Home Match Day Thread 19/04/2024: L1 - OUFC v Stevenage

Obstructed view said:

Sun is shining and who knows we might already have enough points Blackpool lose, Lincoln draw and then lose at pompey. 3 consecutive away games is a tough way to finish the season

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Cheltenham will not get a result from Lincoln.
Believe me, I’ve seen enough of them this season. They’re pretty awful.

Obstructed view said:

Sun is shining and who knows we might already have enough points Blackpool lose, Lincoln draw and then lose at pompey. 3 consecutive away games is a tough way to finish the season

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Lincoln are at home against Pompey.

We’re almost good aren’t we, effective against footballing sides but a bit predictable and easy to stop for the tougher teams. We could really have done with Goodwin or (whisper) Matty Taylor or Kane Hemmings as an option,our striker isn’t a poacher or an imposing physical presence.

Also - those predictions of a routine win!! Have they not been watching us long?

holdsteady said:

Do the team who are second at the end of November always go up automatically?

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No. But I would wager they usually make the play offs.

Des has not done "brilliantly" to keep us in a play-off hunt. That's a gross re-writing of history.

Frustrating. To play ok but drop two crucial points against a team who had zero shots on target is an outlier.

Having said that last night's game was a great example of where we're at as a team. Classic 433 attacking formation with two out and out wingers but without the personnel or depth to adapt when the opposition sets up to frustrate us. With Stevenage giving up two (sometimes three) men to nullify Murphy and Browne we *should* have had a world of opportunity to build from the back and control the centre. We didn't. The game was, yet again, a midfield failure.

I can completely understand why Des turned to Henry and Bodin to try and bring some discipline and shape to things. Goodrham had been playing his role really well all night and barely received a single useful ball from teammates so was frustrated and making daft fouls every couple of minutes. Ruben was doing what Ruben does: wandering around the place looking to get involved but without any shape around him becoming a liability. I'm sure Des would have preferred to have other younger versions of Jamo and Billie but he doesn't.

We had 26 shots last night. Nearly all of them were speculative. A large proportion started with us bipassing midfield and spraying long range diagonals to one of the wingers who then had to manufacture a worldie or wait for the rest to push up. On top of that every time a full back picked up the ball they were faced with either a backward option or a speculative and demonstrably ineffective clip up the wing because no outball in the middle. That then led to our wingers dropping back to find some space and become the outball. A domino effect and we turned back into the team that was struggling so badly up until the Bolton wake up call.

Whatever happens in the next week the summer will need a major reshape to become the team we want to be.

In the meantime let's keep the faith.

Cam Brans shooting and set pieces are a disaster. Always. He really should be given the iron fist on all that except penalties where he’s superb . He’s like a pressure relief valve for the opposition

OX14 said:

Lincoln are at home against Pompey.

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Pompey are on the beach

I wonder if Pompey will end the season in style and reach 100 points I bloody hope so

We have a couple of old boys in the Cheltenham team ( Taylor and sercombe) let's hope they help us out today

I think Barnsley are the team going to miss out on the play offs they have hit a real horrible period and can't buy a win ( watch them win today now )

On us I think 3 games in 6 days was to much we've had players running on empty in the end and what can you expect when we don't have enough quality to replace certain players . If we miss out on the play offs we'll the season has been fun lots of ups and downs it's the Oufc rollercoaster strap in lads and lasses

Are we guaranteed a playoff place if both Lincoln and Blackpool lose today or do we still need a point at Exeter in that scenario?

Made-in-Jericho said:

Are we guaranteed a playoff place if both Lincoln and Blackpool lose today or do we still need a point at Exeter in that scenario?

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Still need a point as Lincoln could catch us with one game left and have a better GD currently.

Followtheox1 said:

Let's hope Blackpool beat Barnsley and keep Barnsley in the mix

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Blackpool lose and they cant catch us.

Theox07 said:

Leigh was dreadful had so much space and kept passing backwards

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He had no one to pass to as we had basically zero movement.

Let's hope for a Blackpool draw

Having had time to gather my thoughts and read the comments on here:

I actually think the Lincoln game was more disappointing than last night.

