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I have to be honest I can’t remember seeing so many unhappy players on an Oxford team as I did tonight. You were right all along mate.I already did.
Only the three I know of. There could be More, it looks like a team infested, and frankly given up.
Good shout but he did only last 6 months at Swansea.The really obvious fact from tonight is that the players are clearly not playing for Des Buckingham and that is a huge problem.
The performances are nowhere near being acceptable - and they have not been since he was appointed - but when the players don’t want to play for the manager or believe in the Manager you have to part company. That’s the harsh reality of the situation.
It is simply not working and it will get worse. Bring in Michael Duff or someone of that ilk and prepare for 2024-2025.
Whenever you U's have been kind enough to let me visit your site as I have often done, I've always found that for the most part, U's fans have been welcoming, balanced in their opinions and knowledgeable. Tonight it's a bit of a meltdown.Sat in Sandbach services refuelling for the remaining 2 hours drive home, god the things we do for our club.
Haven’t really read through what’s been said, but can’t imagine my feelings are much different to the majority. It was a disgusting performance from top to bottom, the initial setup was wrong IMO and the gaps between our midfielders was staggering, I can’t believe nothing changed after the first 15. Our full backs were way too narrow and the first goal proved it, second was an absolute omnishambles with both Leigh and Cumming making huge errors. Third goal, okay, that was unlucky, but where was the closing down? the urgency? Fourth goal, absolutely torn apart - probably the best goal we’ve conceded this season. Fifth goal, after the third you close down the edge of the box, but didn’t happen, felt like Cumming could have done better but haven’t seen it back, doubt I’ll ever bother checking. It is painfully obvious that we are STILL lacking in the positions for the last 5 or 6 seasons - a proper CDM, an authoritative CB and a right back. Matete isn’t the answer, he was never the man for any of those roles but there was ecstasy when he signed, anyone who had watched him for a sustained period would know he’s in the Mcguane mould. Panic signing. Brown is a loose cannon and unreliable against good teams. Moore needs legs beside him, not some league 1 codger who will only go downhill in his career from now. Long, the less said about him the better.
The thing that upsets me the most though is the final whistle, players stood joking with their Bolton counterparts, ambling over and barely looking apologetic. Dale looked royally fucked off but apart from that there didn’t look an ounce of hurt on the faces of the players, that ultimately is what the fans remember. Is it a mentality thing? Do we have leaders in our squad? Moore, Brannagan, Mcguane, Long, Brown, Bodin, Murphy - all part of our abysmal run last year, all part of abysmal runs in previous seasons, why does it keep happening? Why has Brannagan not left to go elsewhere? Does he believe he has it in him? We can see the ability, but would he rather stay where he has it easy? He seems to be the exception to most of the fanbase, but if anything he’s part of the problem. That’s a spine of players who look great with no expectation, but as soon as there’s a bit of pressure they crumble.
I want it to work for Des, I still think he needs time and proper support structure around him, but he simply won’t get it with these clowns in charge, and when the players give up on you it’s usually curtains. I don’t trust this board to even get another appointment right so for me he stays, but there’s so much unnecessary pressure (some self inflicted) on him to deliver a good start to next season.
Another point on the useless C***s that are slowly ripping the soul out of our club, and this is probably a hangover of last weeks fans forum, but how blindingly obvious is it that they save face as the bare minimum and do *nothing* else. It’s so reactive rather than proactive. Oh you think the communication isn’t good? Okay, don’t worry about that lads, we’ll sort it. Oh the support structure for a new manager is shambolic? Don’t worry lads, we paid a hefty release clause for Des, and gave him a brand new (injured) 400k striker who was mooted even before he got here! The assistant manager who Des wanted and had in the building decided to walk from the offer at the last minute? That was HIS personal issue, nothing to do with the fact we offered a basic contract and didn’t trust you were the right man.
