Home Match Day Thread +++ 14/1/2020 OUFC V Ipswich Town L1 +++

Ruffles has been poor in a few recent games (there was one extraordinary long pass in the first half to be fair). Long as well was really done for pace and delivery last night. We really miss Henry. Said it before and I’ll say it again- our playmaker. Hope he’s back soon.
 
Neither team could deal with the conditions, not surprising when putting the ball in the air meant it went anywhere and it was not running true if you kept it on the floor! On that showing, neither team would go up - but judging anyone on last night would be daft. Except the ref, who I thought dealt with a difficult situation very well and made allowances for the conditions during the match. Nice to see a decent one for a change. People booing him were pretty thick and were probably the same ones booing Garbutt.
A scrappy match in horrible conditions - I'd almost forgotten what winter was like!
 
We are missing Branners and Henry. Two pretty much constants during our purple patch. Cam just knits all together and has vision others don't possess (Shandon is probably closest in that respect). It is not really surprising that we look nervy, a little bereft of ideas and goal threat and also hurried on the ball when two vital contributors with goals and assists have been out injured.

It was good to see Cam come back and run freely (compared to Sat) last night and he added a dimension we were lacking - particularly in terms of composure and vision.

If and when Brannagan does leave, it will be hard to find someone who adds so much to the way we play currently.

Finally, we should not be too hard on ANY individual players for last night...those conditions were among some of the filthiest I have seen professional football played in. I reckon we were a couple of minutes away from that being abandoned last night...fair play to the ref for the way he handled that and big up to the ground staff who got the game back on at all. Had that been a few seasons back when the pitch was dire, the game would never have started!
 
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So frustrating being an Oxford fan lately :(
Yeah, 5th in league one, quarter finals of the league cup, 4th round FA cup tie away to a big premier league club, ambitious owners, who have money and look to be making real progress regarding sorting our stadium issues out once and for all, securing ownership of our own excellent training facilities, and recruiting excellently in the transfer windows, yeah, soooo frustrating being an Oxford fan lately

:rolleyes:ludicrous
 
I think it shows how poor league one is this season every team has hit a bad patch and there’s still at least 10’teams who could go up automatically so yea we’ve been abit poor lately but the others around us aren’t running away with anything yet and the warm weather will be here soon and if we play anything like we did last season when the weather got better will be going up ??
 
Yeah, 5th in league one, quarter finals of the league cup, 4th round FA cup tie away to a big premier league club, ambitious owners, who have money and look to be making real progress regarding sorting our stadium issues out once and for all, securing ownership of our own excellent training facilities, and recruiting excellently in the transfer windows, yeah, soooo frustrating being an Oxford fan lately

:rolleyes:ludicrous
Well, when you look at it like that...
 
Ruffles has been poor in a few recent games (there was one extraordinary long pass in the first half to be fair). Long as well was really done for pace and delivery last night. We really miss Henry. Said it before and I’ll say it again- our playmaker. Hope he’s back soon.
I don't have the stats but has Ruffles played more games than any other outfield players? It seems like it, in that he seems to never be rested for tin pot cup/other cup matches. He seems to be the one always playing. Maybe all he needs is a rest!
 
I think it shows how poor league one is this season every team has hit a bad patch and there’s still at least 10’teams who could go up automatically so yea we’ve been abit poor lately but the others around us aren’t running away with anything yet and the warm weather will be here soon and if we play anything like we did last season when the weather got better will be going up [emoji1696][emoji13]
I had to chuckle when Robbo said it was like watching a Championship game at times in his post match interview last night.

I can never tell entirely when he is taking the p1ss or not[emoji1787]
 
Horrible night. Horrible game. Especially hard for the younger players and was noticeable that the older pros on both sides played the percentage game more cleverly. Special mention to Mous whose decision making was outstanding. Ruffles and Long are competent lower leaguers playing way above the level anyone would have predicted a couple of seasons ago, what they've both achieved is admirable. They are being constantly pushed right to the limits of their talent. Signing fullbacks is obvious top priority to play the way we do though. Agree with all who mentioned how much we miss Henry. Great to see Cam moving well. Browne was great even with the ball stuck in puddles. Baptiste is a beautiful footballer and developing so fast - hope the next stage of that development is getting a better feel for when to keep things simple. Happy with a point, think Ipswich will be delighted with it.
 
You can’t have be


You can’t have been there for the first half on Saturday then.

tonight was a reasonable performance in anti-football conditions.