All we had to do against Lincoln was not lose. That’s all we had to do. At home. Against a team whose form had stumbled. But we couldn’t take simple chances or score a single goal against them. It simply wasn’t good enough.

Last night, we absolutely battered Stevenage, had a ridiculous ref who didn’t protect our players and on any other night with a bit of luck would have won. I’m not annoyed about last night because we did almost everything right and deserved to win. If we’d got the draw against Lincoln that we should have we’d be sitting pretty, but we messed that one up royally.

My only gripe with Des last night is that you just do not start both Harris and Browne, as it gives you no option of changing your striker. If a fresh and raring to go Browne had come on up front to replace Harris on the 60th minute (or start Browne and bring Harris on) then we would have looked much more dangerous.

Actually my other, bigger gripe with him is the whole Tyler Burey situation. We’re screaming out for fresh wingers and every time he played he looked sharp and dangerous. Unless he physically assaulted someone/something of that severity, you really can’t patch up your differences with him and put him on the bench for the last three games of the season?

Finally, all the 7/10 ratings for Murphy - he wasn’t at his best but he beat his man with ease and put it on a plate twice, one for Rodrigues and once for Harris at the end. He could have expected at least one of them to hit the target. I’d give him an 8/10 and a clear MOTM. The five people who think that Cumming, Long, Leigh, Stevens or Henry were better than him must be on a wind up…

TailsWeWin said:

Cheltenham will not get a result from Lincoln.
Believe me, I’ve seen enough of them this season. They’re pretty awful.

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I agree it’s a tall order today for Cheltenham Town but Darrell Clarke will make sure they sweat blood against Lincoln.

Cheltenham did beat Portsmouth at home in January so you never know.

oufc1991 said:

I wonder if Pompey will end the season in style and reach 100 points I bloody hope so

We have a couple of old boys in the Cheltenham team ( Taylor and sercombe) let's hope they help us out today

I think Barnsley are the team going to miss out on the play offs they have hit a real horrible period and can't buy a win ( watch them win today now )

On us I think 3 games in 6 days was to much we've had players running on empty in the end and what can you expect when we don't have enough quality to replace certain players . If we miss out on the play offs we'll the season has been fun lots of ups and downs it's the Oufc rollercoaster strap in lads and lasses

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This is the crux unfortunately. January needed us to bring in capable midfield, wide and forward options. Bar Dale, we took huge punts, and have got our just desserts. A recurring theme for us season after season, we really do need to get a grip when it comes to the January window.

Leysboy said:

Get your head out of the sand. Admit it, we were crap. We go on a run 4-0 Fleetwood. 4-0 Burton, 5-0 Posh. Then two home games against mediocre opposition, rather than instead of buzzing, and playing with confidence. They all s**t the bed.

They’ve bottled it, and we’ve missed our chance.

Now we have to rely on others helping us out, when we should be doing the business ourselves.

Again they s**t the bed.!

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Harsh comments but i get where you are coming from. Against a terrible Stevenage team that seemed to be on the beach already in a must win game, we draw 1-1.Disappointed that we seemed to lack the desire to basically die trying to get a win, a win that meant everything to us.

The reality is though, is that Peterborough were the only top 12 team that we beat at home which suggests to me that we are simply not good enough when we have to force it. Away teams if they are organised can keep us out. A couple of enforcer type midfielder’s are needed more than anything in my opinion so we can dominate midfield.

MiddleBartonYellow said:

The reality is though, is that Peterborough were the only top 12 team that we beat at home which suggests to me that we are simply not good enough when we have to force it. Away teams if they are organised can keep us out. A couple of enforcer type midfielder’s are needed more than anything in my opinion so we can dominate midfield.

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Would that have helped us against Stevenage though?

A striker who could head the ball and win aerial duels could have won it for us…

Des will obviously know a lot more about tactics than me, but for me the problem (or at least one of them) seems fairly obvious.

Because we don't have a target man, the back four are forced to look wide for passes, if the opposition press and cut off options, we end up going backwards (much to the frustration of our own support)

Goodwin was clearly brought in to provide this, but so far has been yet another crock. But if we had that sort of player through the middle, the back four would have another option and we wouldn't be as predictable.

Another benefit would be we would pose more threat from crosses (and we have the talent out wide to deliver high quality balls into the box)