Home Match Day Thread 02/9/23 L1: OUFC v Port Vale

[Malc]

IT'S SATURDAY!

 

[chuckbert]

After sleeping on it, I’ve decided I’d rather we lost because of being overcome by youthful enthusiasm, our Jamaican international left back getting sent off after he scored on his full debut, and failing to put away a host of potential chances that came about from lightning accurate passing up the pitch.
I like that the only times we give the ball away are from fouls or when the ball goes out of play.
I just wish we’d had GoD on for the last few minutes as he would have kept them occupied at their end of the pitch.

 

[headingtonoldboy]

Everyone on here agees, with every justification, that the referee had a shocker. I'm going to play devil's advocate here. If Harris did elbow the PV defender in the face, or stamp on him, as has been alleged, then really Harris gave the ref no option. As for Leigh, irrespective of whether his first yellow was harsh, he knew he was on a yellow and for him to commit a reckless and rash challenge like that, especially after getting us back in the game minutes earlier was rather irresponsible. He gave the ref a descion to make. If I was LM I would be disappointed in both of them. Like everyone else, I think the offside descion against Harris in the second half was laughable. Having said all that, we weren't at our best yesterday. How many times did we actually force the PV goalkeeper to make anything other than routine saves? It's difficult to criticise after 4 straight wins, hopefully just a bad day at the office. Onwards and upwards.

 

[dickwalton1964]

Difference is, neither Harris or the two wingers were anywhere to be seen when 3 (yes 3 balls) were flashed across the box. Harris works hard but he’s not going to score 20 a season imo. A top class poacher like Marriott is on the end of those flashed balls across the box today. We don’t have that, took our left back to be on the end of one of those balls. We will rue not signing and proven striker, even though the window was very very good & it’s no criticism of manning for not getting said striker.

Exactly this. With a proper finisher out there, like a prime Matty Taylor, we win that game. There were indeed three or four tap ins for a right place, right time striker. Harris is a brilliant player and decent goal scorer but his instinct isn’t to be in and around that area to tap in crosses. O’Donkor, for all his good attributes, doesn’t look that player either. Perkins ? Who knows, hard to tell anything from yesterday. I genuinely think our failure to identify a top class goal scorer will ultimately cost us.

 

[m]

That was the only one time I recall an Oxford player running with intent into the box to get on the end of a low driven cross.

Lots of lessons to be learnt from that game that's for sure and unfortunately for the team they have a 2 week wait before they can move on to the next league game and try and forget about it.

Christ, the last thing I want is them to forget about it.

I hope that one stings. The injustice of it. The naivety in throwing it away. Vale celebrating like they'd won the FA Cup.

 

[Mad Dog]

Sam Long being criticised..? From what I’m reading he’s the latest in the category of players who become better and better through not playing. Finn Stevens appears to be taking up the position of this seasons scapegoat when we lose. I know people are angry and frustrated but I thought he had a decent game today. Footballs all about opinions I suppose..

I’m not saying Stevens had an awful game, and I’m also not saying that Long is suddenly the dogs B*****s, but in my opinion from what I’ve seen, Stevens is not an upgrade on Long, which is what we were expecting him to be.

Long has upped his game this season, and is looking a lot more like his old self again. He’s been playing well, solid defensively and getting forward well, and has been a consistent 7-8/10 in each game.

It’s all opinions of course, and time will tell, but in my opinion, on the current form and displays so far this season from both, Long walks back into this side, as at the moment, for me, he’s head and shoulders ahead of Stevens, who currently looks nothing more than adequate back up, and not the upgrade we all wanted or expected.

 

[Horse]

It’s a shame we can’t see the video of the Harris incident. The ref wasn’t looking and neither was the fourth official when Harris shrugged off their player. I suspect the Lino was asked and he guessed it was a stamp. I saw the tussle live and the elbow was nowhere near the face, he was shrugged off and any contact was chest height. Embarrassing from the PV player.

 

[OX14]

Difference is, neither Harris or the two wingers were anywhere to be seen when 3 (yes 3 balls) were flashed across the box. Harris works hard but he’s not going to score 20 a season imo. A top class poacher like Marriott is on the end of those flashed balls across the box today. We don’t have that, took our left back to be on the end of one of those balls. We will rue not signing and proven striker, even though the window was very very good & it’s no criticism of manning for not getting said striker.

Could we go down the route of signing a free agent striker to give us another option?

Some of the names that are without a club that are out an out centre forwards.

