Home Match Day Thread 23/01/2024 L1: OUFC vs Barnsley

[Carpy]

Should be our toughest test of recent times this evening if the form table is to be believed

 

[TailsWeWin]

Blimey, there are some big girls blouses on here tonight.

Blimey, that’s a thoughtful, articulate and intelligent contribution to the debate.
And no surprises about who gave it a thumbs up.

 

[JayOx88]

Did Long really do that much wrong? Thought he had a few decent touches and got involved, was unlucky to be challenging on what was a wickedly whipped cross their striker would have likely put in anyway, then got an awful head injury.

To say he was the reason we lost tonight seems a little bit of a stretch to me.

Agree with this. My hunch is that if he hadn't scored the own goal then people wouldn't be quite so critical of him, as for the rest of the time he was on the pitch he was fine.

One of the big problems in the first half was that Cadden was pressing so high on the left and one of the Barnsley strikers would peel over to Long's side, meaning he couldn't always be marking Cadden. Stevens at this point would often be occupying a right of centre position in midfield, and the onus should have been more on him to get out wide stop that - I'm still not quite sure why he was always stood there, and I don't know what more Long could have done without neglecting his primary responsibility.

I think with hindsight that having 4 at the back would have worked better in the first half and given us a more rigid shape, and we then would have been much harder to get at down the sides. But I guess Des is also trying to play the best formation to suit the players we have fit so I can why he went with 3. However the longer the half went on the conditions definitely penned us in and any counter attacking threat relied on the Barnsley defence misjudging the ball, like with McGuane's chance, and it may have been better to just man the fort once the wind really picked up.

Second half was frustrating as we had a lot of the ball but just didn't move it quickly enough up through the pitch. I would have liked to see our wing backs be braver and push up really high like Barnsley's did and take a gamble that Barnsley weren't going to break in numbers - they were understandably quite conservative in the second half and put the onus on us to force the game. We should have got into positions to put far more crosses into the box and put them under much more pressure than we did.

It was a really flat game to be at and the result is obviously disappointing, but I don't think we need to dwell on it and it doesnt define the season. I feel a bit for Des - we're really light in the forward areas at the moment and we were crying out for the directness of Mills and Murphy tonight. Let's give him a chance to get some more firepower through the door and see what we look like when the window shuts.

People also need to remember that Derby are supposedly the best team to visit the Kassam this season and they have just lost at Reading, when we were critical of only getting a draw there. There's loads more twists and turns to be had and there isn't one team that's anywhere near perfect. There's still loads for us to play for and losing tonight doesn't mean we're just going to disappear from the race.

 

[ECYellow]

Blimey, that’s a thoughtful, articulate and intelligent contribution to the debate.
And no surprises about who gave it a thumbs up.

 

[Oufccraig45]

I don't think that was the game to bring Long back.

Good buddy with DES that's why he was starting tonight

 

[Leysboy]

I think we’ve employed the wrong manager.

2nd place, and slowly going backwards, and sometimes the tactics and choice of players is pretty mind boggling.

 

[JayOx88]

I’d love to see Smyth in midfield, he’s so much more positive on the ball than the likes of McGuane and that’s from RB

Yep, there's such a good player in there and we need to use him more. I think he could do an excellent job in the holding role - obviously has a bit of defensive instinct but can ping a ball and is also happy to carry it forward too.

 

[Scotchegg]

Blimey, that’s a thoughtful, articulate and intelligent contribution to the debate.
And no surprises about who gave it a thumbs up.

Yes I gave it the thumbs up, because I agree with it entirely.

Some of the comments are embarrassing with one describing it as "a dogshit performance". Barnsley scored and shut up shop, and fair play to them, they managed the conditions well. But we were far from awful and a draw would have been more than deserved, and a little composure and luck would have hot us a point at least.

We've got our scapegoat back in Sam Long, despite a number of players performing far worse. But his injury, and that of Bennett, limited the options to make other changes that might have been more effective.

No ones happy with a defeat, especially when Barnsley were nothing special. But 19 games to go, and we'll win plenty of them and will still be in the mix come April.

But misery loves company and some find a good rant quite cathartic, so fill your boots.

 

[werthersoriginal]

Yes I gave it the thumbs up, because I agree with it entirely.

Some of the comments are embarrassing with one describing it as "a dogshit performance". Barnsley scored and shut up shop, and fair play to them, they managed the conditions well. But we were far from awful and a draw would have been more than deserved, and a little composure and luck would have hot us a point at least.

We've got our scapegoat back in Sam Long, despite a number of players performing far worse. But his injury, and that of Bennett, limited the options to make other changes that might have been more effective.

No ones happy with a defeat, especially when Barnsley were nothing special. But 19 games to go, and we'll win plenty of them and will still be in the mix come April.

But misery loves company and some find a good rant quite cathartic, so fill your boots.

I think people are allowed a moan if they went , it was a dismal night. I feel for Des though, the jury is out on him but the squad is built for wing play and they’re all bloody injured! He really had to cobble some sort of side together and it had little attacking potency.

PS if you just watched online stop moaning!

 

[Yellowmania]

Not sure what the tactic was with Stevens. He seemed to take up a strange position especially in the first half. Played a bit further forward than Bennet but didn’t track back to help Long. That gave Cadden acres of space as Long was always covering another forward. Almost seemed like we were a man down on that side.

 

[bazzer9461]

I

We could finish tenth. we could finish first

On tonight’s performance, no.

 

[LowerSouth]

Barnsley were the more complete team in every area of the pitch.
We are still 6th.

 

[notThisWayButThat]

Would have loved that Cam Bran shot to go in. Jeez, what a thumper that was.

 

[Cass63]

The whole feeling at the club at the moment is a bit meh, then we kick of and it gets worse.

 

[bazzer9461]

Awful result, awful tactics, awful performance.

Still, at least we have another striker back in 3 weeks and Edwards back in April, so things can change!

You forgot Browne or have you given up on him? Where’s your faith

 

[bazzer9461]

That is absolutely awful. 1-0 down at half time with strong winds behind us second half and all we get is a few weak shots on target, and hardly any balls put into the box. Just stupid stupid play, play to the conditions. Why are we so naive?

But, but, but we still have to play around our defence

 

[greatunclekip]

You forgot Browne or have you given up on him? Where’s your faith

Anyone putting any level of faith in Marcus Browne I would suggest has been smoking the good stuff.

 

[bazzer9461]

Why does every defeat feel like a disaster on this forum? Frustrating game but we created enough chances to get something from a game against promotion/playoff rivals, and we were on top at the end. It was far from being ‘very poor’ and other semantics, especially in some bad conditions.

At the moment you feel this side needs to score relatively early to have a chance of winning the game, so I do feel we need to see a couple of attacking additions come in asap, ideally one before the weekend. But I don’t think we’re as far behind as some are suggesting.

But we didn’t get something from the game which isn’t good enough just not enough urgency and wrong tactics, sums up this evening

 

[RagingBull]

My dad beginning of 2nd half ‘oh good we’ve brought Goodrham on’

Me ‘he was playing first half Dad!’

 

[bazzer9461]

At least we fans can relax a bit knowing we are safe from relegation this season....this squad is nowhere near good enough for promotion at this time.

No we’re not we’ve only 49 points

 

[bazzer9461]

I watched the game and I think it’s very generous to say that king was back at any point

Happened to me but saw it straight away and managed to edit before I got ridiculed