Home Match Day Thread 30/01/2024 L1: OUFC v Portsmouth

BigAlan said:

If Bambi could stay on his feet and hit it then we would have won, GOD is hard work at times, but a point is a point.

Click to expand...

I think his confidence is absolutely shot as a striker. He really needs a loan to find his feet again.

I am a little surprised at Mous. The 'time outs'- 'head injuries" and what seems to be called 'game management', were a bit surprising.
Pompey have some very good players , but tend to play in a very pragmatic manner. I thought that they were workmanlike, and Derby, Peterborough were far better ( and Barnsley looked a better team).
They manage to grind out results and if course have Bishop who scores a lot of goals. I would be surprised if they made the Top 3.

oufc1991 said:

That was a much better performance tonight I actually enjoyed the game something I was expecting to be honest. I'm happy we got the point but feel we should have won . I wasn't impressed with Portsmouth I think they will make the play offs but for me Bolton, Derby, Peterborough were all far better teams when we played them

Click to expand...

I wouldn't be surprised if either team failed to make the play offs!! Pompey had 68% possession and scored twice primarily because we switched off and defended poorly on both occasions, otherwise they offered very little threat. Speaking to their fans before the game, they reckon they have been playing shite since November but keep getting results at the death but last night our equaliser felt like a hammer blow for them.
As for us, we showed a lot of spirit with limited possession but no real game plan, other than to try and stay in the game. You cannot consistently win football matches living of scraps, unless you play like Wycombe under Ainsworth.
We move on but until we regain some sort of identity and plan it becomes difficult to see how we will put a decent run together. We are now one of the chasers so have to find some belief, neither players nor supporters have it at the moment.
Ofcourse, fresh legs are required and will help and yes we are higher in the league than we expected in August. But in November we all had belief, that has literally been ripped out of our souls and is not easy to replace.
We do not look in a good place physically or mentally, but an opportunity still exists but because of that the remainder of the season will be defining for Des. I wish him good luck but more in hope than expectation.

greatunclekip said:

I'm not too sure I share all the positivity (quelle surprise I hear you say) in that Pompey weren't anything great and our defending was utterly, utterly dreadful for both goals.

Still, it's a point, and with reinforcements, things can only get better!

Click to expand...

See your point and would agree if it was blind positivity, but I think most people are seeing both bad and good.

We should have held on to beat a Pompey side that has its own problems and isn't playing as well as before, and let two poor goals in. We have another two injured.

On the other hand, to come back after losing the lead showed excellent spirit. New and returning players improved our performance - Burey, Gregly and Jamo.

So although we only drew, the way it finished was very satisfying.

I'm still singing "2-1 up and you f***ed it up etc etc"

Upthecowboys said:

Leigh looked more like his old self tonight..

Loved it towards the end of the game when a ball was played back to him, he looked like he was going to lay it / not do much but no! He puffed out his cheeks, pushed the ball forward and sprinted past their player.

Click to expand...

This. 100%. He's just a really f**king excellent footballer, with an all-round skill set that is almost unheard of at this level.

Loves a tackle, strong in the air, pacy, skillful and above all else always wants to get up the pitch and push us forward, so refreshing.

Absolute joy to have at our football club.

Foley said:

I am a little surprised at Mous. The 'time outs'- 'head injuries" and what seems to be called 'game management', were a bit surprising.
Pompey have some very good players , but tend to play in a very pragmatic manner. I thought that they were workmanlike, and Derby, Peterborough were far better ( and Barnsley looked a better team).
They manage to grind out results and if course have Bishop who scores a lot of goals. I would be surprised if they made the Top 3.

Click to expand...

Didn’t think they were anywhere near being in the top 4 teams to come to ours this season.
But they do win games late on, but not last night.

Yes- Leigh was a huge part of why we were where we were under Manning, and why having to adapt to a team without Leigh (on top of so many other injuries) made Buckingham's first weeks at the club so difficult.

Not so much messing around at the back last night. I don't think we have the right players for 3-5-2. A good performance last night, tough times with injuries, first half at Bristol Rovers was a bit of a wake up call. Biggest problem at times is "our fans" reaction to a defeat. Lets get behind them on Saturday

What a game!! What a team! Thoroughly enjoyed it and the good news is that everybody put a shift in! EM was stupendous and MH ran his socks off. I could go through the whole team and commend each and every one. Roll on Saturday.

38yearsofpain said:

I wouldn't be surprised if either team failed to make the play offs!! Pompey had 68% possession and scored twice primarily because we switched off and defended poorly on both occasions, otherwise they offered very little threat. Speaking to their fans before the game, they reckon they have been playing shite since November but keep getting results at the death but last night our equaliser felt like a hammer blow for them.
As for us, we showed a lot of spirit with limited possession but no real game plan, other than to try and stay in the game. You cannot consistently win football matches living of scraps, unless you play like Wycombe under Ainsworth.
We move on but until we regain some sort of identity and plan it becomes difficult to see how we will put a decent run together. We are now one of the chasers so have to find some belief, neither players nor supporters have it at the moment.
Ofcourse, fresh legs are required and will help and yes we are higher in the league than we expected in August. But in November we all had belief, that has literally been ripped out of our souls and is not easy to replace.
We do not look in a good place physically or mentally, but an opportunity still exists but because of that the remainder of the season will be defining for Des. I wish him good luck but more in hope than expectation.

Click to expand...

Thought overall we had the opportunity’s to win that last night,
Closer to our preferred system of earlier in the season, far more structured and disciplined as a team.
A bit more desire in and around both boxes, and we’d be amongst it.

