Home Match Day Thread 7/5/23 L1: OUFC v Accrington Stanley

[uptheus]

I'm just glad that shambles is over we survived that's the main thing roll on next season I'm 100% certain it's going to be alot better

Well it couldn’t be much worse.

 

[SirAndyOfCrosby]

we were just lucky 5 other teams in this league were worse than us over 46 games. Appalling season.

Quite right. Cambridge stayed up with 26 (TWENTY SIX) League defeats. I reckon that could be a record.

Utter dog sh*t. We deserved to go down for what we've done. Very fortunate that there were some p*ss poor outfits this season and we had a massive budget that at least allowed us to have the likes of Cam and Joseph - we wouldn't have survived on squad depth, work ethic or tactical nouse alone.

Accrington and Morecambe can go down with their heads held high. We stay up in disgrace.

 

[Jaxon]

Ridiculous game to lose today, but it might not be the worst result in that today's performance really hammered home the deficiencies of this year's squad. If there was a danger of going into the summer thinking we're better than we are because we had a decent run under Manning, today should have dispelled those notions. We've finished roughly where we deserve to be, and there's lots of work to be done over the summer.

We've got too many forwards that are good players box-to-box but not clinical enough in and around the area. In fact, the only forward we've got with any end product is the one who doesn't have the pace and agility, and that's Bodin. At least two clinical finishers in the summer is an absolute must. We can't keep creating 25 chances a game and only scoring one. A couple of worldies against FGR and some kamikaze Cheltenham defending masked the fact that this is our biggest weakness.

Findlay is a player who looks like he should have all the physical traits to be an excellent League One CB (he's strong, tough, and has a reasonable turn of pace), but his distribution is poor and he makes too many mistakes. Hopefully he'll find a move back to Scotland in the summer, and we can bring in a better replacement. A new starting RB and better depth than Seddon or Fleming on the left is crucial as well (though it didn't matter, the Fleming for Brown substitution.....presumably made to get Brown his much deserved ovation.....probably cost us the game as we looked so much less solid without him on the pitch. First Accy goal came straight through where he'd just left as well)

Then we need the physical, athletic central midfielder that we haven't had since pre-ACL Gorrin as well.

Going to be a fascinating three months.

Brown was injured
Hamstring

 

[Thomas/Brock/Jones]

Equally, I think one or two are terrified of being critical just in case they bump in to one of them in Tesco.

People have every right to be disappointed today. It’s not too much to ask a bunch of footballers to apply themselves properly for one last game to end a season in which they’ve let themselves and the supporters down. Yes, Karl was nine tenths of the problem but this was an opportunity to prove that beyond doubt to 10k+ people and give Accrington a good slapping. Instead, they showed themselves to be a bunch that lack professional pride, character and respect for the fans or the opponent.

People can say it was an irrelevant game but it was for Accrington too. And yet, they gave it everything to the end and were professional throughout. They can do it for a fraction of the wage, so what’s our excuse? For that reason alone I don’t begrudge them the 3 points and I thank them for the final wake up call, as if we needed another one. Any suggestion we were over cooked from a hard slog to stay up is laughable and exactly the sort of mentality that gets you where we are. We’re exhausted from supporting them for the last 46 games but still dragged our arses around the country in our numbers to give everything home and away. Give me a break.

If we’d won the game 4-0 today, those saying the game is irreverent would be saying just how relevant that was and how there’s only a couple of pieces missing to be big time again. Can’t have it both ways. This was the ‘real us’ and it’s ugly. Manning has a job on his hands to manage up and manage down this summer. Both could use some bold changes.

We played well first half , should have been all over so to say we were bad throughout isn't correct.
A disservice to Accy who got their act together and battled well , poor substitutions cost us the game ultimately but I was as disappointed as anyone with our 2nd half performance and wanted desperately to sign off the season with a win.
This has been a wretched season in which we have been fortunate not to have made it a disastrous one .
Looking forward to the summer transfers and what LM will produce.

 

[holdsteady]

Think it's a bit OTT some of the comments on here , easily on another day we would have won comfortably . Accy battled well and snuck a win than wasn't deserved.
The same players that lost today have battled under LM and kept us in league one, not exactly wonderful but from the spiral we were on under KR credit to them.
Some can't wait to criticise on hear and put down our players at every opportunity.

But those comments are based on 46 games, 46 games are what are needed to judge a season and the players we have are woefully short of what we need.

It’s not negative to look at the league table to judge a side, it’s the whole point, they had 46 games to prove themselves.

Robinson was shocking, but the main reason he was terrible was his recruitment so it’s strange to get rid of the man and not want to clean up the mess he has left behind.

