I have to confess, I had thrown in the towel after the Accrington match. I was calling for starting for starting the youth v Crewe and looking to next season, and I don't think I was alone in that. But thank god KR and the team don't quit as easily as I apparently do! I know we're in a 'false' position in terms of the teams below us having games in hand, and only being there on GD, but it's very, very difficult not to look at the table and get excited seeing OUFC up in 5th with 44 games played.
We had to work for it today, but I think we were good value for that win. Plymouth had the first half of the second half, but we 'won' the other three quarters of the match, making the 3-1 scoreline strangely fitting. Some of our play was lovely, and some individual performances were just too good for Plymouth. Agyei was on fire. Possibly his best overall performance in an Oxford shirt. I really do think he has a lot to offer as a winger. When he can turn on the ball and isolate a defender in a bit of space, he has that ability to breeze past them that noone else on the team, with Barker out, has. Among a lot of other good performances, I wanted to highlight Brannagan's crossfield balls, too. I don't think we've had a central midfielder pulling out passes like that since Lunny. It's not a part of his game that I've ever really seen before, and I think that, while he likes pushing forward, he's really made that deep #6 role his own in the last few matches. (Although, that said, it was good to see Gorrin back in his brief cameo, too).
Fair play to Plymouth, look a decent side who I'm sure will push on next year. Got some very good players, a strong core to build a team around.
Well done to Hull. I said, after I was lucky enough to see us play them in the flesh in December, that they would go straight back up, and so it's proved. A strong, physical but well-organised side, with that sprinkling of attacking flair in the likes of Honeyman, just what you need to be a success in this league. Other big-time clubs who come down and consider themselves 'too good for this league' would do well to follow their example. It's also worth giving credit to Posh, who are all but up after today. Everyone laughed at 'Operation Vengeance' and their chairman making a bit of a tit of himself on twitter last summer, but they've responded to that disappointment, and the loss of Ivan Toney, in ideal fashion and are well worth their promotion.
A week's break now until Shrews, by which time we could be down in 8th. Today's results should give everyone so much cause for optimism, though. Charlton losing to Posh is understandable, but nobody, surely, had Blackpool down to drop points at home to Shrewsbury, let alone lose. The teams around us are around us because they're just as inconsistent as us. So long as it's still mathematically possible, it's definitely on.
And finally... 147 days after Swindon scored twice in the last 5 minutes to leapfrog us in the table and leave us level on points with Bristol Rovers in the relegation spots, we're sitting in fifth, while they're on their way to League 2 (and below). Delicious.
