werthersoriginal
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If no fans are there is it a derby game? Or just two sets of mercenaries playing out another fixture?
What??!! I'm not sure you quite understand the importance of the occasion!If no fans are there is it a derby game? Or just two sets of mercenaries playing out another fixture?
it’s a derby and anyone playing for Oxford must play for the club and it’s fans.If no fans are there is it a derby game? Or just two sets of mercenaries playing out another fixture?
We also had our star player sent off after about four seconds and still won no problemsIn fairness to him and it may be really obvious, he's right. Swindon have shot themselves in the foot repeatedly with their lack of discipline in recent years. They've had at least one player sent off in three of the last four meetings (we had MacDonald see red in the FLT match that we discard from the canon of victories) and have lost them all.
Keep your discipline in derby games and it helps a lot.
Beano?In fairness to him and it may be really obvious, he's right. Swindon have shot themselves in the foot repeatedly with their lack of discipline in recent years. They've had at least one player sent off in three of the last four meetings (we had MacDonald see red in the FLT match that we discard from the canon of victories) and have lost them all.
Keep your discipline in derby games and it helps a lot.
Beano?
Andy Whing threw himself in front of everything that moved and a certain ballboy took one for the team to lose a minute or so. Half the east stand trying to get on the pitch at that point.A bit of a freakish anomaly that one. All signs pointed to a Swindon win and you’d be hard pressed to find any reason why Oxford would win that one especially after the 12th minute and down to 10. Lee Holmes, Asa Hall and Oli Johnson did the rest though.
Swindon also ‘lost’ manager Di Canio in the away game that season and we ourselves crumbled in 2001 in our last Manor meeting with them Whitehead and Murphy being sent off. In fairness we were so bad that season that even an extra player or two wouldn’t have helped us, but the principle stands. Keep players on the pitch and you do have a better chance of winning.
Scott Rendell remains the greatest unsung hero of the 2012 home win. I’ve never seen a better example of pressing and closing down from someone being forced to play as a lone striker in my life. He just didn’t stop, and I’m talking full-on sprints. That man left absolutely everything on the pitch that day. At one point in the second half he spent 30 full seconds sprinting back and forth across the pitch as their defenders knocked the ball about, and I still get goosebumps thinking back to the way that the crowd started to come alive with it. By the end of his one man press he was practically getting a standing ovation, and the crowd was so loud that you would think someone was running clean through on goal by the end of it.Andy Whing threw himself in front of everything that moved and a certain ballboy took one for the team to lose a minute or so. Half the east stand trying to get on the pitch at that point.
Scott Rendell remains the greatest unsung hero of the 2012 home win. I’ve never seen a better example of pressing and closing down from someone being forced to play as a lone striker in my life. He just didn’t stop, and I’m talking full-on sprints. That man left absolutely everything on the pitch that day. At one point in the second half he spent 30 full seconds sprinting back and forth across the pitch as their defenders knocked the ball about, and I still get goosebumps thinking back to the way that the crowd started to come alive with it. By the end of his one man press he was practically getting a standing ovation, and the crowd was so loud that you would think someone was running clean through on goal by the end of it.
Long, Obita, Taylor and Ruffels are all local lads don't forget. Eastwood and Hall have played in these games before. They'll be up for it.If no fans are there is it a derby game? Or just two sets of mercenaries playing out another fixture?
Obita 'up to speed ' apparently on the forthcoming derby clash , seems he's a fast learner ....Long, Obita, Taylor and Ruffels are all local lads don't forget. Eastwood and Hall have played in these games before. They'll be up for it.
Haven't heard anything about Taylor, presume nothing will happen?
As a follower of this club for 40+ years and who has been to countless derbies, I respectfully ask you to consider if you want to withdraw that question.If no fans are there is it a derby game? Or just two sets of mercenaries playing out another fixture?
One thing that is worrying me a little bit is that Karl is much more, shall we say, 'emotional' than the managers that have been at the helm for the last six (I think?) meetings with Swindon. As another poster mentioned, we have won most of the recent matches by keeping our heads whilst they were losing theirs (a questionable red card for Beano aside), and I think that was in no small part due to the calm-headed approach of both Wilder and Appleton.