Also, for their first goal. Bishop clearly has hold of Brown and bundles him to the ground before poking the ball in.

No at all surprising the Drysdale didn't spot this though

And as much as I don't want to say it, I think Elliot Moore could've done better for their second goal. Whilst Leigh is struggling to contain LangMoore actually backs off to take up a more central position, despite the fact that there is not one Pompey player arriving from their right. He could've let the recovering Brown (as it was also his natural left side) and Brannagan cover that side and gone to the ball to help Leigh out and the end result might've been a bit different.

But, hey. . .we're all geniuses after the fact!

Just out of interest the ifollow extended highlights aren't extended - the video is the ordinary highlights.

Feel free to email them as well - ifollow@efl.com

It was better, quite a lot better.

There were of course plusses and minuses.

On the plus side:
The energy of Burey and Gregly seemed to get the other players going as well.
They were also responsible for actually getting some crosses in, which immediately made us much more dangerous.
There was much less arsing around with it at the back.
Henry's class showed when he came on. If only he were five years younger and less prone to injury!
Smyth dealt fairly well with playing at right back - he is probably underused, and could be a very handy utility player.
The closing down was better.
Harris was very good, as was Goodrham, who continues to improve - he offers something different.
Burey was the first player for ages to actually go past a player regularly - love to see that. I hope he gets up to full fitness quickly.
GoD was quite effective when he came on.
Four at the back works so much better for us - still think we need a CDM to protect them a bit and to distribute the ball quicker than McEachran can.
We kept going.

On the minus side:
Another two injuries.
Branagan (whilst a dynamo elsewhere) should not be taking corners or non-shooting free kicks. They are mostly terrible - Henry showed him how to do it when he came on.
Another couple of softish goals conceded - the second one was awful, we had four players there and they all seemed to stand off the bloke (subject to seeing a replay!) and I didn't really see what happened for the first, but it was very scruffy.
Although I've praised Smyth, we didn't really stop the crosses coming in, and at least twice the Portsmouth player who got his head on it was unmarked in the area.
We do allow opposition players to run with the ball too easily - sometimes just running beside them. What's that about?
One point from the last three games is almost as bad as it could be - we NEED a win on Saturday.

Other stuff:
The ref was laughably awful - I didn't realise who it was until they mentioned it after the game, so I am not surprised I suppose.
That f**ing bell. If I had to go to games only for that to be in my ear all the time, I'd have shoved it where the sun don't shine by now.
Portsmouth (on that showing) won't go up automatically. Their performance wasn't a patch on either Derby's or Peterborough's.
If it is true that the two new players they bought cost less between them than Goodwin did on his own, it will be interesting to see who has made the better use of their money come the end of the season.

On balance a fair result.

Two things I found encouraging.

Firstly I liked the way the team was set up, we looked more compact but at the same time had Burey as the pacy outlet particularly in the first half. You could see that the team had been well coached and there was a pattern to our play.

Secondly, the way the team responded to going behind, they didn’t drop their heads, didn’t feel sorry for themselves, just got on with the job in hand of finding an equaliser, which they did and pushed for a winner. Good signs.

Burey definitely has something about him, quicker and stronger than he initially looks, got the better of their leftback on a few occasions, tired after the break which I guess is understandable, he hasn’t played a lot of football this season.

Harris was excellent, led the line well, pressed their back line for the whole match, that takes some doing. His pace caused problems too when he went out wide , he’s not a winger but he can play as a wide forward if and when needed to.

Greg Leigh is a joy to watch, strength, pace, good in the air, technically decent too, good to see him back.

Goodrham doesn’t score too many tap ins does he!

Can we just bring Henry on to take corners and free kicks from wide positions, a bit like they do with the goal kicker in American Football?

Eastwood in goal, and Smyth at rightback can both do a reasonable fill-in job, but neither is a long term solution.

In the last home game we lose two players to injures before halftime, the same thing happens in this game. All teams get injuries, but we do seem to have fair share of bad luck on that front.

As for Pompey, a decent side with good league one players all over the pitch, but not world beaters by any means, top of the league yes, but we’ve played better teams this season, notably Derby, Peterborough and Bolton.

As for our support, we turn out in reasonable numbers home and away, but their’s no getting away from it we’re quiet, especially compared to other teams.

Upthecowboys said:

Leigh looked more like his old self tonight..

Loved it towards the end of the game when a ball was played back to him, he looked like he was going to lay it / not do much but no! He puffed out his cheeks, pushed the ball forward and sprinted past their player.

Click to expand...

Had him down as my MOTM last night.

Solid performance.

Ox4Eva said:

Battling point, happy with that in the end.

I read a lot of posts on here calling other clubs and their fans 'tin pot' , well our support was crap last night!

Click to expand...

Disagree.

Nadi- said:

Thought overall we had the opportunity’s to win that last night,
Closer to our preferred system of earlier in the season, far more structured and disciplined as a team.
A bit more desire in and around both boxes, and we’d be amongst it.

Click to expand...

Agreed. As we've learnt to our own cost, it's often not how much possession you have but what you do with it. We looked dangerous on a number of occasions when we exploited the gap between midfield and defence at pace, but the final ball was just missing.

Eaststanding said:

Disagree.

Click to expand...

Me too and I'm getting fed up with constant criticism of our fans, often from people who don't bother going.

derek said:

Just out of interest the ifollow extended highlights aren't extended - the video is the ordinary highlights.

Feel free to email them as well - ifollow@efl.com

Click to expand...

Blimey, already had a reply saying their working on it (as well as the initial automated reply).