This team could get us relegated and will never achieve anything, we will have to salvage a few players from the wreckage but we need new players in a lot of key positions, winners basically as this team just doesn’t have many.

 

[Scotchegg]

We shouldn’t have been casual.

And then Manning says after the game he couldn’t fault the players efforts, which is it?

Just had a little look back through your posts. I notice that you didn't post at all after Forest Green, and the only posts after Cheltenham were fairly critical of Josh Murphy.

Yet today you're all over here moaning about everything including the kids coming on the pitch.

Says it all really.

 

[Oxford84]

Your perspective borders on brown-nosing.

They're gone, we're safe. thus virtually an exhibition match for both teams to send their fans home happy and yet they've matched us stride for stride in front of a near sell out. Make excuses all you want, that was a much truer reflection of the team we are than the one that won the previous two games.

We were crap, particularly 2nd half. We've been crap all year and everybody has to face that reality. We've survived by a nose hair.

We were far better than them but didnt take our chances. Shouldve won by at least 3 goals.

 

[Oxford84]

We certainly didn't dominate the second half. That's kind on us and harsh on Accrington who played pretty well. First half we were OK with familiar issues in front of goal. As for that pathetic excuse of a busy 5 or 6 weeks - what about Accrington? Have they played the last 5 or 6 weeks of their fight to survive at 50% effort to save themselves for today? Stop making excuses. This was about as even a contest physically and mentally as you could get and we got beat.

I'm not talking specifically about Manning's time. I'm talking about the season. But we've had bad days under Manning as well despite him keeping us up. We may not have needed the win to survive but we needed it for lots of other reasons and we came out second best to an already relegated side. But hey, must be exhausted the poor lambs.

Accrington were absolute s**t through most of that match and the only reason they won was because we missed bloody easy chances. Far too selfish on most of our chances instead of doing the job. Accrington looked they they had a non league defence.

 

[Swaby39]

We were far better than them but didnt take our chances. Shouldve won by at least 3 goals.

Perhaps. But so said Karl Robinson virtually any time we didn’t win. Look where it left us. If a league table was driven by points deserved, we might be ok! But perhaps we need to look inwards and ask whether we actually deserve the points if we don’t do the basics right such as ensuring shots are hitting the target rather than trying to burst the top corner of the net every time. Or passing to your team mates when they’ve got a tap in. Sounds simple but that’s one of the reasons we lost today.

A massive, massive problem at OUFC that started with Robinson and Manning must get rid of is that we think we are far better than we are.

 

[arthurturner]

Today didn’t matter.

We weren’t getting promoted or relegated or in the play offs. Same for Accrington they were down as good as already.

Subs after 60 minutes were to allow the manager a short opportunity to see fringe players and perhaps encourage those who didn’t start that they may have a future.

Well it mattered to the 10k who paid and turned up today. The manager has all week every week in training to know where the dead wood is and clearly it’s abundant throughout the squad. He will already know who has a future at the club and who hasn’t and my guess is that the majority haven’t. We have far too many players who are not good enough who are on expensive contracts and who we will struggle to move on in the Summer and It’s asking a lot of the Board to pay them off and provide a top 6 budget again next season particularly when the focus over the next two seasons is building the new stadium.
Staying in League 1 for the foreseeable future would be a result.

 

[Oxford84]

This is a really disappointing concept.

In front of 10,500 fans who had bothered to turn up, you are basically saying that the players didn’t care enough to win because we were already safe.

To suggest the players didn’t win (because it didn’t matter) is a real worrying mindset and I would expect so much more from a set of professional footballers. It probably explains why this season has been so torrid.


Thankfully it was a nothing game and we can draw a line and move on to the rebuild. But it should never have got this close to the wire and our season shouldn’t have been defined with two wins against Cheltenham and Forest Green.

Isnt that what modern professional footballers are though?

 

[Sarge]

We played well first half , should have been all over so to say we were bad throughout isn't correct.
A disservice to Accy who got their act together and battled well , poor substitutions cost us the game ultimately but I was as disappointed as anyone with our 2nd half performance and wanted desperately to sign off the season with a win.
This has been a wretched season in which we have been fortunate not to have made it a disastrous one .
Looking forward to the summer transfers and what LM will produce.

thats pretty much how I feel about yesterdays game

 

[oufc1991]

Well it couldn’t be much worse.

Things can always be worse we could have been starting next season in league two for instance

 

[holdsteady]

Looked at the stats after my boss messaged me to ask how we lost that game and it just shows how wasteful we are in front of goal, poor finishing and terrible decision making cost us a win in a season where they have been few and far between.