I’m not angry as such, I’m just upset. I’m upset that these things keep happening to us, I’m upset these group of players aren’t good enough for what we want, I’m upset that we’ve got one of our own in charge and he hasn’t been supported enough. It shouldn’t come to this where we turn against him, but he will be the fall guy and we’ll rinse and repeat next season with a new manager, with the same core of players who have let us down so often. I’d absolutely love if Des showed a bit of fight and attitude, called people out, got the fans on his side and uses siege mentality to stabilise our season and have a bloody good go at it in the summer, with a whole new core of players who he wants. I don’t think he has it in him to do it though, I think he’s too nice and it’ll be him who’s out the door first when there’s dozens of people who should be gone before him.
It’s just upsetting.
Anyway, engine on, back down the M6. Night all
Thanks for your kind words mate. I’ve read your posts in the past and you definitely have the best interests of football fans at heart. We’ve definitely had premature meltdowns on this forum but tonight’s is fully justified imo. I’ve tried to be supportive of our new manager but the deterioration has been happening for quite some time, and although Bolton are obviously a very good team we were abject tonight even by our recently poor standards. There’s not a cat in hells chance of us meeting you in the play offs. And I think you’ll get promoted automatically esp given you had several players missing.Whenever you U's have been kind enough to let me visit your site as I have often done, I've always found that for the most part, U's fans have been welcoming, balanced in their opinions and knowledgeable. Tonight it's a bit of a meltdown.
WE Yellow - you and the others who traipsed up to Lancashire to watch your teams' performance have my utmost respect and sympathy - been there myself when the Wanderers have let me down on numerous occasions.
From our perspective, the Wanderers owed us that performance. Twelve games ago we were 2 points behind the leaders with 3 games in hand - prime position to storm the league - but our form inexplicably fell off a cliff. I say inexplicably, but that's not entirely true as we had a swathe of injuries and suspensions and a punishing schedule - but despite Evatt saying we had the strength in depth to cover it, we just couldn't readjust. We squandered our games in hand, Pompey pulled away and Derby overtook us whilst the rest closed the gap and the form guide for the last 10 games put us at 16th in the league. Coming into this game we were bricking it. We'd played well throughout the barren spell but couldn't convert our chances and got mugged week after week, conceding some comedically bad goals - akin to the second tonight but on a weekly basis, so we had plenty of reason to be worried.
Tonight it finally clicked for us. Maybe the players finally got the message that they were about to blow a superb start to the season? Maybe they actually heard the sort of criticisms about individuals players and the manager similar to those levelled at your team that appear on this site tonight? Or maybe they realised they are now in the last chance saloon as far as the automatics are concerned? Whatever the reason, they came out fully focused and for the first time in ages maintained it for the full game.
There is no doubt that you have some quality players - they just have to find a way for everyone to be on the same hymn sheet and that takes time - it certainly did for us.
Moreover, it could happen overnight as it has for us. I hope that the players and manager read the comments on here tonight. I hope they realise how much it means to the fans. I hope they remember that you're still in with a shout for the playoffs. And above all that they take it to heart and find a way to click as a team again to repay guys like you who spend a lot of money and take a lot of time to travel up and down the country to support them.
Sure we played well tonight, but you deserve a better performance than you got and we both know that the quality players you have can do better than they did.
All the best for the rest of the season. Maybe see you in the playoffs if your lads get it together and we don't beat Derby, Posh, Stevenage and Pompey.
Finally someone has said it. He’s been average at best all season.Brown has always been s**t, said it ages ago he’s not very good. People just didn’t want to hear it.
I dont think Bolton played well at all, that defeat was totally down to us being absolutely pathetic. You did the basics well and worked much harder than us even in first gear.Whenever you U's have been kind enough to let me visit your site as I have often done, I've always found that for the most part, U's fans have been welcoming, balanced in their opinions and knowledgeable. Tonight it's a bit of a meltdown.
WE Yellow - you and the others who traipsed up to Lancashire to watch your teams' performance have my utmost respect and sympathy - been there myself when the Wanderers have let me down on numerous occasions.