Positives included:

Mous - colossal at the back and leads the team so well.
Gorrin - Breaks up play and tonight was no exception
Baptiste - his vision! He’s seemed to see things no one else on the pitch saw at times.
Browne - looks to have more physical presence this year and I think as a 10 he will become hugely influential. He was my MOM tonight by a distance.

Negatives:

Eastwood - Looks short on confidence. He’s simply not as commanding as he needs to be and looks indecisive at times which breeds nervousness.
Long - defensively he’s reasonably sound but his lack of attacking threat and limited delivery is a cause for concern. Reinforcements required ASAP.
Ruffles - thought he was extremely poor in and out of possession 1st half but improved a touch in the 2nd. Looked a little fatigued to me (understandably!) cover and squad rotation would be beneficial I think in the left back position.
Fosu - Give the guy a break Robbo. Can’t help but feel we are flogging him to death atm and I think his performances have tailed off so much that it’s no coincidence.

take the point tonight and let’s go get three at Gills. It’s not the most salubrious away end but let’s back the boys in big numbers - they deserve it! COYY’s!

On Baptiste, I do think he is overplaying a bit in the last 2 games especially in the conditions, ie. doing too many flicks/drag backs when in good/risky positions. Saturday was a perfect example when he was in a great position to shoot but decided to do an extra trick allowing a defender to tackle him.

He is not quite in form similar to our other central midfielders and I do think it is a legacy of the injuries issue from before for all of those players. But he will get the form back as will the others.

As an aside, it is so noticeable how important James Henry is to us without him in games. He was the link between midfield and attack which hasn't been as smooth since which is so noticeable in big games like the last 2.
 
Robinson should tell Fosu to have a week chilling in the sun somewhere and recharge the batteries for the final few months. Although his replacement - Holland didnt impress me last night, but I'll put that down to the conditions.

Holland's performance was very encouraging coming on against Rotherham though. The run and shot which forced a very good save was excellent.
 
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Yeah, 5th in league one, quarter finals of the league cup, 4th round FA cup tie away to a big premier league club, ambitious owners, who have money and look to be making real progress regarding sorting our stadium issues out once and for all, securing ownership of our own excellent training facilities, and recruiting excellently in the transfer windows, yeah, soooo frustrating being an Oxford fan lately

:rolleyes:ludicrous

Maybe very short term frustrations but long term enjoyment ..... ??
 
Fosu's form is impacting Ruffels'. Earlier on in the season Fosu's defensive work rate was brilliant.
 
I don't have the stats but has Ruffles played more games than any other outfield players? It seems like it, in that he seems to never be rested for tin pot cup/other cup matches. He seems to be the one always playing. Maybe all he needs is a rest!
Don't you go bringing logic into this, I think Ruffs may have missed one game from memory. The two players who look to be tired are Fosu and Ruffles and neither has been rotated.
 
The penalty incident summed up in a nutshell - the Ipswich fans starts it after the foul on Mous removing the context of why the Ref said no:
Even if it was a foul on their player, contact started outside the box in my view. The ref got it wrong, if their player fouled our player then we should have had a free kick. He shouldn't not give a penalty because our player was fouled first.
 
I actually think in the last couple of games Robinson has got his tactics a little wrong. I think after Saturday he panicked a little and went all out with a quick attacking team which the conditions were not great for. Ironically after starting Mackie on Saturday and his poor performance, this was probably the most Mackie type of game you could get. In addition, Sykes was arguably our best player on Saturday and was unlucky not to start and came on too late in my view.

I think the team was right apart from dropping Skyes, but just felt how he (KR) projected himself from the sidelines was a bit OTT. When he seemed calmer and more measured the players seemed to react accordingly.
 
Horrible night. Horrible game. Especially hard for the younger players and was noticeable that the older pros on both sides played the percentage game more cleverly. Special mention to Mous whose decision making was outstanding. Ruffles and Long are competent lower leaguers playing way above the level anyone would have predicted a couple of seasons ago, what they've both achieved is admirable. They are being constantly pushed right to the limits of their talent. Signing fullbacks is obvious top priority to play the way we do though. Agree with all who mentioned how much we miss Henry. Great to see Cam moving well. Browne was great even with the ball stuck in puddles. Baptiste is a beautiful footballer and developing so fast - hope the next stage of that development is getting a better feel for when to keep things simple. Happy with a point, think Ipswich will be delighted with it.

The conditions were not that bad in the 2nd half, so kicking with the wind behind us and towards to better end I thought we could have done better.

We started off quite well, but didn’t maintain it which was the frustrating bit.
 
We miss Henry and Brannagan a lot, we’re losing the midfield without them. Not sure you can play Fosu Holland and Browne together like that, hopefully Sykes or Kelly will come in on Saturday
 
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