Fan's View - 19/20 - Blackpool at home

Excellent as usual Paul.
I agree that the reaction the sale of Baptiste and Fosu, by some has been totally OTT ( although I am a little surprised/ disappointed that in a month we couldn't bring in a forward and full back)
Any chance of play offs/ promotion will depend on fewer key injuries than we had in the first part of the season.
 
Excellent fans view, always enjoy reading them.

Robinson said that he thought it was a good time to play Blackpool, I think he was correct. They have made some decent signings in January and will get stronger from now on.

It was good to see Henry & Brannigan back, we’ve missed both of them for different reasons. Browne although not a complete revelation in the No9 role did really well and the clamour for another striker prior to Saturday has now died down somewhat.

I agree with you about the some of the over the top abuse aimed at Robinson and the board, it’s moronic. Yes there’s inevitably a sense of disappointment and frustration about the end of the transfer window, but with some of the moaners there has to be a bogey man/scapegoat for them to vent their anger at whether it be Robinson, Zaki, Mackie or Sam Long.

Anyway moving on to tomorrow night, I am very intrigued to see what team Robinson will put out. Will he play his strongest possible XI or will he try and give the likes of Thorne, Kelly and Hanson some valuable first team match time?
 
I must agree with you that for most of the last 20 years, people come out with more reasons to not go to the Kassam (and vigorously defend them too) than the other way round.

As you say "come on Oxford people think on "
 
Agree that Henry looked rusty, then again, doesn't he always seem to take 2 or 3 games to bounce back? Brannagan, in my opinion, looked wary of getting fully stuck in, I hope that is just a temporary thing.

I still hold the opinion that not getting the cover required in the window is poor but I would not blame that on the board, more likely is that our targets were not made available or just didn't want to come south (O'Donnell - strange decision if he wants to further his career)
Either way, it's not happened and we move on. More important now is that the board get the stadium sorted. That, at least, is not dependant on the FFP restrictions!
 
Agree that Henry looked rusty, then again, doesn't he always seem to take 2 or 3 games to bounce back? Brannagan, in my opinion, looked wary of getting fully stuck in, I hope that is just a temporary thing.

I still hold the opinion that not getting the cover required in the window is poor but I would not blame that on the board, more likely is that our targets were not made available or just didn't want to come south (O'Donnell - strange decision if he wants to further his career)
Either way, it's not happened and we move on. More important now is that the board get the stadium sorted. That, at least, is not dependant on the FFP restrictions!
I also think Brannagan was playing well within himself. Probably understandable.
 
Good read.

But I disagree on the blame on the backpass. Mackie could have done better, absolutely as could Thorne, although he had not long come on iirc so wasn't properly up to speed; so both can take some of the blame. But the vast majority of blame goes to Ruffels, as he didn't look and had other options. I'm guessing based on where the pass went that he was intending passing to Dickie or Mous but he didn't look which is key for me. He had options elsewhere, directly to Easty (I hope that wasn't who the pass was intended for!) or considering the time of the game/situation then off the pitch (this is sometimes the best option after all). Ruffels reaction at the time and afterwards also suggests he blames himself as well.
 
Hi Paul. Think your view is a bit downbeat this week , thought it wasn’t a bad crowd and the atmosphere pepped up in second half. Thought it was a decent game in less than ideal conditions.
Yes it was a bit downbeat because that's how I felt. Have you read Oxblogger's take on it? I think he is saying the same thing in his own unique entertaining style. Given that many got in for a fiver I think only attracting just over 7,000 home fans for a league fixture when we're near the top of the table and have serious ambitions for the play-offs at least is a disappointment. These less than ideal conditions are a regular feature obviously not helped by there being no barrier other than garden fence at one end of the ground.
 
Good read.

But I disagree on the blame on the backpass. Mackie could have done better, absolutely as could Thorne, although he had not long come on iirc so wasn't properly up to speed; so both can take some of the blame. But the vast majority of blame goes to Ruffels, as he didn't look and had other options. I'm guessing based on where the pass went that he was intending passing to Dickie or Mous but he didn't look which is key for me. He had options elsewhere, directly to Easty (I hope that wasn't who the pass was intended for!) or considering the time of the game/situation then off the pitch (this is sometimes the best option after all). Ruffels reaction at the time and afterwards also suggests he blames himself as well.
True. But he should never have been put in that position in the first place. What matters though is that we got away with it. And hopefully will learn from it.
I also suppose that if Mackie had just whacked the ball forward and Blackpool had returned it with interest and scored we would have been hyper critical.
 
