Home Match Day Thread 01/04/2024: L1 OUFC v Fleetwood Town

[Northstandboy]

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[greatunclekip]

Yes, that’s good. 8 wins in 26 isn’t though. Your point is what?

8 wins in 26. f*****g. Hell.

 

[LowerSouth]

My main take from today’s game- it keeps the season alive.
Let’s do it again at Burton .

 

[Chippy]

We had 10,000 home fans against Accrington for a dead rubber at the end of last season. We now have 3 home games which could cement our place in the playoffs if we win them all.

We expect the players to give everything, but we also need to do the same as a fanbase and do all we can to help get the results we need.

I think there’s quite a lot of people who go away at Easter with the 4 day weekend and start of school holidays. Add to that some may have Easter family commitments and Fleetwood not being the most attractive of fixtures, plus recent performances before today have not exactly been enthralling and 8,500 home fans isn’t as disappointing as it may seem.

 

[MateoCorbo'sTackle]

Quite a few games in Lincolns great winning run they have had less possession and scored from few chances on target so perhaps they are a really good counter attacking team.

Fair point. When we play them, would be interesting to see what happens if we go 1-0 up…they don’t seem that attuned to taking control of a game.

 

[uptheus]

So, since the turn of the year apart from the first game on 1st Jan, Lincoln have played 15 games, winning 10 and drawing 5, no losses!, so taking 35 points out of possible 45 (so averaging 2.33 points/game!). In that time they’ve scored 31 goals and conceded 5 goals (+26 GD). They’ve also achieved 10 clean sheets!

In contrast, we’ve won 4, drawn 6 and lost 5, so 18 points out of a possible 45 (so averaging 1.2 points/game!). In this time we’ve scored 22 goals and conceded 23 (-1 GD). We’ve achieved 3 clean sheets out of 15 games!!

 

[uptheus]

We had 10,000 home fans against Accrington for a dead rubber at the end of last season. We now have 3 home games which could cement our place in the playoffs if we win them all.

We expect the players to give everything, but we also need to do the same as a fanbase and do all we can to help get the results we need.

I hope we get the 10k+ but I think the Accrington game came as a big relief that we’d managed to avoid relegation and the hope of new beginnings etc.

I’d like to think we’d get good attendances (10k+) against 3 other play off contenders though.

 

[Steve Gilbert]

It’s just dawned on me, the Stevenage game is our last home game of the season.
A shame that a few people who have gone week in and week out like @Sarge cant now go due to Sky!

 

[PottersRightBoot]

Having two out and out full backs behind two dashing wingers works very well. Credit Des.

Having one midfielder - who does the work of two admittedly - and two inside forwards is gung ho and will get punished by better sides. However we look infinitely more dangerous up front . Credit Des.


Keep the 4-1-4-1 going. Like it.


Fleetwood won’t be in the league in two years time. Terrible lack of quality and will to win all over the pitch. (Must be difficult if the owner’s banged up. )

Play like that and we will get in play offs.

And then prepare for another Lancastrian drubbing.

 

[BehindtheDugout]

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[Barbadosyellow]

If I was a Lincoln fan I'd be worried that after the amazing success over the last 3 months they'll throw it all away in the one that matters, ie Oxford away

 

[tonyw]

So, since the turn of the year apart from the first game on 1st Jan, Lincoln have played 15 games, winning 10 and drawing 5, no losses!, so taking 35 points out of possible 45 (so averaging 2.33 points/game!). In that time they’ve scored 31 goals and conceded 5 goals (+26 GD). They’ve also achieved 10 clean sheets!

In contrast, we’ve won 4, drawn 6 and lost 5, so 18 points out of a possible 45 (so averaging 1.2 points/game!). In this time we’ve scored 22 goals and conceded 23 (-1 GD). We’ve achieved 3 clean sheets out of 15 games!!

Should Derby score a couple against Pompey tomorrow (not unlikely), then Lincoln will have the best defensive record in the division.

Their attack is still mediocre overall, despite the fact that they've scored 20 goals in their last five games. It was really pretty lousy before that stretch!

 

[Steve Gilbert]

Lincoln are doing what we were doing under Manning, out performing their performances if that makes sense. If they can keep it going for another 5 games then fair play to them and they will fully deserve to be in the play offs.
It is teams like Lincoln who actually go up through the play offs.

Barnsley and Peterborough are so out of form right now but they will play each other in the play offs which is a blessing for them both.

 

[Oufcrealist]

Weird old game IMO. I thought we were as dull as ditchwater again for the first 15 minutes. Fleetwood (who were awful) probably should have taken the lead, but then the ref failed to award a foul to them (it was obvious and blatant) and ten seconds later a wicked deflection gives us the lead. That sparked us into action and we were decent for the rest of the half - albeit with Fleetwood giving us the ball all the time by farting about with it at the back. They could easily have scored before halftime though.

I was hoping the second half would see us pressing forward trying to improve our goal difference, but no - more slow stuff. Brannagan tried to inject something, but couldn't really get us going. Who decided that the best way to get Browne into the game was to boot head high balls at him?

