Viking Supporters Co-operative
Viking Chat => Viking Chat => Topic started by: selby on December 05, 2017, 05:16:21 pm
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After the thrill of a good cup win against a local side, it is back to a longer journey darn sarf to Oxford and a new ground for me.
Oxford are a team that have won more points from away games than at their own ground,and are coming off a credible 1-1 draw at Southend, not an easy place to get points at.
Their team was supplemented by the inclusion of a Dutchman,a Brazilian, and a Spaniard,and currently sit 7 points off the playoffs,but also only 7 points from the bottom four.
I do not envisage many,if any changes to our lineup after Sunday apart from injury or illness,Although I would go with Mandeville instead of Beestin.
What do you think?
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Its Mandy for me.
Can I get a ticket on the day? I have to leave it till the last minute to travel.
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Yes.
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Oxford have been poor at home since moving to the Kassam. This season they have only won 3 of their 10 home games.
They have only won 48 of their 125 home games since promotion back into the league and that includes a promotion season.
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Oxford have been poor at home since moving to the Kassam. This season they have only won 3 of their 10 home games.
They have only won 48 of their 125 home games since promotion back into the league and that includes a promotion season.
Someone has been doing their homework. Interesting to know that and it has surprised me seeing those stats.
Fancy us on Saturday, and if we play with the same intensity as we did on Sunday we will win most of our matches in this league.
Definately would start with Mandeville and use Beestin as an impact player off the bench if needed.
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I live just outside Oxford so keep an interest.
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I wonder what our stats are in that period home and away?
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Alfie May is back he is still our most effective player .
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Hopefully, Matty Blair will be ok for Saturday and yes, Alfie joins the squad which adds to the manager's options.
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Great news that Alfie is back,he would make a great substitute with his running and energy,but games are won with players who are good in the penalty area, and Mandeville is our best player in that area.
The games he started early in the season we did not get the ball in that area enough, because our mid field players were poor and slow to get the ball forward,and when they did,Alfie missed a fair share of chances in front of goal because he needs a touch to control the ball in most cases,if he gets over that,and I am sure they must be working on it, then we have a proper player on our hands.
So its Mandeville for me, Alfie does his best work outside the box for me,and Mandeville is also good in that area as far as bringing other players into play is concerned, its the part in the box that gives him the nod.
The other players in midfield are the ones that make the difference to the front players getting the delivery into the box for them to feed off,and getting up alongside them when attacking.
We have started to do this in the last few games,and is the reason Marquis has been looking better. The lad is working and playing no better now than earlier in the season, its the midfield that has stepped up and has given him a chance with players around him, Mandeville and Marquis will score goals if we start to play more games like we did last weekend.
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Oxford have the talented Alex Mowatt in midfield.Alex was brought up as as my next door but one and the signs was always there.Whilst at leeds he made his debut against Rovers in a cup match.He was very close to a full England call up but suddenly his career went into free fall.going to Barnsley which didnt last long and now at Oxford.What goes wrong with these players hes not just a one off there has been others whose career goes into free fall when showing so much talent.
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Oxford have the talented Alex Mowatt in midfield.Alex was brought up as as my next door but one and the signs was always there.Whilst at leeds he made his debut against Rovers in a cup match.He was very close to a full England call up but suddenly his career went into free fall.going to Barnsley which didnt last long and now at Oxford.What goes wrong with these players hes not just a one off there has been others whose career goes into free fall when showing so much talent.
Eh?
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New managers who want their own players,a different playing style that does not suit the player, off the field issues, there are many reasons,most not the players fault,but bad man management,and lack of trust for youngsters to do the job week after week.
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How can you drop Beestin after he has been more or less MOTM in his last 2 games, he has earned his right. Sorry Selby mate
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How can you drop Beestin after he has been more or less MOTM in his last 2 games, he has earned his right. Sorry Selby mate
Beestin had a decent enough first half against Scunny but faded to almost no contribution before he was subbed.
Some distance behind Marquis,Blair and Rowe in the MoM stakes.
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I largely agree, although Beestin did set Rowe up for his second goal.
