Home Match Day Thread 20/02/2024 L1: OUFC v Northampton Town

mightymozza1984 said:

Can anyone put their finger on why the atmosphere at the ground has been so flat the last couple of seasons?

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I raised this point last week and in my opinion it is definitely reflective of the football. Look how the atmosphere went up a bit last night in the second half when we were a bit more front foot. I’m SSL and around me people were just staring blankly out there in the first half - no ones calling out anyone, no ones questioning the ref etc, people just looked fed up with it. Occasionally there was the odd dissenting voice aimed at Buckingham but that was about it.

Interestingly, I’ve found myself at both Man City and Liverpool home games in past 18 months and those atmospheres mirror what they’re watching as well. City is honestly like being in a morgue 85% of the time, then when they eventually reach the final third and quicken the play, the crowd come to life. Liverpool though is far more raucous from the first to last minute, the crowd right up for it and urging the players on, Klopp driving them forward. When Liverpools full backs have it the crowd rise in anticipation of something happening - a bit like we used to be when Baldock would get on the ball.

uptheus said:

Thought we played better tonight as we played with a higher tempo.

Just poor decision making cost us the game.

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It’s weird in terms of how we each see games.

I found myself being far more frustrated than usual with how pedestrian we were last night, seeming to lack any real desire to push forward other than a few very quick bursts.

A lot of statuesque football imo.

But having said that, we completely shut Northampton out of the game notwithstanding two utter calamities.

The energy and real attacking intent came with the substitutions and at that point I felt we had the game.

I was not happy to see Josh go off, but I guess he is still being managed and I had to hold my hands up and say that Dale’s energy and his determination to push forward changed the tempo and seemed to gave the whole team a lift.

So frustrating last night, but starting to feel that we will properly click in the run in to cement a playoff place.

OX14 said:

I put it down to the feeling of the whole situation being stale. There is no buzz round the club at the moment but this may change one planning for the new stadium goes in.

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I think we have to look beyond the stadium being the answer to everything that is wrong/negative at the moment.

Bitter said:

Much as I liked the idea of Leigh as a winger, it didn’t work, he looked better when at LWB. Need to stop this passing back to Cumming, he doesn’t look comfortable on the ball and I can only see a goal being conceded soon. Also thought Cumming was at fault for the first goal, he should be catching that cross. What Long was thinking for that back pass, who knows, but it ties in with all the other negative passing back to Cumming that goes on throughout a match, needs to stop, turn with the ball, look to create something. Midfield didn’t work for me, both Bodin and RR really didn’t get into the game. We looked slow at times, when we did get a move on, there was some very good football, just not enough.

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Cumming wasn’t getting to that cross imo. Have just looked at the highlights and it was a great ball in with pace and sufficiently far enough away from Cumming tbf.

Sheik djibouti said:

Two absolute brain farts from Long and Bodin lead to their two goals (and only real attempts on target). Other than that, they struggled to lay a glove on us.

We were pretty dull and uncourageous at times, especially in the first half and I can't help thinking that with a bit more attacking intent (and obviously a couple less individual brain farts) we should've been comfortably out of sight.

And although the initial selection raised a few eyebrows, I can see what the aim was in the sense we were able to flood both defence and attack and overwhelm the cobblers. We just didn't do the attacking bit nearly enough....we could've had them on toast by half time with a bit more conviction and decisiveness.

Frustrating!

But.....great to see Murphy playing so well. Also thought Negru did well, apart from the absolute hospital pass from Long. And also good to see a quality finish from Goodwin too. Good energy from Dale too and great cross to set up Goodwin too.

And can someone please wrap Brannagan in cotton woo until the end of the season?

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I’m sure Northampton fans will probably be bemoaning some lapses from their players that gave Murphy, Dale, Goodwin time and space to score and assist. No way can that draw just be put on a couple of individual moments. What about the collective that chose to shut up shop at 1-0 and fanny around with it for the rest of the first half ? Get on the front foot the minute we open the scoring and that game is very likely home and hosed by half time.

Brannagan was the pick of our players over 90 minutes, with decent second half contributions from Leigh, Dale and Goodwin. Murphy was good but I really didn’t think he was any more than that. Long, Bennett, Rodrigues, Negru, Harris the less said the better.

I thought I saw the plan yesterday. Pass it round slowly at the back to try and bring Northampton out of their low block and free up space for the four behind Harris to operate.

Two problems:

I thought Leigh was on primarily to attack crosses coming in from Murphy/Long on the right. Issues were that Leigh wanted crosses in the air, Harris wanted them on the ground, which meant we only had one to aim for with either type of ball. Also, Leigh didn’t quite commit to his role as a primary goal scoring threat, which might not be surprising for a defender.

