Away Match Day Thread 4/9/21 L1: AFC Wimbledon v OUFC

[tonto]

Having walked home via a couple of pubs I am still seething about that match. We dominated the first half should have scored more. Their corners were dealt with. We seemed to start the second half on the back foot,obviously Karls team talk was very very inspiring(not). We conceded but were looking pretty threatening,taking off Williams for Holland should have been reasonable. But taking off Sykes who can run all day and was having a great game and replacing him with Winall who cant run at all was absolutely bonkers,and opened the door for them. Dan is a bit inconsistent but he regularly produces a bit of magic and can run why Winnall gets on before him practically every match is utterly infuriating. I am usually a supporter of KR but today he monumentally effed up.

 

[tonto]

Really?

Why?

Because he works his socks off ,dominates his area of midfield and was inches off target with a couple of impressive efforts. If we had three of him in midfield we would walk this league.

 

[tonto]

The same fans that let your club die in front of your very eyes? Ah well, second time lucky and all that…

Lay off womble hes trying to be ok unlike that other idiot

 

[Golden Dr Otto]

My first game in two years having just returned to . Firstly thank you to uptheus, oxfordyankee, and werthers for all offering to get me a ticket and to M for doing the leg work of actually getting me one. The oxford family is strong

Secondly it was great to be back amongst our fans and see at least two dozen faces who came to say hi. I’m sorry I didn’t have time to speak to you all for longer.

Thirdly Earlsfield has the potential to be one of the top away days with those pubs and that low roof away end. Job done.

Fourthly congrats to Wimbledon. Not a big fan of the club but they’ve got their first ever proper home. It’s limited. Certainly going to deteriorate fast. But London is tough for such large new builds and it’ll do for now and they’re clearly chuffed as nuts.

The game:

We simply have to be more physical and meaner. Every game I see I wonder why the players aren’t surrounding the ref after bad fouls, why we aren’t handing out what’s served to us. If you play nice football you need to be outraged by every bad tackle to protect that philosophy in the referees mind.

Everything ive seen on iFollow seemed more obvious in person.
1. We don’t take our shots early. Give it a go and see. You don’t know where rebounds will go

2. We look indecisive in the last third and then end up just lobbing it in to Taylor who can’t win headers. We need to play way more EARLY through balls and 1-2s to catch them off guard. Keep going forward and see what happens

3. The set piece organisation is tragic at times. Seeing Taylor marking their tallest forward on one set piece just defied belief. It was the time he scrambled it off the line heroically. Slightly higher and its a free header for them into an empty net.

4. I think Herbie Kane looks like the real deal and a natural leader and I’d make him captain if he plays the next few games. Moore is too quiet when s**t hits the fan.

Also agree with lots of other good points on this thread like Holland being miserably weak and Winnall looking sadly lost, and Jack Stevens buttocks being beautifully pert

 

[OxfordYankee]

Having been very critical of their last home and the second rate treatment of visiting supporters, I think that the new stadium is a huge step up and their achievement to pull it off should be lauded. Are there things to improve upon? Of course. Have they shown the spirit and fortitude to suggest that they will? Again, yes.

I left the ground as angry as I’ve been after a match for a long time. I was angry at KR and the players who let themselves and us down on the day. I certainly wasn’t angry at their stadium, so I have no idea why so many are putting the boot in. Vent your frustration at those whom are more deserving and meaningful to us.

 

[Wombles]

For all the criticism about it not lasting. Three sides are temporary. Eventually one by one they will be upgraded but it will take time and money.

 

[Leysboy]

For all the criticism about it not lasting. Three sides are temporary. Eventually one by one they will be upgraded but it will take time and money.

Let Kingstonian share with you. After all they let you share with them, when you were desperate.

Then you basically kicked them out of the ground with Chelsea FC, and stopped them playing at Kingsmeadow, which had been there home since the 80’s.

So you don’t get so much sympathy from me, about MK Dons, when your club is just as bad.