You can see why we got 47 points when you can’t put away a very poor Accrington team who were wide open in that first half, they were terrible and looked like what they were, a team who have deservedly been relegated, we had them on the ropes after going 1 up early, had all the ball and we’re getting into dangerous areas yet we’re just so wasteful.

A half decent team puts that to bed by half time, these players just don’t have the right mentality to achieve anything, unfortunately we are stuck with a lot of them for another season.

 

[ubermeistervonmeat]

This is so bang on bit its frightening

We have so many players who we will struggle to move on as they already have lucrative contracts and are unlikely to garner interest elsewhere

Its one of the main reasons why we have to forgot sentimentality and not offer Matty a new contract - we have enough players already in the twilight of their career who will be here next year already

Surely look at Eisa or Stockton and other younger players instead

 

[Thomas/Brock/Jones]

But those comments are based on 46 games, 46 games are what are needed to judge a season and the players we have are woefully short of what we need.

It’s not negative to look at the league table to judge a side, it’s the whole point, they had 46 games to prove themselves.

Robinson was shocking, but the main reason he was terrible was his recruitment so it’s strange to get rid of the man and not want to clean up the mess he has left behind.

This team could get us relegated and will never achieve anything, we will have to salvage a few players from the wreckage but we need new players in a lot of key positions, winners basically as this team just doesn’t have many.

No ,the comments were about yesterday's match which I don't think entirely fair.
The season has been awful for a few reasons mainly unbalanced recruitment, get 3/4 players in then those odd goal losses turn into wins or draws and we are challenging at the right end of the table.

 

[yellowbow]

Looked at the stats after my boss messaged me to ask how we lost that game and it just shows how wasteful we are in front of goal, poor finishing and terrible decision making cost us a win in a season where they have been few and far between.

You can see why we got 47 points when you can’t put away a very poor Accrington team who were wide open in that first half, they were terrible and looked like what they were, a team who have deservedly been relegated, we had them on the ropes after going 1 up early, had all the ball and we’re getting into dangerous areas yet we’re just so wasteful.

A half decent team puts that to bed by half time, these players just don’t have the right mentality to achieve anything, unfortunately we are stuck with a lot of them for another season.

There were times yesterday when it was like watching kids football. Nobody shows any composure in the box and looks up! How many times did a player just leather the ball at goal when there were 6 or 7 Accy bodies in the way and a team mate in the better position for an easy tap in??

Browne, Joseph and Goodrham were all guilty of it (I’ll cut young Tyler some slack because of his inexperience)

I’ll probably get hammered for this but I do wonder if we had started Murphy - possibly ahead of Goodrham - things might have been different? For all Murphy’s faults this season, he does have that little extra about him to maybe look up at the crucial time to pick a team mate out. The chance he created for Joseph’s goal v Cheltenham illustrates that perfectly.

And just to add - I do really rate Goodrham. He’s going to be a great player for us.

 

[holdsteady]

No ,the comments were about yesterday's match which I don't think entirely fair.
The season has been awful for a few reasons mainly unbalanced recruitment, get 3/4 players in then those odd goal losses turn into wins or draws and we are challenging at the right end of the table.

Yesterdays match was a perfect example of our season though, just don’t care enough about winning games.

We had a 47 point season and have taken 56 points from our last 55 games, a real lazy, that will do culture has come into the club from top to bottom, the extra money has been wasted and made everyone to comfortable. It’s going to be a hell of an effort from Manning to turn around the levels of complacency that are we have.

 

[Thomas/Brock/Jones]

Think two or three times we were 1 on 1 with the gk and I'd expect( so would the players ) to score .Their keeper was inspired and defenders throwing theirselves at most shots while our finishing not clinical enough.
If we had kept passing and then not shot we would have complained about that .
We all know that one of the key positions we missed this season was a finisher ...get that addressed as well as a few more positions then we will be pushing for top 6.
Highlights are poor , I'd really like to see our chances again to make a real judgement over the decision making.

 

[Thomas/Brock/Jones]

Yesterdays match was a perfect example of our season though, just don’t care enough about winning games.

We had a 47 point season and have taken 56 points from our last 55 games, a real lazy, that will do culture has come into the club from top to bottom, the extra money has been wasted and made everyone to comfortable. It’s going to be a hell of an effort from Manning to turn around the levels of complacency that are we have.

It's been a very poor season , could have been an awful one .
No one is staying otherwise , there are good players at the club and get rid of about 5/6 and replace , especially players in the right positions ( Henry right wing back and Bodin left wing back will be confined to the horror stories we can tell to our grandkids !