Second, Northampton didn’t show much interest in closing us down. We lost patience before they did, and had to hit long passes out wide (where we had issues with our crossing, above).

With hindsight, the solutions could have been:

Harris staying on when Goodwin came on, to have two people properly going for each cross. Losing one of our CMs would have been a small price to pay as they could barely operate in the crowded Northampton half.

We needed someone who could bring the ball out at CB. Brown’s foray in the second half had them panicked and forces them to make a decision. As odd as it sounds, this turned into a game for Thorniley. Especially when the use of two “stoppers” doesn’t seem to provide any more solidity.

OX14 said:

I put it down to the feeling of the whole situation being stale. There is no buzz round the club at the moment but this may change one planning for the new stadium goes in.

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I’d go one further and say there’s an anxiety spreading. How many areas of the club give the casual fan confidence right now?

My concern is Brannagan, that looks like a nasty knee injury. I was really surprised he carried on which hopefully means it’s not as bad, but I’ve got a horrible feeling he could be out for a while, and losing him could leave a big void.

He was MOTM last night as he was the only one wanting to get on the ball and drive forwards/make something happen on a regular basis.

Thought Rodrigues was crap again. Just don’t notice him on the pitch. Just seems to prance around all the time. Murphy looked good again (oh yeah his contract terminates at the end of the season), but will be good to get the best out of him for the rest of the campaign.

Another player who slows it down when options are on is Brown. Personally I don’t think he’s changed from last season, it’s just that we were so poor last season that he was the best of a bad bunch, hence getting player of the season!! Also, Harris looked off it last night, didn’t offer much at all or do his customary shutting down etc.

Like I said earlier, I thought we played better last night as we seemed to want to play more on the front foot, but it didn’t look that way when the defence had the ball because there was lack of movement/players wanting the ball to feet which meant that the only option was to either go backwards or hit a hopeful long ball up front which mainly meant we lost retention of the ball.

We need a win against Orient Saturday, but can see that being a tougher game, and possibly without Brannagan. Hopefully having Moore and Stevens back will help.

mightymozza1984 said:

Can anyone put their finger on why the atmosphere at the ground has been so flat the last couple of seasons?

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Hi, long time member, first time poster here.
I would say it might have something to do with the way our team are playing football at the moment. Passing square for a few minutes before lumping a long ball forward repeatedly isn’t exactly entertaining or likely to get the crowd involved. Last night was the epitome of this. After a very bright start and scoring a great goal we honestly looked like we were prepared to sit back for the next 84 minutes! We are not capable of anything like that, we do, however, have the capability of scoring more goals, we just chose to play square ball. No wonder the crowd didn’t get involved. There’s no doubt individual calamities cost us all 3 points, but the tactics and decision to adopt this conservative (small c) approach is down to the manager. He appears to be getting away with it very lightly on here.

OX14 said:

I put it down to the feeling of the whole situation being stale. There is no buzz round the club at the moment but this may change one planning for the new stadium goes in.

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Heard the plans are going in next week!

Just before the fans forum!

Everyone wants Des to succeed but i just cant see it happening - Haven't heard 'Buckingham's yellow army' being sung during a game for months, is that a sign of how uninspired people are? He just isn't getting the best out of players. Ruben would have said he was the best player we've had in years under Manning, since Orient away he has been hot and cold. He made it clear he wanted Williams as manager toys out the pram?

Think a lot of fans decided the outcome of the season long ago and are feeding whatever confirmation bias they can to console themselves...Des is inexperienced therefore he's tactically inept, the performances are 'painful to watch', there is no tactics or style of play and the atmosphere is dire.

Des is inexperienced - Can't really argue that but since hes been here he's also managed to bring in several players who have had success in this league (with help from JW). He's learning the league (Northampton being one of the first teams he's played twice, and his set up for it suggested he's figured out how to play them). I'd also add that, prior to his hiring, he was a popular choice amongst fans. Seems harsh to give him 3 months in the circumstances. Would a different manager have done better. Who knows. Either way, losing a successful manager mid season would have always been impactful.

The performances are painful to watch - the start of last night reminded me of a season opener with KR a few seasons back, dominated possession...side to side before breaking out into attacks. Murphy was excellent and causing all sorts of problems for them. Could the possession control be better? Sure, but we're not Barcelona. Negru was the primary play out CB last night. He did OK and is learning but is limited, the alternative to playing out would be long ball. We restricted their play by and large, getting punished for two sloppy moments. That's the game. The recent draws against Wycombe/Blackpool (recent Playoff rivals) were always going to be grindy. If you were of the view that either were or should be cakewalks, you are delusional. Should we beat Northampton? Yes, but they are no mugs and are well drilled in stopping teams like us. As a fan, I'm not seeing much different in how we play this year (either before or after Manning) and find watching Murphy, Goodrham, Rodrigues, Leigh, Burey etc exciting players to watch. Not Perfect football, but painful to watch? I'd question fans expectation on this one.