From our perspective, the Wanderers owed us that performance. Twelve games ago we were 2 points behind the leaders with 3 games in hand - prime position to storm the league - but our form inexplicably fell off a cliff. I say inexplicably, but that's not entirely true as we had a swathe of injuries and suspensions and a punishing schedule - but despite Evatt saying we had the strength in depth to cover it, we just couldn't readjust. We squandered our games in hand, Pompey pulled away and Derby overtook us whilst the rest closed the gap and the form guide for the last 10 games put us at 16th in the league. Coming into this game we were bricking it. We'd played well throughout the barren spell but couldn't convert our chances and got mugged week after week, conceding some comedically bad goals - akin to the second tonight but on a weekly basis, so we had plenty of reason to be worried.
Tonight it finally clicked for us. Maybe the players finally got the message that they were about to blow a superb start to the season? Maybe they actually heard the sort of criticisms about individuals players and the manager similar to those levelled at your team that appear on this site tonight? Or maybe they realised they are now in the last chance saloon as far as the automatics are concerned? Whatever the reason, they came out fully focused and for the first time in ages maintained it for the full game.
There is no doubt that you have some quality players - they just have to find a way for everyone to be on the same hymn sheet and that takes time - it certainly did for us.
Moreover, it could happen overnight as it has for us. I hope that the players and manager read the comments on here tonight. I hope they realise how much it means to the fans. I hope they remember that you're still in with a shout for the playoffs. And above all that they take it to heart and find a way to click as a team again to repay guys like you who spend a lot of money and take a lot of time to travel up and down the country to support them.
Sure we played well tonight, but you deserve a better performance than you got and we both know that the quality players you have can do better than they did.
All the best for the rest of the season. Maybe see you in the playoffs if your lads get it together and we don't beat Derby, Posh, Stevenage and Pompey.
Your assessment of our style is 100% as I see it. Over 20 games for Des and we seem to have one outlet, pass it to Murphy. Our midfield 3 were dominating the ball earlier in the season, now they are spectators. We rarely press and when we do there is no structure to it. We’ve replaced intricate passing in the oppositions half with aimless possession across the back 4. The destruction of all the good things we did in the first half of the season has been frightening to be honest. Des looks tactically clueless.What a shambles this season has become. Given our recent results I'd say our true position is probably about 18th - anyone above is likely to get somewhere between 1 - 3 points off us.
I think this is a rather large nail in the coffin for the dream of an Oxford born manager.
Been months and you don't see any patterns of play, structure in build up, fluidity, you can't even tell what the actual plan is. Is it just get it wide?
W must be the easiest team to defend against at the moment.
I'd argue we have 3 of the top 10 midfielders in league one. WE DON'T PLAY THROUGH MIDFIELD. They look like they've never been on a pitch together before. Even Robinson's teams, whilst they weren't overall successful, you'd know we'd probably win the battle in the middle of the park.
The frustration is unquantifiable at the moment. Might as well see it out to the end of the season, but I think we need to start planning for managerial replacements now.
He's been like that since end of October, gone from dominating games in the preceding 2 months back to the sideways and backwards slow passing of the previous couple of seasons.That he, McGuane , played the full 96 minutes says it all. No idea why he wasn’t hooked.
His ‘performance’ was distressingly bad. He literally couldn’t give a f**k.
Yes, we morphed from a s**t football team, into an actual steaming pile of dog s**t.We did change shape at half time.
He could be the dolly, he’d be good at thatAnd yet the same frauds who pretended to play for us tonight will be expecting clubs to want their services in the summer.
On tonight's showing, they won't even get in the Dog and Duck 2nd team next season.
Not even their Aunt Sally team.
Sat in Sandbach services refuelling for the remaining 2 hours drive home, god the things we do for our club.
Haven’t really read through what’s been said, but can’t imagine my feelings are much different to the majority. It was a disgusting performance from top to bottom, the initial setup was wrong IMO and the gaps between our midfielders was staggering, I can’t believe nothing changed after the first 15. Our full backs were way too narrow and the first goal proved it, second was an absolute omnishambles with both Leigh and Cumming making huge errors. Third goal, okay, that was unlucky, but where was the closing down? the urgency? Fourth goal, absolutely torn apart - probably the best goal we’ve conceded this season. Fifth goal, after the third you close down the edge of the box, but didn’t happen, felt like Cumming could have done better but haven’t seen it back, doubt I’ll ever bother checking. It is painfully obvious that we are STILL lacking in the positions for the last 5 or 6 seasons - a proper CDM, an authoritative CB and a right back. Matete isn’t the answer, he was never the man for any of those roles but there was ecstasy when he signed, anyone who had watched him for a sustained period would know he’s in the Mcguane mould. Panic signing. Brown is a loose cannon and unreliable against good teams. Moore needs legs beside him, not some league 1 codger who will only go downhill in his career from now. Long, the less said about him the better.