 

[Coffin dodger]

Please could KR stop doing the half time talks that's when it all starts to go wrong.

 

[MC Yellow]

Why a tinpot outfit? I’m no fan of Wimbledon and the ongoing MK Dons obsession but they‘ve built a fan owned club from the roots upwards, on a limited budget and actually have their own four sided ground.

One question from today, apologies if raised already, why such a police presence? Plenty of scowling coppers around Earlsfield Station.

Why Scowling?

 

[Wombles]

Let Kingstonian share with you. After all they let you share with them, when you were desperate.

Then you basically kicked them out of the ground with Chelsea FC, and stopped them playing at Kingsmeadow, which had been there home since the 80’s.

So you don’t get so much sympathy from me, about MK Dons, when your club is just as bad.

So much more to this than you know and I really can't be bothered to explain.

 

[MC Yellow]

You won the battle but we will win the war. You'll finish mid-table at best. You've also built a shite new ground in an industrial state in the a**e-end of Wimbledon. When our Indonesian Billionaires finally complete the takeover we'll be in a state of the art stadium in the city of dreaming spires, and you'll still be playing hoofball in an industrial estate.

 

[MC Yellow]

For all the criticism about it not lasting. Three sides are temporary. Eventually one by one they will be upgraded but it will take time and money.

I shouldn’t get too bogged down with some of the sour notes on here. Just post match frustration and the usual oppo fan banter.

Congratulations on the win.

As for the ground, regardless of the comments on here, it is a testament to Wimbledon fans that you got it off the ground.

I am amazed at some of the comments on here, given our own predicament.

 

[OUFCwaffle]

Jeesh some real spoil sports on here. Just give it a rest, we lost, it happens. Slating another team's success to build their own ground and bragging about our UNCONFIRMED God given future success is just embarrassing. Sound like bloody Sunderland fans.

 

[West Oxon U’s]

My first game in two years having just returned to . Firstly thank you to uptheus, oxfordyankee, and werthers for all offering to get me a ticket and to M for doing the leg work of actually getting me one. The oxford family is strong

Secondly it was great to be back amongst our fans and see at least two dozen faces who came to say hi. I’m sorry I didn’t have time to speak to you all for longer.

Thirdly Earlsfield has the potential to be one of the top away days with those pubs and that low roof away end. Job done.

Fourthly congrats to Wimbledon. Not a big fan of the club but they’ve got their first ever proper home. It’s limited. Certainly going to deteriorate fast. But London is tough for such large new builds and it’ll do for now and they’re clearly chuffed as nuts.

The game:

We simply have to be more physical and meaner. Every game I see I wonder why the players aren’t surrounding the ref after bad fouls, why we aren’t handing out what’s served to us. If you play hide football you need to be outraged by every bad tackle to protect that philosophy in the referees mind.

Everything ive seen on iFollow seemed more obvious in person.
1. We don’t take our shots early. Give it a go and see. You don’t know where rebounds will go

2. We look indecisive in the last third and then end up just lobbing it in to Taylor who can’t win headers. We need to play way more EARLY through balls and 1-2s to catch them off guard. Keep going forward and see what happens

3. The set piece organisation is tragic at times. Seeing Taylor marking their tallest forward on one set piece just defied belief. It was the time he scrambled it off the line heroically. Slightly higher and its a free header for them into an empty net.

4. I think Herbie Kane looks like the real deal and a natural leader and I’d make him captain if he plays the next few games. Moore is too quiet when s**t hits the fan.

Also agree with lots of other good points on this thread like Holland being miserably weak and Winnall looking sadly lost, and Jack Stevens buttocks being beautifully pert

I’ll add a fifth point which may not have been discussed/mentioned but is pretty obvious and we’ve had this before under Karl.

We look spent after an hour. The levels look to fall off of a cliff after 60-65 minutes , substitutions occur and we unravel.

Cambridge, Bolton, Crewe, Wimbledon - even Charlton at home and to a degree versus Lincoln last week - the intensity drops and we lose control of the game. Hopefully fitness improves with games but it’s worrying.