Spot on as usual, Paul. You capture the sense of feeling perfectly. You and Oxblogger, every weekend, never fail to come up with excellent pieces of the written word on our beloved Oxford United, thank you.
 
Always read your fans view, find myself agreeing with your musings nearly all of the time, I think you would class me as a moaner if you knew me, always want to blame someone if we lose and find myself critical of manager and probably most players at one time or the other, does that make me a bad" supporter", I don,t know, I do know on this forum plenty would say We don,t need/want fans like you etc, I just wanted to make the point that we can,t all be positive all of the time, in fact as an Oxford fan of 45 years I think I've earnt the right to have a good moan from time to time, anyway keep your fans views going, always a very good read, thanks.
 
Always read your fans view, find myself agreeing with your musings nearly all of the time, I think you would class me as a moaner if you knew me, always want to blame someone if we lose and find myself critical of manager and probably most players at one time or the other, does that make me a bad" supporter", I don,t know, I do know on this forum plenty would say We don,t need/want fans like you etc, I just wanted to make the point that we can,t all be positive all of the time, in fact as an Oxford fan of 45 years I think I've earnt the right to have a good moan from time to time, anyway keep your fans views going, always a very good read, thanks.
Depends what a moan is. As long as it reasonably argued and based on facts and not bullshit then that's difficult to argue against. But there are many who will focus 100% on the one bad thing and staunchly refuse to praise the x number of good things that may have happened during a game / transfer window / etc. Another thing that pisses me off about many moaners is that they don't understand the definition of "fact". Anyway I can beat your 45 years and I have from time to time been accused of being a moaner. I'm certainly not positive all of the time. Keep the faith (or perhaps you never had it in the first place). No, you must have if you've been going that long.
 
Good read.

But I disagree on the blame on the backpass. Mackie could have done better, absolutely as could Thorne, although he had not long come on iirc so wasn't properly up to speed; so both can take some of the blame. But the vast majority of blame goes to Ruffels, as he didn't look and had other options. I'm guessing based on where the pass went that he was intending passing to Dickie or Mous but he didn't look which is key for me. He had options elsewhere, directly to Easty (I hope that wasn't who the pass was intended for!) or considering the time of the game/situation then off the pitch (this is sometimes the best option after all). Ruffels reaction at the time and afterwards also suggests he blames himself as well.
For me spot on with this.
 
I think a bit hard on the good folk of Oxford , money is tight these days for chaps and the game tonight , would be on people’s mind as well.
 
Good read as usual Paul. I know many who are going tonight who could not afford the time or money for both games.
You're right, we are a selling club & players will come & go but the "buy-out" clause in Fosu's contract was poorly compiled - most clubs au-fait with these almost always insert a caveat that the player cannot be 'bought out' during the last 2 weeks/week (or whatever) of a transfer window thus giving the parent club some time to find a replacement. I am, as a result of this, very worried as to exactly who at OUFC is responsible for the legal contract stuff - whoever it is needs to quickly attend one of the many sporting seminars on this subject that are available across the country because we have had our pants pulled down on this one!
 
I think a bit hard on the good folk of Oxford , money is tight these days for chaps and the game tonight , would be on people’s mind as well.
If people had wanted to get in for a fiver I am pretty sure with a little effort they could have done so. But yes I understand that there are transport costs etc. Nevertheless I think the number of home fans present was quite poor.
 
Our average home league gate 7807 in 19/20 so not far off the 8k Tiger was looking for. You would hope with the football we have played it would have been higher but 4k plus have just forked out to travel to Newcastle with the replay tonight it's an expensive old time just after the Xmas bills have landed. I know when I was younger and providing for a young family I could not have afforded to attend all the matches. More concerning is not the numbers but the flat atmosphere, hopefully we'll get back on our support game tonight
 
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Depends what a moan is. As long as it reasonably argued and based on facts and not bullshit then that's difficult to argue against. But there are many who will focus 100% on the one bad thing and staunchly refuse to praise the x number of good things that may have happened during a game / transfer window / etc. Another thing that pisses me off about many moaners is that they don't understand the definition of "fact". Anyway I can beat your 45 years and I have from time to time been accused of being a moaner. I'm certainly not positive all of the time. Keep the faith (or perhaps you never had it in the first place). No, you must have if you've been going that long.
Totally agree. Some ' moaners' almost seem.to despise the club such is their anti club comments.
I am generally an optimist, but totally get the big disappointment in not getting in the full back and striker KR said that we clearly needed from day 1 of the transfer window. I really cant see why we couldn't have got at least a replacement in for Cadden ( even if an understudy to Long).
As others rightly have said in my view it has clearly damaged our chances of promotion.
 
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