The thing that upsets me the most though is the final whistle, players stood joking with their Bolton counterparts, ambling over and barely looking apologetic. Dale looked royally fucked off but apart from that there didn’t look an ounce of hurt on the faces of the players, that ultimately is what the fans remember. Is it a mentality thing? Do we have leaders in our squad? Moore, Brannagan, Mcguane, Long, Brown, Bodin, Murphy - all part of our abysmal run last year, all part of abysmal runs in previous seasons, why does it keep happening? Why has Brannagan not left to go elsewhere? Does he believe he has it in him? We can see the ability, but would he rather stay where he has it easy? He seems to be the exception to most of the fanbase, but if anything he’s part of the problem. That’s a spine of players who look great with no expectation, but as soon as there’s a bit of pressure they crumble.
I want it to work for Des, I still think he needs time and proper support structure around him, but he simply won’t get it with these clowns in charge, and when the players give up on you it’s usually curtains. I don’t trust this board to even get another appointment right so for me he stays, but there’s so much unnecessary pressure (some self inflicted) on him to deliver a good start to next season.
Another point on the useless C***s that are slowly ripping the soul out of our club, and this is probably a hangover of last weeks fans forum, but how blindingly obvious is it that they save face as the bare minimum and do *nothing* else. It’s so reactive rather than proactive. Oh you think the communication isn’t good? Okay, don’t worry about that lads, we’ll sort it. Oh the support structure for a new manager is shambolic? Don’t worry lads, we paid a hefty release clause for Des, and gave him a brand new (injured) 400k striker who was mooted even before he got here! The assistant manager who Des wanted and had in the building decided to walk from the offer at the last minute? That was HIS personal issue, nothing to do with the fact we offered a basic contract and didn’t trust you were the right man.
I’m not angry as such, I’m just upset. I’m upset that these things keep happening to us, I’m upset these group of players aren’t good enough for what we want, I’m upset that we’ve got one of our own in charge and he hasn’t been supported enough. It shouldn’t come to this where we turn against him, but he will be the fall guy and we’ll rinse and repeat next season with a new manager, with the same core of players who have let us down so often. I’d absolutely love if Des showed a bit of fight and attitude, called people out, got the fans on his side and uses siege mentality to stabilise our season and have a bloody good go at it in the summer, with a whole new core of players who he wants. I don’t think he has it in him to do it though, I think he’s too nice and it’ll be him who’s out the door first when there’s dozens of people who should be gone before him.
It’s just upsetting.
Anyway, engine on, back down the M6. Night all
Christ, imagine being THAT bad. Time to go Des!Whatever you want to say about Robinson, Buckingham isn’t in his class as a manager.
Christ, imagine being THAT bad. Time to go Des!
Yeah but he’s a c**tThat’s a touch harsh. If you’re going to judge KR on those last months - when his professional life met his personal life head on - why not judge him on the previous 4 years or so ? Fans who dismiss him as some sort of crap manager, I think, are being a bit silly. There were plenty of times when we were genuinely superb to watch. He had the odd hammering - as you’d expect over 4 or 5 seasons - but I can’t recall as many as inept as last night and that includes those final, disastrous months.
I dont think Bolton played well at all, that defeat was totally down to us being absolutely pathetic. You did the basics well and worked much harder than us even in first gear.
Its no criticism of Bolton at all, but that was all on us tonight.
The proverbial men against boys.They ripped us a new one.
Yes, we were bloody awful, but they made that win look easy. I said last night that it felt as though they didn't have to get out of second gear, they made it look that easy.
That wasn’t a sign of a team not playing well.
We have played our fair share of poor teams and managed nothing like that in terms of performance.
Bolton looked very good last night and took full advantage of just how poor we were.