Away Match Day Thread 29/03/24 - L1: Shrewsbury v OUFC

[Carpy]

POST MATCH PACK:

Post Match Discussion

Interview - Des Buckingham

Interview - Billy Bodin

Interview - Paul Hurst

Match Highlights

Match Report

Ref Watch

Fans View

 

[Nox]

That was f*****g lame.

My public face would have told reporters how disappointed I was with the performance. Lacked purpose, energy and intensity for a team who have had a two week break. Decision making very poor and Mondays team will look different.

In my dressing room I would have probably lost my s**t, smashed a few water bottles and first aid kits and told them that some of you are getting a rest and I will speak to you separately later regarding why.

My thoughts for the training ground are….
1. Discussion with Sam Long and the medical team to schedule in full physical and mental Assesment. I’m not confident he should be playing L1 football tbh.

2. Punishment for simulating. It’s embarrassing.

3. Strict plan to deploy Cam Bran further forward.

4. Following analysis, show squad and individuals our shocking press. Show footage of how a good press works. Coach on topic.

5. Following analysis show squad and individuals how damaging our deep drop is.

6. Analyse and coach 1vs1 where appropriate how to defend and what areas of the pitch we want to push the opposition in to. This was shocking!

7. Devise sessions without the ball. Small, medium and large exercises. We are f*****g pathetic thru the lines.

8. Devise sessions on paying thru lines quickly and positively. Punishments for needless sideways passes.

Gregor for Head coach, he definitely has more ideas of what's needed to coach this team into a half decent outfit.
Just a shame the current Head coach can't see it.

 

[Benox]

The first 20 seconds of that are incredible.

- Shrewsbury player picks it up on the left, strides forward (no real pace), with the time and space to constantly look up, brings it inside to the edge of the area, and crosses - without a yellow shirt in the frame.

- Ball comes back out, another Shrewsbury player has time to control, look up, have another touch, deliver another cross - once again without a yellow shirt in the frame (let alone attempting to tackle/block).

Anyone watching that could reasonably conclude that we were, at that time, playing with 9 men - and most certainly without a Right Back.

Woeful.

Thought the same. Absolutely pathetic defending from Long. He had 2 opportunities to get close to the crosser and both times just stood back and let him put a cross in. He’s been so poor for a long time.

 

[Sheik djibouti]

Gregor for Head coach, he definitely has more ideas of what's needed to coach this team into a half decent outfit.
Just a shame the current Head coach can't see it.

I agree, great analysis from @Gregortheox , but I find it utterly baffling that they are actually being coached that way.

They're certainly not performing as team, rather a collection of individuals with a modicum of footballing ability. All teams need leaders on the pitch and we just don't have any.

 

[OUFCwaffle]

Though we replayed quite well for most parts, and dominated the second half. Strong defensive shift bar their goal, and they put so many bodies on the line to stop us scoring a second.

Lincoln look to be getting playoffs of their form continues, however both peterborough and Barnsley lost and have been just as inconsistent as we have of late, it's not an impossibility that one of those could drop out.

Stevenage and Blackpool also dropping points all over the place.

Still requires us to win games though. Buy let's not give up just yet, as much as I'm sure you all would love to.

 

[dickwalton1964]

I agree, great analysis from @Gregortheox , but I find it utterly baffling that they are actually being coached that way.

They're certainly not performing as team, rather a collection of individuals with a modicum of footballing ability. All teams need leaders on the pitch and we just don't have any.

They need leaders off the pitch too. Have we got any of those?

 

[Sheik djibouti]

Unpopular opinion, I though we replayed quite well for most parts, and dominated the second half. Strong defensive shift bar their goal, and they put so many bodies on the line to stop us scoring a second.

Lincoln look to be getting playoffs of their form continues, however both peterborough and Barnsley lost and have been just as inconsistent as we have of late, it's not an impossibility that one of those could drop out.

Stevenage and Blackpool also dropping points all over the place.

Still requires us to win games though. Buy let's not give up just yet, as much as I'm sure you all would love to.

I really can't agree with the strong defensive shift comment. There were so many times when the ball was pinging around inside or on the edge of our area, and if it wasn't for Shrews utter incompetence in front of goal we would have been punished more. As it was we got away with just being punished once for numerous examples of substandard defending.
Not only that but Long was being had on toast down the right on several occasions, Bennett attempted some absolutely ridiculous passes and gave the ball away several times. Moore looked afraid of his own shadow and Brown also forgot how to pass. Oh and Dunkley dominated in the air on their corners, just a lack of quality from him let us off the hook several times. On balance I thought we got away with it in defence, more often that we defended well.