Frazier Campbell
Isaac Vassell
Connor Wickham
Lyle Taylor
Gary Madine
Jordan Ibe
Daniel Sturridge
Chris Martin
Alex Jakubiak

 

[yellowbow]

It’s a shame we can’t see the video of the Harris incident. The ref wasn’t looking and neither was the fourth official when Harris shrugged off their player. I suspect the Lino was asked and he guessed it was a stamp. I saw the tussle live and the elbow was nowhere near the face, he was shrugged off and any contact was chest height. Embarrassing from the PV player.

Yep I saw it too. The PV defender seems to have a little trick of getting up really tight behind the forward he’s marking and pinching them under the armpit. He was man marking Harris all through the game and also looked like he was in his ear saying things that were winding Harris up. To be fair I suppose it’s good old fashioned defending and I Harris sees himself as our no. 9 he’s going to have to get used to that. The defender had him in his pocket for most of the game and I was thinking before the red card that maybe Manning should get a second striker (Perkins) on so we could go two up front. PV were sitting back so deep that having a solitary striker up front seemed a little ridiculous to me. It just seems to be a formation that’s embedded in modern coaches though for some reason..?

 

[Eaststanding]

A setback yesterday, we’re only one point off top spot. We’ll learn to keep our discipline and how to see out a game. We have options up front but to judge Perkins after a 15 minute cameo is frankly pathetic, give the lad a chance. And to those piling onto Manning because he didn’t sign a ‘No.9’, give it a rest, we hear you, let’s see how the season pans out before sobbing uncontrollably into our breakfast bowls.

 

[Sarge]

cold light of morning after the day/ game before

we didn't play badly,
lack of shots on target , and not capitilising on chances created ( three crosses at least that no one was anywhere near, never mind got on the end of) was a factor in yesterdays result. Goals win games

A poor set of inconsistent match officials didn't help matters- through the course of a season every team will have to suffer bad match officials. The EFL and FA must know who they are?

Port Vale's Nathan Smith is a tenth Dan master in the dark arts
he's conned referees been involved in many incidents that have seen opposing players sent off in his career

that said the team should have seen out the draw after equalising , if GO'D was on the bench & had come on late, we very likely would've seen that out for a point- he wasn't, we didnt

next league game is Fleetwood away - in a few weeks time, giving new players time to gel with teammates here's hoping its back to winning ways?

 

[Oxford84]

Er, he mistimed his challenge after being caught out of position. A more ruthless team would have shut up shop post equaliser. We looked like we were trying to win it; kamikaze in hindsight.

A more experienced side would have held onto a point. O’D not being on pitch was a big miss.

watching it back it was actually Brannagans man that runs off the back off him to create the extra man that Stevens had to go to.

 

[pommy80]

Could we go down the route of signing a free agent striker to give us another option?

Some of the names that are without a club that are out an out centre forwards.

Frazier Campbell
Isaac Vassell
Connor Wickham
Lyle Taylor
Gary Madine
Jordan Ibe
Daniel Sturridge
Chris Martin
Alex Jakubiak

That’s a rather depressing list of centre forwards.

 

[Gregortheox]

There were countless times over the last few yrs I have come away from the stadium fuming at the officials in place of our poor performance, but yesterday was different.
We were not poor, but port vale had a strong game plan that the ref seemed to endorse.
Im still very positive about this season. So many good things to talk about.

 

[Tomox]

Lessons to be learned from yesterday! We will bounce back I’m sure. Just disappointed to have dropped points against a really average side.

Manning now has 2 weeks to work on the game plan with the team that will be available for Fleetwood.

 

[Mad Dog]

Yep I saw it too. The PV defender seems to have a little trick of getting up really tight behind the forward he’s marking and pinching them under the armpit. He was man marking Harris all through the game and also looked like he was in his ear saying things that were winding Harris up. To be fair I suppose it’s good old fashioned defending and I Harris sees himself as our no. 9 he’s going to have to get used to that. The defender had him in his pocket for most of the game and I was thinking before the red card that maybe Manning should get a second striker (Perkins) on so we could go two up front. PV were sitting back so deep that having a solitary striker up front seemed a little ridiculous to me. It just seems to be a formation that’s embedded in modern coaches though for some reason..?

I agree, it's a formation that Manning seems to be entrenched in, and to be fair, up until now it has worked.

But yesterday and the Cambridge game showed the flaws in that system, such as two midfield players sitting too deep, no meaningful width, full backs exposed, and the striker ends up completely isolated.

