midfielders have absolutely no creativity in them and their role is to protect the defence or to support the attack as quickly as possible, midfield for them is completely bypassed as a passing unit and is there just as means of sustaining attacks. It is ruthlessly efficient, maybe not that pretty to watch game after game but it will result in goals being scored and few goals conceding.

In fact it is about as good as it will get to get promoted out of League 1. But going into the Championship it is probably going to get found out as other teams with a similar style to Blackpool have discovered. I would say Oxford's style of play is probably better suited to Championship style, but can struggle against League 1 sides that have a more considered direct aggressive style that can put our style under pressure to make us make more mistakes in dangerous areas of the pitch. Our style can work but it probably needs 2 or 3 absolutely wow players that turn it on week in week out and can keep scoring good goals every week because our style doesn't really allow scruffy goals to be scored. But on balance a Blackpool style or Rotherham style is always going to have a better chance of success at this level. And we keep showing that we can't cope with this brand of football, so we are always going to find it difficult to beat it.

On another day, a red card keeps up in the match, Barker dribbles round the whole team and scores or creates a wonder goal like he almost did in the first 15 mins, Sykes puts an easy chance in the net, or the manager recognises that this is a game Gorrin must play. But we were never really in it, and it was a near identical scenario to when we previously played them a few weeks ago.

 

[Hackney Jack]

Barker was lazy, couldn’t be arsed and a jack the lad, hope he’s nowhere near this place next season.

Strongly disagree with that. He's been one of the plus points of the second halve of the season, for me. Classy talented player. Yes, like a lot of wingers he can dip out of a game, but that's what you get with someone that can turn defences over like he can.

 

[TailsWeWin]

A lot of my thoughts echoed here. From our wonderful vantage point of row C Northstand (away section) we could observe the second half performance from the back quite closely. It was more than apparent that there simply wasn't any outlet to find from in front of Moore, Atkinson and Brannagan. Time and time again those three exchanged passes before giving up and allowing Stevens to hoof the ball. (and then watch it come straight back)
Both Hanson (in particular) and Ruffels were so far forward that passing out to them was not possible. Blackpool simply swamped the midfield and left our front four to fend for themselves. How many times have we seen this throughout the season? Why does KR not learn and change the tactic?
Certainly now, the opportunity has presented itself to change. 3-0 down and nothing to lose in the return fixture. Can he set up the team to play differently? Can he even field a fully fit team out of the squad left?
Why not make changes, some will have to happen anyway if the injuries last night are serious. Change the formation.
At least make a game of it, give us the fans something entertaining to watch.

To answer your most pertinent question: no he can’t. He is tactically naive and this was apparent again last night. We were not only outfought - we were out-thought. Can you really see him altering his tactics to deal with the inevitable onslaught on Friday?

 

[brassmonkey]

What irks me is that 'better' teams set up to stop us. Do we ever set up to stop them? It seems like (as I am no expert) we play the same way/formation no matter what. It is all too predictable. Take Blackpool's managers post match comments "It’s not an accident, certainly not. It’s something we’ve highlighted and practised, because that’s how we prepare,” “We try to find weaknesses in the opposition and how we can exploit them, what are their strengths and how we can stop them from doing what they want to do".