We have a real problem with passing out from the back, but not all of the blame is down to the defenders limited ability on the ball. We need to rest of the team to actually move, find space and give some realistic outlets. Again, pace, urgency and industry are sorely lacking.

 

[werthersoriginal]

RR has been s**t for months now.

He’s the biggest/most expensive luxury of the last 3/4 years. The bloke is a joke.

Mcguane is the definition of soft underbelly

Rodrigues might want a word

 

[PottersRightBoot]

Yet, four points from the last two away games is top 6 form..

Look, we really should have won yesterday but the ‘woe is us/Des’ attitude is totally counter productive.

We would have all settled for a puncher’s chance in the playoffs after the Accrington game last season and that’s what we’ve got.

Now I accept that the puncher in question is a bit of a (….younger contributors look away ) , Joe Bugner but it’s a chance nonetheless.

Monday, would drop/ ‘rest’ Harris and Rodrigues, and play Goodhram and Browne from the start. There seems to be no explanation about the whereabouts of Goodwin and we deserve one.

Dale is proving to be a very good signing. I enjoy his attitude and workrate and oh for a a bit more of that from the rest of the team.

Puncher’s chance - oh and I’ve enjoyed the season as well. There’s to much sourness on offer on this forum currently.

COYY.

 

[TailsWeWin]

With all the (justified) chagrin about how we threw that game away in the final stages, let’s not forget that we presented them with 3 or 4 very good chances early on. If those had been Bolton’s or Derby’s forwards that game would have been over by 3:20pm.

 

[Manorlounger]

They're certainly not performing as team, rather a collection of individuals with a modicum of footballing ability. All teams need leaders on the pitch and we just don't have any.

This was the conversation that Mrs L and myself had yesterday evening. It is irreconcilable that the same players that went into the automatic spots at the start of the season are now playing so poorly that, form wise at least, they could be considered anything more than lower mid table candidates.
The reasons for that? Coaching, individual temperament, tactics? Whatever it is, it needs to be rectified, and quickly.

 

[Scrongo]

I agree, great analysis from @Gregortheox , but I find it utterly baffling that they are actually being coached that way.

They're certainly not performing as team, rather a collection of individuals with a modicum of footballing ability. All teams need leaders on the pitch and we just don't have any.

When was the last time we had a team of leaders. 10 years ago????

 

[LeftSideLarry]

There seems to be no explanation about the whereabouts of Goodwin and we deserve one.

Buckingham did cover this in his post match interview.

Summary: The knock sustained at PV is not a reoccurrence of the issue that kept him out after joining. He may be available on Monday, but if not then certainly for Burton.

 

[Oufccraig45]

Brannagan is the one player we have to keep over everyone else.

Will have to disagree he is another player that hasn't been in it since Des arrived as with nearly or all of them

 

[Steve Gilbert]

Yet, four points from the last two away games is top 6 form..

Look, we really should have won yesterday but the ‘woe is us/Des’ attitude is totally counter productive.

We would have all settled for a puncher’s chance in the playoffs after the Accrington game last season and that’s what we’ve got.

Now I accept that the puncher in question is a bit of a (….younger contributors look away ) , Joe Bugner but it’s a chance nonetheless.

Monday, would drop/ ‘rest’ Harris and Rodrigues, and play Goodhram and Browne from the start. There seems to be no explanation about the whereabouts of Goodwin and we deserve one.

Dale is proving to be a very good signing. I enjoy his attitude and workrate and oh for a a bit more of that from the rest of the team.

Puncher’s chance - oh and I’ve enjoyed the season as well. There’s to much sourness on offer on this forum currently.

COYY.

Agree with this.
The atmosphere was superb in the away end yesterday and even some Shrewsbury fans after the game were saying how good our following is.
We need that backing for 6 more games and then hopefully a few more.
Whatever happens we can have the post mortem in the summer, right now though we are still in the mix and the players and management need our support.

I also actually thought we played very well yesterday and it was a good game to watch!

 

[TailsWeWin]

The first 20 seconds of that are incredible.

- Shrewsbury player picks it up on the left, strides forward (no real pace), with the time and space to constantly look up, brings it inside to the edge of the area, and crosses - without a yellow shirt in the frame.

