Lets talk about the Oxford game

[Not Now Kato]

What are the bus times for Oxford?  The travel section hasn't been updated for some time!
 
Edit to say from the Keepmoat.

[les@donr]

Been on  the Oxford fans website, only 15 comments regarding our match with them tomorrow. They don't seem too excited at the prospect of playing us, they all predict  a home win, and that is about it.

[les@donr]

Apologies, the number of replies has skyrocketed to 17.

[selby]

  Lets hope they are wrong about 4 55pm. tomorrow then,Kato I think the bus time from the K.M. is 9 45am. but try to check to be sure.

[Not Now Kato]

Thanks Selby. 

[Donnywolf]

Apologies, the number of replies has skyrocketed to 17.

I regard 17 as my "lucky number" so its a 1 nil win for us then - goal scorer MB17 of course

[The Red Baron]

Apologies, the number of replies has skyrocketed to 17.

I regard 17 as my "lucky number" so its a 1 nil win for us then - goal scorer MB17 of course

Unfortunately Matty is injured. 1-0 Tommy Rowe.

[selby]

 Hard to take that result,did we play badly? no. Did we deserve to lose?probably not. Did we deserve to win? no. We continue to mess about with picking the side, we desperately need to find an answer to the right back position. And we need a striker on the field of play that can score goals,not sat on the bench.
   I cannot understand Fergies reluctance to play Baudry at right back,a right footed player with footballing and passing ability,when he has tried him on the left side,and dropping him for not doing too well, when it cuts his comfort zone down by half the field.
  Beestin did what I expected,a few neat flicks,plenty of effort, and no danger to Oxford at all. The clamour for Alfie was answered when he came on and two breaks past their back four promised, until his lack of actual pace allowed their centre half to get 4yds back on him and force him away from goal and then take the ball off him.
  In injury time he got a clear  header from the six yard line at the far post,that he tamely headed  over the bar, another good chance he has wasted in the area.
  From the goal kick the ball ended up on the right side of our midfield at Masons feet,at this point I felt danger,as he once again showed his liking of trying to pass a ball to one of our players, while actually passing the ball directly to an Oxford player five yards away, who promptly set the move away to score with twenty seconds left, Well done again.
  So,no Rodney who made a goal last week, and no Mandeville,who has scored four goals while not playing all the minutes of his last five first team games.
  I dont think Rodney will be here after January, just when I think he is getting to grips with mens football, and could be a bigger asset in the second half of the season.
  And if I was Mandeville I would be asking if I was going to get picked, or I would be onto my agent to get me away in January, and if I was say the Rotherham,  Scunthorpe, or Barnsley manager I would be after him.

[Retdon1]

We're crying out for some pace up front to play with marquis. Bar Marty Blair, we have very little pace in our side

[dickos1]

Hard to take that result,did we play badly? no. Did we deserve to lose?probably not. Did we deserve to win? no. We continue to mess about with picking the side, we desperately need to find an answer to the right back position. And we need a striker on the field of play that can score goals,not sat on the bench.
   I cannot understand Fergies reluctance to play Baudry at right back,a right footed player with footballing and passing ability,when he has tried him on the left side,and dropping him for not doing too well, when it cuts his comfort zone down by half the field.
  Beestin did what I expected,a few neat flicks,plenty of effort, and no danger to Oxford at all. The clamour for Alfie was answered when he came on and two breaks past their back four promised, until his lack of actual pace allowed their centre half to get 4yds back on him and force him away from goal and then take the ball off him.
  In injury time he got a clear  header from the six yard line at the far post,that he tamely headed  over the bar, another good chance he has wasted in the area.
  From the goal kick the ball ended up on the right side of our midfield at Masons feet,at this point I felt danger,as he once again showed his liking of trying to pass a ball to one of our players, while actually passing the ball directly to an Oxford player five yards away, who promptly set the move away to score with twenty seconds left, Well done again.
  So,no Rodney who made a goal last week, and no Mandeville,who has scored four goals while not playing all the minutes of his last five first team games.
  I dont think Rodney will be here after January, just when I think he is getting to grips with mens football, and could be a bigger asset in the second half of the season.
  And if I was Mandeville I would be asking if I was going to get picked, or I would be onto my agent to get me away in January, and if I was say the Rotherham,  Scunthorpe, or Barnsley manager I would be after him.

Bit ott to say Rodney made a goal last week, everyone would have put houghton in ahead of him.

[selby]

  Dickos ,I cannot argue with that,I was trying to point out,that instead of playing the team that finished the game so well against Scunthorpe,Fergie rarely fields a team without one or two changes.
   The only way Alfie should have got on today was if we were comfortably in front with 10 minutes left. He has not played for five or six weeks,and we leave a goalscorer on the bench who has scored 4 in his last five games that have not all been full games.
  Add the fact that our form has been better while Alfie has been injured,the mind boggles.Alfie five in 16 and a bit games and Beestin none in three and a bit is not going to win you anything.

[anne honemous]

It's very disappointing to lose a game so late on after more than holding our own for such a long period of time.

