Home Match Day Thread 03/02/2024 L1: OUFC v Reading

headingtonoldboy said:

Trouble is, when all the injured players return Des won't know what his best team will be as he's had to play with what he's got so well still struggle!!!!

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Correct, Buckingham can't be trusted with a fully fit squad!

Carpy said:

Really up for this one, big crowd and hopefully a big performance to send us home happy.

PRE-MATCH PACK:

Interview - Des Buckingham

Interview - Reading Manager

OUFC Match Preview

Reading Match Preview

Head to Head

POST-MATCH PACK (TO FOLLOW THE GAME)

Post Match Discussion

Interview - Des Buckingham

Interview - TBD

Match Highlights

Match Report

Ref Watch

Fans View

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REF WATCH link is NOT working! @Northstandboy , @SteMerritt , @Carpy

Northernyellow said:

Just checking. The 'Des out' brigade do realise Reading have only lost one of their last ten?

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Just goes to show what a decent manager can do.

For me what questions Buckingham is the lack of shape and press - there was acres of space in the middle of the park between the defence and attack. It was mind boggling why he didn’t address it as it was plain for all to see?

TheDukeOfBanburyshire said:

That's Rodriguez for me. He's a luxury and he loses the ball in important positions too often by over playing.

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Rodrigues been awful basically since orient. With injuries there's been no competition but he needs dropping

greatunclekip said:

We are a f*****g mess.

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You're not wrong mate

Overkill for the security on the construction site post match - Fuckingridiculous , as was the amount of time it took to get to Knights road- The berlin wall steel fence was in place over an hour before kick off , the OTT policing was un necessary

Poor judgement call by Negru cost us the win- though sitting back deep 2nd half really wasn't good
Did anyone tell the players this was a local derby match? where was the passion and desire to win?

Referee Scott Oldham was shockingly bad, got at lot more wrong that he got right, his linos weren't much better either

Northernyellow said:

Just checking. The 'Des out' brigade do realise Reading have only lost one of their last ten?

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A club in crisis, many of their squad being young youth players, players leaving without the chance to bring anyone in, and still only losing one in ten...?

Suppose that's what a decent manager can do!

Osei Yaw said:

Thought that was one of Rodrigues' poorest games for us. Too many overhit passes and slowing the game down too much. I would've hooked him for Henry towards the end of the game. Also not sure why Matete wasn't on sooner, can only assume they're trying to ease him back in after half a season out, that was crying out for someone to take hold of the midfield.

I thought we also lost our edge when Burey went off, he's in and out of games but he has real pace and wants to use it.

Smith for them was good again, very effective. They are lucky to have some good attacking players and Wing in midfield, because that Craig and one of their centre backs looked non-league standard.

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Think it was a preservation exercise to leave the Matete change so late but couldn’t honestly see the point of giving him 5 minutes at 1-1. Was it really too much to expect of him to come in and play 15 minutes at 1-0, playing behind Brannagan and McGuane and sacrificing Rodrigues who became increasingly frustrated?

Burey should’ve continued. He was drifting a bit but reading were always going to commit forward later on and we took off the most dangerous outlet we had. He didn’t look especially leggy.

I’m not sure what it is, it’s easy to say all this in hindsight, but Des seems to do so much in the wrong order. at 1-0, make sure we don’t concede while maintaining a threat. I don’t understand why he nullified us without adding anything to the defensive strength.

The O’Donkor change was unfathomable for me. A goal up and really struggling in the game, why bring on a lad who can’t get himself involved.

Just find myself trying to work back from his decisions to figure out what the idea was but I can’t. What is it about him?!

Nadi- said:

Can’t get this ODonkor blame thing today.
The team had lost control and the outcome of the game. Long before he came on.

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There’s no blame on the player!

It’s on the board, manager and recruitment team that’s the issue. GOD should be on loan gaining experience. He should have been since 2022 yet in February 2024 he’s still our second choice striker.

It’s a recruitment problem. Not one with the player.

Des has said on several occasions that he wants to win games, but the way we play just doesn't reflect that. We came out so slow at the start of the second half, and it was clear the instruction was to contain rather than go for a second. We invited pressure and eventually the inevitable equaliser came. At that stage we then tried to play with a bit of urgency but it was too late, and Reading looked the more likely to get the winner. Really frustrating performance overall and the first time I've been really disappointed with Des.

Same **** each week. Take the lead at HT, come out, pump the ball long, watch it come back and eventually concede.

Reading deserved all 3 points imo. A season that looked so promising is evaporating quickly.

Common Villager said:

Des has said in several occasions that he wants to win games, but the way we play just doesn't reflect that. We came out so slow at the start of the second half, and it was clear the instruction was to contain rather than go for a second. We invited pressure and eventually the inevitable equaliser came. At that stage we then tried to play with a bit of urgency but it was too late, and Reading looked the more likely to get the winner. Really frustrating performance overall and the first time I've been really disappointed with Des.