We need to be able to switch formations, and make the relevant changes to break down stubborn defences. A 2nd striker in the 2nd half would've eased some of the pressure on Harris, and with another striker for the centre backs to contend with, the red card incident may never have occurred.

But it did, and I also agree that Harris needs to wise up, and not react to that kind of treatment. The best way to deal with that kind of treatment, is score the winning goal, then give a bit of needle to the CB whilst celebrating!

Failing that, if the CB is man marking Harris, at least start giving the CB the runaround and start pulling him out of position, leaving space for others to exploit, he'd have soon backed off.

 

[RgYellows]

Yep I saw it too. The PV defender seems to have a little trick of getting up really tight behind the forward he’s marking and pinching them under the armpit. He was man marking Harris all through the game and also looked like he was in his ear saying things that were winding Harris up. To be fair I suppose it’s good old fashioned defending and I Harris sees himself as our no. 9 he’s going to have to get used to that. The defender had him in his pocket for most of the game and I was thinking before the red card that maybe Manning should get a second striker (Perkins) on so we could go two up front. PV were sitting back so deep that having a solitary striker up front seemed a little ridiculous to me. It just seems to be a formation that’s embedded in modern coaches though for some reason..?

I’d agree with that.

Supporters that love our energetic pressing will have to accept that there will be errors due to inexperience alongside it - important thing is for Harris to learn from it.

Should be the easiest thing in the world for a striker to dish it out back to a defender - how much do you make a week, no one knows who you are, weren’t good enough to play a proper position, your goalkeeper clearly cries himself to sleep about not being good enough for us etc.

Oxford players should be made aware of Ripley because I think there’s a shade of Vigoroux about him.

One thing I will say on a different note, I am still liking the vibe of quiet competence and a bit of underlying steel from Manning this season.

 

[Orkney Islands Yellow]

Well, it wasn't boring! Stupid from Harris, Leigh perhaps could've stayed on his feet and the penalty was caused by diving in too.

This injury time nonsense is getting ridiculous now, think the PGMOL need to go back to the drawing board on that one.

Still, can't win them all. Great start to the season and we're well placed at this stage of the season with ALOT of football left to go.

 

[Common Villager]

Too frustrated about yesterday's result to provide any sort of detailed thoughts. All I would say is that any blame on Stevens for the penalty is laughable. Firstly, we were down to nine men, there was bound to be space and I don't think it's justifiable to point the finger at any of the players still on the pitch. That said, if anyone is at fault, the man that got free in the box was Brannagan's. He was literally touch tight with him, but switched off as the man drifted into the box. Stevens had to come across (leaving his man) and attempt a challenge otherwise it would've been passed into the net. Again, not blaming Brannagan or any of the players still on the pitch, but I just wanted to nip any suggestions that Stevens was even remotely at fault in the bud.

 

[McXal]

See I love the new injury time rules (except how as RadOx have pointed out, it basically becomes fair game as soon as injury time starts and you can time waste as much as you want) and the fact that it values giving the fans proper value for money and hopefully more time with the ball in play.

It is tedious having 110 minute games - but it’s great to see teams punished for anti-football tactics and after less than a month it’s already visible how much less people use going down injured as a means to tactically run the clock down or break up play. Stoppage times will start to track down the more teams get used to it - and professional/players bodies should be reminding them that if they play properly and avoid the kind of time-wasting, ‘game management’ tropes that have led to this then they won’t be playing 55 minute halves anyway.

Longer term if this doesn’t work I do think 60 minute matches and stop-clocks will be the only way to go, so I really hope this works!

 

[West Oxon U’s]

Too frustrated about yesterday's result to provide any sort of detailed thoughts. All I would say is that any blame on Stevens for the penalty is laughable. Firstly, we were down to nine men, there was bound to be space and I don't think it's justifiable to point the finger at any of the players still on the pitch. That said, if anyone is at fault, the man that got free in the box was Brannagan's. He was literally touch tight with him, but switched off as the man drifted into the box. Stevens had to come across (leaving his man) and attempt a challenge otherwise it would've been passed into the net. Again, not blaming Brannagan or any of the players still on the pitch, but I just wanted to nip any suggestions that Stevens was even remotely at fault in the bud.

You are correct - just seen the highlights show on ITV and Port Vale‘s Ben Garrity ran off the back of Brannagan and was as free as a bird in the penalty area.
Fin Stevens had no choice but to come across and try and prevent Garrity from netting with a free shot at goal.He was maybe a fraction late and Garrity was felled.