Home Match Build Up 07/10/2023 L1: OUFC v Bristol Rovers

[MJB]

Will have to see them again but the second red looked like a red to me and it looked like a penalty from a distance too. Didn’t see the Harris red but we’ve seen them happen unfortunately.

I stand to be corrected on that, and the ref and officials did make a number of less significant errors, but I’m not sure if he got those big calls wrong.

What worried me as soon as it happened was our players sprinting back to the halfway line after scoring as they clearly thought we could get a winner.

If you’ve been down to ten for much of the second half and you get a late equaliser, I think you need to be smarter and accept you’ve got a get-of-jail point.

Having a second man sent off when you’re already down to ten and have just scored a late equaliser - very naive.

We needed calmer heads at the end there and have lost what could have been a valuable point against a decent, albeit attritional, team.

 

[werthersoriginal]

I reckon a tough 2-1 win after they equalise. Hopefully not too boring.

 

[bdodwell]

If they are singing Goodnight Irene at 2:15, that would infur that she goes to bed very early. Who is she anyway?

 

[Eaststanding]

I doubt we’ll see Goodhram feature tomorrow, might be wrong.

 

[tonyw]

I'm slightly cherry-picking stats, but I believe I'm right in saying that at home in the League, in front of a crowd, we've lost the last seven against Rovers. Even Appleton's all-conquering League Two side lost at home to them. The last time we won (other than in a Covid-related empty stadium) it was a Beano brace and Peter Leven with the goals!

They're also clearly not a bad side, and have been coming into some form lately. This is going to be a tough challenge.

Still.....this feels like the season for getting over old hoodoos and rewriting the record books. So comfortable home win it is!

 

[windmill]

A pleasant 35C here in Tenerife. Bring home the bacon tomorrow please.

 

[Symp59]

Is that right about Murphy, injured?
Please could someone list the actual list of injuries. Many thanks.

I didn't say they were missing someone put there team and subs and neither were in there team Mills should be playing he's obviously been carrying a slight injury that boy is class. Win tomorrow

 

[Yellows1]

Yes, I’m finding myself thinking like this.

Obviously we were all shocked and hurt by the disastrous start at Cambridge and Bristol City. Then, when we started winning including very credible away wins at Derby and Barnsley, I kept thinking ‘Well, it’s early days yet’. Then we unfairly lost to Port Vale and I thought ‘Ah, our usual rotten luck will scupper us’. Then when we played a Shrewsbury side who literally could not score a goal I was expecting a win.

But if we manage to beat Bristol bloody Rovers, with Joey Barton in charge, in an early kickoff (could throw us off) with a big crowd in attendance, to go top of the league (albeit maybe temporarily) with nearly a quarter of the season gone… well, that will mark the point where I start to believe that something absolutely massive could well be brewing this season.

Well you better start believing - I can just tell/sense that with the squad Lord Manning has built we are bloody good, last time I had this feeling was when we got promoted in 2010 and 2016 (hope I got the latter right) - we were very good on both counts and this feels no different - when you know you know

 

[Joey]

When did we last beat a Joey Barton team? Fleetwood used to be our bogey side under him. I remember a 3-0 win over Rovers but think that was before he joined.

I think Karl Robinson used to struggle against Joey Barton teams because he built squads with weak underbellies who struggled against physical, high pressing teams. Manning has already shown himself to be fair more pragmatic. I don't go much for bogey teams, especially when you're going back 6 or 7 years or longer when none of the same players were there, it's nonsense. I do subscribe to some managers having others numbers and Manning has a few more tricks up his sleeve as well as a far better set up side.

It doesn't mean we'll definitely win but I'm a million times more confident than I would have been previously. They've got a good squad and are in good form but that goes the same and more for us. Quietening their fans down early doors would be a good start as they're usually among the most vociferous away support we see each seasons which must be a hell of a boost to their players.

 

[Northstandboy]

Taking my 2 boys to their first ever game, and my first in a long time so apologies if it all goes Pete Tong for the U's!
Dreading getting parked/getting out more so though...

Taking my middle son, just turned three. He’s going to be the hooligan of the family

 

[IsleofWightYellow]

I hate to say it but, judging on that interview alone (I haven’t seen him speak before really) he comes across quite well and speaks well.

 

[RgYellows]

I hate to say it but, judging on that interview alone (I haven’t seen him speak before really) he comes across quite well and speaks well.

Here’s what the Metro has him saying after their recent game with Peterborough:

To compound it one idiotic young boy – I can’t even call him a man – has compromised the team with his behavioural standards and we find ourselves 2-0 down with a mountain to climb.

I can’t fault the other 10 players or the lads that came off the bench because they kept plugging away and kept pushing.

Unless we man up – and I know you have to be careful saying that in the modern era – and absolutely eradicate these weak, feeble-minded individuals that are currently inside our unit, we won’t get promoted out of this division.

Not for me.

 

[werthersoriginal]

Here’s what the Metro has him saying after their recent game with Peterborough:

To compound it one idiotic young boy – I can’t even call him a man – has compromised the team with his behavioural standards and we find ourselves 2-0 down with a mountain to climb.

I can’t fault the other 10 players or the lads that came off the bench because they kept plugging away and kept pushing.

Unless we man up – and I know you have to be careful saying that in the modern era – and absolutely eradicate these weak, feeble-minded individuals that are currently inside our unit, we won’t get promoted out of this division.

Not for me.

He makes a big thing of being intelligent and was once on Question Time where he did OK until he said something sexist to another guest, as I recall.

Yeah, throwing a player under the bus like that is not on.

 

[Yellowecky]

Rovers will be an interesting mix. They will be looking to win, unlike Shrewsbury, but in doing so will leave more space for us to attack. Rovers are a much better team than Shrewsbury but I fancy us to win.

Oxford United 2 - Bristol Rovers 0.