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Sitting in 2nd and now struggling to win any matches no matter who the opposition. Don't think I've not been disappointed since he's come in

Common Villager said:

Des has said in several occasions that he wants to win games, but the way we play just doesn't reflect that. We came out so slow at the start of the second half, and it was clear the instruction was to contain rather than go for a second. We invited pressure and eventually the inevitable equaliser came. At that stage we then tried to play with a bit of urgency but it was too late, and Reading looked the more likely to get the winner. Really frustrating performance overall and the first time I've been really disappointed with Des.

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we simply cant see out a 1 , or for that matter 2, goal lead, why bother trying to , and why sit deep inviting the opposition to attack in waves? inevitably the inevitable happens

pommy80 said:

Same **** each week. Take the lead at HT, come out, pump the ball long, watch it come back and eventually concede.

Reading deserved all 3 points imo. A season that looked so promising is evaporating quickly.

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Took the words out of my mouth there. Getting sick of the negative football and no urgency shown by the team. Reading had more fight than us throughout the game!

pommy80 said:

Same **** each week. Take the lead at HT, come out, pump the ball long, watch it come back and eventually concede.

Reading deserved all 3 points imo. A season that looked so promising is evaporating quickly.

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They didn’t deserve all three points. Neither did we.

A draw was fair.

It was a typical local derby, frantic and without much good football. Reading werent very good but they were a bit more up for it, and it’s disappointing that none of our forward players could find a bit of magic. I’d have put Henry on towards the end but we should have had enough to win it - which I guess we would have without our rookie right back’s slip.

Des mentions how many games are left in each interview. "16 and we need to manage the game better." We're running out of games dessy boy....

Thought the wingers were all ok, the problem arose in getting the ball out to them quickly enough. Too slow to ping the ball about. I include Eastwood as well, he’s simply not good enough with his feet.

Rodrigues and McGuane were especially ponderous.

Reading were there for the taking and they were lucky to get a point. Keen, young and fit though I guess.

Brannagan again magnificent. I don’t know what the playing style is apart from some good pressing in the first 20, Playoffs looking problematic now but I’m not calling for the managers head, that’s just stupid,

COYY

Have to say I thought Des sounded rattled in his post match interview for the first time. Stumbling over words and getting player names wrong. He’s feeling the pressure and, you have to say, fairly so. I’m not really buying the ‘injury crisis’ as an excuse any more. That team that was put out, with the exception of Negru, was pretty much a first choice starting XI, with options on the bench. We need to be better than that. We created nearly nothing all game. Moments in that final quarter, where we were just hoofing it every time we got the ball, were play the like I haven’t seen since we were a mid table league 2 side.

This club is so frustrating. Everything feels, in macro- and microcosm, like one step forwards, two steps back. The fanbase was on such a high going into this game, and a win here would really have built a platform of good feeling going into the second half of the season. I thought the first half was really quite good - we seemed more up for it than them, didn’t create much but scored a good goal and kept them generally at arms length. And then just collapsed second half. I think we got caught up in the atmosphere of the game, which was just weird after we started off harnessing it so well. From 70 mins onwards we looked like headless chickens. But even then, I think fans would have appreciated some urgency, a sense that the players wanted this as much as they did. Why on earth did we take 30 seconds to take a throw in in stoppage time, dropping two points to a side in the relegation zone?! It was infuriating.

Silver linings are Burey, who was a real asset I thought, caused some real problems, and Brannagan for 70 mins. Dominated the game. I think Eastwood also did well - credit where it’s due. Harris’ good form continuing is also positive. Dale looked fine, although a bit of a victim of circumstance as the whole team collapsed around the time he came on. Matete in his 5 mins also looked busy.

But on the flip side, some real bad performances. Negru isn’t a righback, but even so looked nervous and well off it. Getting the basics of simple passing and first touch consistently wrong. The mistake for their goal was woeful, and looked like it was coming all game. MacGuane continued his disappointing regression, doing very little once again. Also losing faith in Rodrigues a bit. He’s been poor for quite a while now, nothing was sticking, and his petulant histrionics always make me nervous about getting a red. I wouldn’t be against having a midfield three of Matete sitting behind CB and MM going forward. I think he could do with a little spell out of the side.

Reading were woeful. Amazing that we haven’t beaten them in either game this year. Smith I maintain is quality, did an incredible job of battling with two men twice his size in Brown and Moore. But everyone else very poor.

It’s not his fault we haven’t picked up the three points, and I know it’s a tired point by now, but I find myself again left shocked by another absolutely bewildering refereeing performance. Completely arbitrary every call. Have there ever been so many terrible refereeing performances in one season? It feels like it’s been much worse this year than in previous.

A really disappointing day. The manner of that second half performance will take some time to get over. Need a lot of results to go our way this afternoon for this not to be a really dismal day.