Very impressed by that performance. I would like to pour bucket loads of praise on the team tonight. It might be true that Burton are going through a tough time but we ourselves have been a shambles until recently. I don't want to detract from OUFC in any way.
First and foremost - we've completely changed as a team. We are playing proper football now with a mix of high speed, high quality direct play, short passes when needed, and a far more aggressive press in our retrieval of the ball. We are now unpredictable, savvy, and extremely difficult to play against. long may it continue.
Where do I start in my praise of the players? We looked mentally shot only a few weeks ago. Today, f*****g nails. I will mention who I consider as key performers tonight (although I would like to make clear that I thought no one had a bad night).
Stevens dominating his area seems to have settled the defence down. Now our centre backs can concentrate on kicking and heading the ball away from danger, with the odd marauding run from RA of course.
Our full backs - superb. I have been critical of Long and Ruffels (with some justification imo), but today, between them they were the two players who impacted the game the most. I don't know whether they have seen a new car or two pull up at the training ground but by christ how the hell can you take a starting place off of these two right now? Long has made some dramatic improvements physically, and is overlapping for fun at the moment. His delivery looks decent too. This was an area that Cadden needed to improve on. Josh Ruffels looks wide awake in his play, assisted Taylor, and put himself in the kind of positions that winners put themselves in. Was delighted for his two goals - great tekkers for his first. Big respect from me!
McGuane - goodness me, he is turning in to a beast. I hope he can keep this going because with the right motivation and players around him he can be virtually unplayable. Has that bit of stardust to take a player out of the equation and provide the team with regular overload situations. I agree with KR - McGuane can decide what he wants to do in football. I hope he cracks on in 2021 and really makes his mark.
Lastly Shodipo is a fancy Dan and that irritates me...unless you have end product like he did today. Today, Shodipo showed some great qualities. I hope he carves out a good career by being consistent in the way he impacts games of football. After his latest performance Im hopeful he can do that.