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Can't drop Beestin after an average 45minutes, he's got the shirt now and after 4 assists in 3 games he deserves a run in the team.
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Oxford have the talented Alex Mowatt in midfield.Alex was brought up as as my next door but one and the signs was always there.Whilst at leeds he made his debut against Rovers in a cup match.He was very close to a full England call up but suddenly his career went into free fall.going to Barnsley which didnt last long and now at Oxford.What goes wrong with these players hes not just a one off there has been others whose career goes into free fall when showing so much talent.
He is hardly getting a game, mainly coming off the bench, although he scored in midweek. The one lad to watch is Jack Payne. Midfielder on loan from Huddersfield.
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I largely agree, although Beestin did set Rowe up for his second goal.
Did he? Most of the build up play was great work by Rodney...
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It is an easy question for me the manager has to answer,Which player is the most dangerous to the opposition?
Who is the most likely to score? Who is the man in form?
It is Mandeville,I dont expect it to happen but it should,another thing to consider is that it is an away match, at Rochdale apart from the ball to Mandeville to score,a movement that started with Mandeville passing to Khemis and carried on his run into space in the area from out wide left, Beestin did very little in the game, and was hardly any threat at all.
The fact is in the last game and a half at home our better players in midfield have played well, with Coppinger,Rowe and Whiteman playing well add Blair getting forward in the wide position and the front men have at last had something to feed off.
Rodney has also started to make runs through the midfield that has opened the game up for the front men,contrast that with the so called turgid slow play of earlier in the season. The front men did not have a chance. Mandeville and Marquis were chosen then because they are our best in that position, they still are.
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I'm on the fence in respect of Beestin. I only saw the Scunthorpe game and whilst he did contribute to the whole team effort, he did start to wane a bit in the second half, notably 2 or 3 miss-kicks that fortunately didn't come to anything. However the way he chased down a long clearance to win an attacking throw in, when about to be substituted, was good to see.
Would I pick him first for a potentially tough league game, away from home? Probably not..
The young players with good potential need game time. Traditionally they would get their 20 mins or so as a sub after we were already 2 or 3 up. It would be great to have that luxury now!
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I largely agree, although Beestin did set Rowe up for his second goal.
Did he? Most of the build up play was great work by Rodney...
He sure did. Kongolo made the work down the right, passed it forward to Beestin who made a clever first-time lay-off to Rowe who then drove into the box and finished.
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Looked at Oxford's record this season at home, yet to beat a Northern team, best has been a draw. Please correct me if I'm wrong, don't we usually do well down there?
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Not played them since the year we won division 3 have we? So that be 14 years ago.
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I remember that last meeting. A 0-0 draw and mystery man Chris Black's only appearance.
Also I remember taking an eternity to get out of the car park.
I'll be there tomorrow. A rare away day for me.
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Graham Rix was manager of Oxford and did we not win 1-0?
I was there at the match and I thought we won, but I might be wrong.
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0-0 draw but only because of the brilliance of their keeper. 3 or 4 very good saves. On his debut as well, if I recall correctly.
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Yes I remember their keeper having a blinder.
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Wasn't Graham Rix being investigated at the time for allegedly having under age sex?
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Looked at Oxford's record this season at home, yet to beat a Northern team, best has been a draw. Please correct me if I'm wrong, don't we usually do well down there?
That's us buggered then Les, we have a terrible habit of sorting out opponents' runs of bad form.
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What are the bus times for Oxford? The travel section hasn't been updated for some time!
Edit to say from the Keepmoat.
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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.
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Apologies, the number of replies has skyrocketed to 17.
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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.
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Thanks Selby. :)
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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
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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.
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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.
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We're crying out for some pace up front to play with marquis. Bar Marty Blair, we have very little pace in our side
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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.
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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.
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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...
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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!
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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.
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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.
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That is absolutely damning - having to play out of our skins to match most teams in this league.
This is the third tier!
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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.
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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.
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I said the same when we were in the Championship. It's now relative to us in league one.
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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...
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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 😊
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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.
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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!
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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.
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For me it's a mental issue, if it's a tight game you can see they just start panicking the last 5 mins
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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.
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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.
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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.