Wycombe will be a huge test next Saturday and will know all about our weaknesses which they will try and exploit to the full.

 

[Wombles]

As for hoof ball, have you seen the third goal

 

[West Oxon U’s]

 

[West Oxon U’s]

 

[West Oxon U’s]

 

[Upthecowboys]

Well that was a frustrating game..

I was sat with the Wimbledon fans in front of where the subs were warming up. The only advantage of being 'billy no mates' in the home end is that I wasn't distracted and could properly watch the game.

I wasn't that impressed with our first half. We kept getting caught out trying to bring the ball out from the back, with their nippy number 16 causing us issues. We didn't create loads of clear cut chances, and then when we did Taylor missed a sitter.

I really thought we'd put a stronger second half performance in but it just didn't happen, and the substitutions and formation change completely backfired. Holland for Williams seemed logical, Williams put a shift in but it just didn't happen for him. The formation change with the other subs totally screwed us. It looked to force Brannagan more to the left and that just didn't work. If we'd stayed with the same formation then I'd have bought Kane on for Gorrin and chucked Agyei up top.

I don't see Agyei as some sort of saviour but he can get a goal out of nothing. With the team not playing well it was that goal out of nothing we needed. Taking Sykes off was nuts, he was the tricky one causing problems for them. He was professional when being subbed and there were no hysterics but he was clearly annoyed. If Robinson wanted to change formation then what about 3-5-2? Forde could have gone to right wing back, and Seddon could have played down the left. That would have given us good delivery from out wide, a compact middle 3 and 2 centre forwards feeding off each other.

Sitting 4 rows from the front I could hear what was being said on the pitch, and we do still seem quiet. I'm still not sure who grabs players by the nuts and gets them going when up against it. It's not all about shouting and fouling, so maybe a couple of players are 'leaders' but it's not obvious who they are from the sidelines. A bit of a random thing I noticed sitting so close to our subs warming up was that Winnall looked really invested in the game. A few times he pointed out things happening on the pitch to the subs, the other subs were just doing their usual stuff. He just seemed to have a good attitude.

Robinson mentioned our weaknesses at set pieces is partly down to us missing Long and Ruffels, the problem is he had all summer to sort that out. The squad is unbalanced, we always seem to have good numbers of wingers so why could we not have 2 proper right backs and left backs fighting it out? The pizza trophy, injuries etc will give a 'back up' full back the player the chance to play and fight for a first team spot. I don't buy the fact that no full backs would come as back up etc. Full backs seems to be the one area where he thinks he can fudge it with non specialist back up and I think that's a mistake. Is Cooper really going to get game time? That is one spot that could have been freed up.

Finally I'm not really up for points scoring about their ground; whatever you think of Wimbledon they have managed to find a way back to their spiritual home and we're not in a position to say too much (at the moment!!). However them only giving us 1000 tickets in a stand that apparently holds 1465 was a shambles. They should have been easily able to steward 1400 away fans in a recently designed stand, seeing loads of empty spaces in the away end was frustrating.

 

[Northernyellow]

I shouldn’t get too bogged down with some of the sour notes on here. Just post match frustration and the usual oppo fan banter.

Congratulations on the win.

As for the ground, regardless of the comments on here, it is a testament to Wimbledon fans that you got it off the ground.

I am amazed at some of the comments on here, given our own predicament.

Agree. It's all a bit boring and slightly odd. We played well but missed all our chances bar one. They played well and took all their chances. They have their own ground, which is about 400 yards from their old ground. And raised the money themselves. We lost our old ground through financial mismanagement of a well- meaning owner, and now rent a three sided slum next to a sewage farm. Meanwhile, on the pitch they look like they'll end mid table. We'll probably be top six. I had to sit with AFCW, who we were all perfectly friendly, even when they realised I was Oxford. And they were very complimentary about us, and thought we could well go up. So can we stop slagging AFCW off?