There are no tactics or style of play - I find this one most odd. We very clearly have a style of play. It's called possession based football. We play out from the back, we attack in wide areas, we look to shoot regularly.
In terms of tactics, there is two sides to it. For me, I think it's clear that there have been some games where we have set up oddly or Ineffectively. That suggests to me that our pre match prep for teams isnt quite right yet, new analyst getting to grips? Maybe. One thing I've liked about Des is an decisive approach to changing it. Too often under KR were we waiting on subs to happen. DB has made several HT subs and often to positive effect. He's learning the league and is making strong decisions. I didn't agree with Murphy going off last night, but Dale and Goodwin got the goal...so perhaps Des knows a bit more than me about Tactics and managing a squad.

On the atmosphere, I think that we have people in the fanbase calling for Des to go in this situation says it all. We all want perfect football, better football...but check your expectation...the standard of our squad, the position in the league in the circumstances, the long term future of the club etc is as good as its been in a long time.

Any other club that went from relegation avoiding to play off contending in a season with the changes and issues that have happened this season wouldn't be giving their coach such a hard time.

uptheus said:

Heard the plans are going in next week!

Just before the fans forum!

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That will be a huge boost within the fanbase.

Those suggesting that Murphy id only performing because his contract is up at the end of the season have a very strange idea of what motivates a professional footballer. This is the first time he has been selected

A couple of posts have mentioned how we keep throwing away points when we're winning because we can't hold a lead. The stats don't reflect this particularly though. We've gone ahead in 23 games this season, winning 16, on average we get 2.35 points from games we're ahead in. 9th best in the division - so a bit below our league position but not much. Weirdly Exeter are very good after going ahead and Peterborough/Stevenage the least good out of the top 8.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/lea...tbewerb/GB3/saison_id/2023/spiele/alle/plus/1

We're 4th best at gaining points from a losing position.


On a different note - people seem very angry/sad and a few are saying they're not enjoying it at the moment. All reasonable emotions, but if I were them I'd consider not going for a while - if you're only going to enjoy a game if we win, you're going to be miserable more often than not. I only get to a few games a season due to where I live and no doubt the novelty helps, but I nearly always enjoy it. The atmosphere at games seems particularly bad - watching on ifollow (which doesn't always give a good reflection of atmosphere) last night Radio Oxford mentioned how poor it was.

There's a lot to like about this team, we have Brannagan - a genuine OUFC legend I suspect, who will still be talked about in 15/20 years time. We have Goodrham who looks like he won't be here long so we should enjoy while he is. Then you have (in my opinion anyway) good footballers/characters to watch like Rodrigues/Leigh/Harris. You have local lad Long... ok, I won't push that one at the moment.

So if the football is making you sad/miserable, consider trying something else for a little while (maybe tell the club why), you'll either miss the football and come back, or you'll find a more enjoyable hobby.

We as fans not singing has nothing to do with the football we play, we were terrible under Patterson in the conference that season, 5 thousand crowd and we still made much more noise than we do now. Just got an old and ageing fan base now, might be more people but the number of geriatrics in the east stand makes me, at 45, feel young. Most people in their fifties and above, apart from moaning at the ref/manager/players/football/life in general don't make a lot of noise, which is fair enough as I can't see me "going f*****g mental" at 65 years old, probably be to tired from climbing the stairs. Add in its more family groups and you have the recipe for sterility.

Our only decent atmosphere this season came away to Leyton Orient which was a lads day out type crowd, mostly groups of blokes who had been drinking, home games are nothing like that so you won't see much of an improvement.

chromeyellow said:

Those suggesting that Murphy id only performing because his contract is up at the end of the season have a very strange idea of what motivates a professional footballer. This is the first time he has been selected

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You don't think professional footballers are motivated by getting new, well paid contracts?

Question is it one win in eight or unbeaten in six. All these home draws are games thrown away at a critical time if the season. Not many games left and having played two more than our rivals, we can’t rely on others to slip up.

Good to see that last night's result was not the fault of Elliot Moore for a change. Will have to wait for Saturday now i guess.

The reason I’m finding it hard going is the sheer level of frustration.
We’ve had much worse teams than this but I’ve never been as frustrated as I am this morning. I think it’s because we are actually quite good when we want to be and i feel we are severely underperforming week in week out. Couple this with some nonsensical decision making and it makes you want to stick your dick in a blender.