- Ball comes back out, another Shrewsbury player has time to control, look up, have another touch, deliver another cross - once again without a yellow shirt in the frame (let alone attempting to tackle/block).

Anyone watching that could reasonably conclude that we were, at that time, playing with 9 men - and most certainly without a Right Back.

Woeful.

We WERE playing without a right back.

 

[Steve Gilbert]

Will have to disagree he is another player that hasn't been in it since Des arrived as with nearly or all of them

Really?! He has been one of the best performers behind Dale and Murphy every week. In fact if we didn’t have Brannagan in the side then I’d say we wouldn’t be still in the mix right now.

 

[Sheik djibouti]

Yet, four points from the last two away games is top 6 form..

Look, we really should have won yesterday but the ‘woe is us/Des’ attitude is totally counter productive.

We would have all settled for a puncher’s chance in the playoffs after the Accrington game last season and that’s what we’ve got.

Now I accept that the puncher in question is a bit of a (….younger contributors look away ) , Joe Bugner but it’s a chance nonetheless.

Monday, would drop/ ‘rest’ Harris and Rodrigues, and play Goodhram and Browne from the start. There seems to be no explanation about the whereabouts of Goodwin and we deserve one.

Dale is proving to be a very good signing. I enjoy his attitude and workrate and oh for a a bit more of that from the rest of the team.

Puncher’s chance - oh and I’ve enjoyed the season as well. There’s to much sourness on offer on this forum currently.

COYY.

A puncher's chance indeed (love the Joe Bugner reference too!), but when a chance presents itself you have to take it.

Yesterday several chances presented themselves, we did not take them. To use your boxing analogy, our opponent was stood there, guard down, chin out...and what did we do? Put up our guard, did the Ali shuffle then threw a few haymakers that failed to connect. We then got put on the canvas by a sucker punch.

Chances like yesterday may be far harder to come by over the final run of games, especially against the likes of Lincoln, Stevenage and Peterborough. And when those chin out, guard down moments do present, how confident are we in our ability to land that killer blow?

I think it is going to take a moment of individual genius/endeavour if we are to achieve anything....and then hope our guard holds good as we are backed into our corner.

 

[Oxford84]

Will have to disagree he is another player that hasn't been in it since Des arrived as with nearly or all of them

Id say he is the one thats always in it no matter who the manager.

 

[Deanroger]

Yeah, but you said “stormed”. So far they’ve had a decent run of 8-10 games. Like we did at the start of the season.

Today, they only had 2 shots on target.

The teams from 6th to 10th (4th - 10th even - Barnsley and Peterborough both lost to bottom 6 sides today) are inconsistent. That’s the nature of any dogfight between 3 or 4 teams who aren’t consistent enough to be in the automatics or comfortable in the play-offs.

My hot take is that we’re neither as good as the most positive posters on here think, nor as bad as the most negative think. And the sides around us - broadly speaking - are just as inconsistent as we are. If they weren’t, there’d be higher in the table than they are. .

They have 'stormed' from lower mid table into the play off places and with their remaining fixtures and current form look to be favourites to stay there.

 

[Chorn17]

Bit late to thread, but yesterday was symptomatic of the season. Not playing good enough for long enough in the game, short spells of good football and carving out good chances with end product not being there when get chances to kill games.

Being a season ticket holder and watching most away games on iFollow, one of the few games where we have played really well for good chunk of game was Portsmouth away. Considering toughest game of season on paper I thought was a game that we were almost comfortable in and should have scored 3 or 4, but again same issues, poor goals conceded and not taking chances

I think based on 3 or 4 weeks left isn’t going to be dramatic change, things will either click or not.
Although not great result still in with chance and I was thinking need at least 7 points from these 3 before the 3 home games which most people are almost writing off as if can get anything be a bonus. 3 games at home against anyone surely have to fancy chances. Lincoln on great run but will they keep it up for another 6 games, if they do good luck to them. Peterborough stuttering and may not be in with chance of autos or outside chance, Stevenage again stuttering

We’ve been in most games this season if exclude Bolton, Peterborough away and Derby at Home (they battered us for whole game even though went 2-0 never really felt we had any control)

As hard as it is to be at times, still have to be somewhat optimistic- league you can’t predict, look at Peterborough and Barnsley results yesterday

Does pressure flip more onto Lincoln now being chased?