For it to have now happened YET AGAIN for a third time this season; it highlights a weakness in our team. It can happen once to any side. Twice? Okay, if you get bad luck, then maybe it can happen. Three times? No. We may as well pull up the book of excuses to cover over the fact that we tend to crumble under pressure and there's a major problem with our mental strength in seeing out a game.

It's Groundhog Day yet again as it's more points that we should have had in the bag. It's frustrating too, but until we make the vital additions that we need in January, then I don't expect anything different.

Hopefully, we won't dwell on it though and next week we can go and put Gobby Wellens in his place as he'll have his players fired up, determined and ready to get one over on DF.

I just hope we're 3-0 up against Oldham in stoppage time rather than 1-0 up...

[les@donr]

I think teams know our weakness, keep at us for 96 plus minutes you will get a result. The players should not need any motivation for the next game, when Mr Wellens and his gang are in town. They've not been doing so well of late, hope it continues!

[Campsall rover]

Anne it has happenne 4 times not 3  Shrewsbury and Rotherham at home and Rochdale and Oxford away.
It is now an epidemic and needs sorting or my top half of the table finish is going to look very stupid indeed.

[Bentley Bullet]

Our problem is we have to treat every game like a cup final in order to compete. We have to play out of our skins to match most teams in this league. That could be why we can't win two games on the trot because we're buggered with fatigue after a victory!

An example of this is the Rotherham game when we attempted to keep the ball in the corner for the last 10 minutes. This clearly showed the opposition far too much respect and was total proof that it was like our cup final.

[Chris Black come back]

That is absolutely damning - having to play out of our skins to match most teams in this league.

This is the third tier!

[Bentley Bullet]

That is absolutely damning - having to play out of our skins to match most teams in this league.

This is the third tier!

Correct! It could also explain a few of the injuries too.

[Chris Black come back]

That is exactly what I would have said about he Championship. We had to have our best players available and each and every one of them playing 8/10 or above to enable us to compete.

In League One though? This is distinctly sub-optimal. We certainly struggle to maintain a decent level with any kind of consistency.

[Bentley Bullet]

I said the same when we were in the Championship. It's now relative to us in league one.

[Metalmicky]

Just seen the highlights... Never a penalty, but I have to say Lawlor must be disappointed to have let that shot in - seemed to go through his hands.  To be fair they should never have got that much space anyway...

[mrfrostsdad]

I think teams know our weakness, keep at us for 96 plus minutes you will get a result. The players should not need any motivation for the next game, when Mr Wellens and his gang are in town. They've not been doing so well of late, hope it continues!

I think their recent form is very similar to ours. They have 8 points from their last 6 games and I think we have 8 from 7 or thereabouts.
On paper it should be close, but as we know, footie is not played on paper 😊

[RoversAlias]

I think teams know our weakness, keep at us for 96 plus minutes you will get a result. The players should not need any motivation for the next game, when Mr Wellens and his gang are in town. They've not been doing so well of late, hope it continues!

They won 5-1 yesterday, will come into the game very confident you'd imagine.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

The goal conceded was criminal. Irrespective of giving possession away, we had plenty of time to get organised. As the ball gets played across, Whiteman should have been moving towards the player to close him down. Instead he does nothing giving the player ample space and time and then, turns his back. He needs a right bollocking for that!

The shot wasn't exactly a rasper was it? Lawlor made a right pigs ear of what should be a routine save.

We've had plenty of warnings throughout this season to date. There is no excuse for not closing players down at any level of football at time of the game!

[i_ateallthepies]

The goal conceded was criminal. Irrespective of giving possession away, we had plenty of time to get organised. As the ball gets played across, Whiteman should have been moving towards the player to close him down. Instead he does nothing giving the player ample space and time and then, turns his back. He needs a right bollocking for that!

The shot wasn't exactly a rasper was it? Lawlor made a right pigs ear of what should be a routine save.

We've had plenty of warnings throughout this season to date. There is no excuse for not closing players down at any level of football at time of the game!

Spot on DBR and for it to be endemic within the team it has to be the quality of the training/coaching or the quality of the players themselves, either way it points to a problem of management.

[dickos1]

For me it's a mental issue, if it's a tight game you can see they just start panicking the last 5 mins

[selby]

We need a good steady right sided defender, an experienced good midfield player in January, and Mandeville to be given a run of six matches to prove his worth alongside Marquis.
  And the young lad from Chelsea to get fit.
  Although wearing No3 on his back, the Cambridge right back who played yesterday would do me, he looked a good player.

[Donny Dub]

We’re not forcing proper scoring chances, we’re defending well, keeping the ball in midfield quite well but we’re a dire attacking force.  We’re far too slow breaking from defence to attack, too apt to make a backwards pass allowing the oppposition to organise their cover.  It seems to me that we depend on dead ball situations to generate our scoring chances followed by a goalmouth scramble.  It’s a coaching and confidence issue - just get it sorted!
Good luck.

[anne honemous]

Anne it has happenne 4 times not 3  Shrewsbury and Rotherham at home and Rochdale and Oxford away.
It is now an epidemic and needs sorting or my top half of the table finish is going to look very stupid indeed.

I totally forgot about the Shrewsbury one, but it just further strengthens what people are saying in this thread.

I'd also love to see a league table comparing points lost and points gained from winning/losing positions. This is something we also probably have to improve, no question.