I don't really think, despite the scoreline, that game showed that the team is any further forward. Some decent individual performances from a few, a period of decent play and 3 points is what I took away from watching that. It's an odd feeling to walk back to the car after a 4-0 win and not be particularly happy.

Agree entirely. Exactly how I felt walking back to the car.

 

[Twiggy85]

Weird old game IMO. I thought we were as dull as ditchwater again for the first 15 minutes. Fleetwood (who were awful) probably should have taken the lead, but then the ref failed to award a foul to them (it was obvious and blatant) and ten seconds later a wicked deflection gives us the lead. That sparked us into action and we were decent for the rest of the half - albeit with Fleetwood giving us the ball all the time by farting about with it at the back. They could easily have scored before halftime though.

I was hoping the second half would see us pressing forward trying to improve our goal difference, but no - more slow stuff. Brannagan tried to inject something, but couldn't really get us going. Who decided that the best way to get Browne into the game was to boot head high balls at him?

I don't really think, despite the scoreline, that game showed that the team is any further forward. Some decent individual performances from a few, a period of decent play and 3 points is what I took away from watching that. It's an odd feeling to walk back to the car after a 4-0 win and not be particularly happy.

Hard to disagree with any of that

 

[QuietYeller]

Great win, also good to get a clean sheet for once!
In fairness, Fleetwood Mac would’ve given us a better game

 

[QuietYeller]

So, since the turn of the year apart from the first game on 1st Jan, Lincoln have played 15 games, winning 10 and drawing 5, no losses!, so taking 35 points out of possible 45 (so averaging 2.33 points/game!). In that time they’ve scored 31 goals and conceded 5 goals (+26 GD). They’ve also achieved 10 clean sheets!

In contrast, we’ve won 4, drawn 6 and lost 5, so 18 points out of a possible 45 (so averaging 1.2 points/game!). In this time we’ve scored 22 goals and conceded 23 (-1 GD). We’ve achieved 3 clean sheets out of 15 games!!

So are you saying Lincoln are better than us?

 

[uptheus]

Weird old game IMO. I thought we were as dull as ditchwater again for the first 15 minutes. Fleetwood (who were awful) probably should have taken the lead, but then the ref failed to award a foul to them (it was obvious and blatant) and ten seconds later a wicked deflection gives us the lead. That sparked us into action and we were decent for the rest of the half - albeit with Fleetwood giving us the ball all the time by farting about with it at the back. They could easily have scored before halftime though.

I was hoping the second half would see us pressing forward trying to improve our goal difference, but no - more slow stuff. Brannagan tried to inject something, but couldn't really get us going. Who decided that the best way to get Browne into the game was to boot head high balls at him?

I don't really think, despite the scoreline, that game showed that the team is any further forward. Some decent individual performances from a few, a period of decent play and 3 points is what I took away from watching that. It's an odd feeling to walk back to the car after a 4-0 win and not be particularly happy.

Exactly how I saw it/felt. Fleetwood should have scored with the 1 on 1 too!

I was bemused by some of the upbeat comments on Radio Oxford by both the presenters and callers about how wonderful we’d played (granted it was better first half), and how we’d now turned a corner etc. To be honest, I actually felt more enthused when we lost 2-1 to Pompey away a few weeks ago.

The real tests will be against Peterborough, Lincoln and Stevenage, but glad we got the win today and scored a few goals. Here’s to the next 5 games hopefully starting with a win against Burton next

 

[QuietYeller]

Main difference today is we followed up the first goal with a second which we’ve time and again not done

 

[uptheus]

So are you saying Lincoln are better than us?

I’m not sure what I’m saying really, apart from we’d have to raise our game a tad to beat them and also hope we don’t slip up prior/post playing them!

 

[AbsoluteZero]

After a very worrying opening 15 minutes when we should have been 1 down and/or down to 10 it turned out pretty good and the last 15-20 minutes of the 1st half probably meant we were actually disappointed to only be 3 up. The second half was a bit of a non-event, if Murphy had scored from his 60 yard run it probably could have been different and the floodgates may well have opened.

Cumming's handling and long kicking was assured today. His shorter kicks/chips into midfield were often wayward though and better teams would likely have capitalised on this as it left us very open at the back with the ball given away in our half in dangerous areas. This should be monitored from the in house match review and should be ironed out and it has to be, juggernaut teams like Derby, Bolton and Peterborough would be all over this type of mistake.

If we do get into the play offs we will only be in it because we would have to be in form. Which gives us a chance. But we can't creep back to the scared way of playing we were a few weeks ago because that clearly doesn't suit the players we have got. It is a big bonus having game changers like Browne on the bench, and when Goodwin is fit again that will be another very useful addition to the match squad. We just need to concentrate on what we are good at as a team and not get bogged down into stopping the opposition as the priority objective because we then become too negative and unable to play to our strengths with costly mistakes starting to happen.