Away Match Day Thread 02/01/2021 L1 Burton Albion v OUFC

[Dubai Yellow]

Happy New Year everyone!

Watched it yesterday and like many have said you can only beat what's in front of you. Burton weren't great but we've lost to worse teams this season!.

An all round excellent display from where i was sitting. If we can keep the team together and bring in a couple of good players, surely we will be pushing hard again this season.

 

[unification]

They need several League 1 ready replacements in this window to stand any real chance. Dino Maamaria will earn his corn because he is the guy with the up to date knowledge of the league.

I don’t think many of the usual commentators had Burton outside the relegation zone when they made their predictions. Losing Clough, having to cut their cloth differently due to the pandemic and trying to get things moving again with an ageing squad, keeping them up in League 1 would have always been a difficult job. I would have predicted they would have been one of the four to go down when the season began too. I think their owners need to acknowledge that next season is very likely going to be in League 2. By all means aim to prevent it happening, but don’t go throwing good money after bad in trying to prevent it if it isn’t going that way.

They faced us at a horrible time. Our tails are up and we’re now going through one of KR’s characteristic good runs that can snowball (appropriate idiom for this time of year) to a series of wins. I don’t think we would have been able to perform as well as that nor garner the kind of result we got yesterday if that had been the fifth or sixth game of the season.

 

[Pillox]

Fabulous result and we played well. Burton's experiment with playing a hologram in goal failed miserably.

 

[Gregortheox]

PLAYER RATINGS.

Stevens 9. What a keeper
Long 10 MOTM. Everywhere
Moore 9 Leading again
Atkinson 9 Unlucky for the goal
Ruffels 9 2 fantastic goals
Gorrin 8 Lost Quinn for the goal
Forde 7 Solid but Brannagan’s back
McGuane 9 What a talent
Henry 9 Superb bar a sitter miss
Taylor 8 Great goal, quiet after
Shodipo 9 Some performance

I think this is a bit much ^^^^^...

Stevens 7 - dominated his area
Long 9 - Best player on the park, instrumental
Moore 7 - solid performance
Atkinson 7 - Assured game
Ruffels 8.5 - Great impact for 90mins +
Gorrin 7 - kept us ticking in the centre. In control.
Forde 7 - Looked decent.
Mcguane 8.5 - magical moments
Henry 7 - showed some quality throughout
Taylor 7 - Well taken goal, linked things up top.
Shodipo 8.5 - got us in some great positions. 2 super goals.

 

[Peterdev]

Long gets the vote for his part in three goals.
Stevens looks like keeping Eastwood out for the foreseeable.
The best part is that KR has a full squad to choose from and May now add to it soon

 

[Orkney Islands Yellow]

Great win yesterday, hoping this is the start of a record breaking run to promotion! Barnsley did it a few seasons ago so hopefully Winnall will bring us the luck and firm he had with them then.

I'd like to wish Burton well so they overhaul the scum and put them bottom!!

 

[spmox]

Imagine if we learnt how to start seasons well!

Really good point. And it showed when we had the break before the play-offs.
It takes a few games to to get into a rhythm of quick movement and fast passing - and fast pressing as a unit. Bit easier for teams who just aim to get the ball from front to back asap.
Ten not five pre-season friendlies in future?? (Appreciate that this is not practicable!)

 

[spmox]

Really good point. And it showed when we had the break before the play-offs.
It takes a few games to to get into a rhythm of quick movement and fast passing - and fast pressing as a unit. Bit easier for teams who just aim to get the ball from front to back asap.
Ten not five pre-season friendlies in future?? (Appreciate that this is not practicable!)

Or even back to front!

 

[behindthegoal]

Which table is correct?

Ox mail put us 13th
BBC, 12th
Blackpool have played an extra game in Ox mail table

 

[Johnox37en]

Does it matter, we are heading North.

 

[Sarge]

Which table is correct?

Ox mail put us 13th
BBC, 12th
Blackpool have played an extra game in Ox mail table

Quest had us also in 12th place in L1

 

[OxfordNondie]

And saw quite a bit of the ball, but lost it every time. Some would be hounding Clare out the club for less.

Anyway, playoffs in sight now .

Hall - KR's Achilles Heel

There is no obvoius reason why he is included in any match day squad. Even on yesterdays show where for those 10 minutes showed no pace - lost the ball x times - mispassed twice - against a side already beaten into submission.

Whist never a fan of Clare at full back but in his best position as a wing back has shown sides that he should even be in the squad in front of Henry.

Feel slightly for Clare - but Hall if not moved on in Jan must be taken out of any playing events.

 

[Golden Dr Otto]

What were our odds on promotion four weeks ago?

I was just looking at the table and was surprised how close we still are to the automatics. If we’d beaten Swindon it’d just be 6 points.

I’m still to be convinced by the current runs legs as our record is brilliant against the bottom half but epically poor against the top half. And we are very much a streaky confidence / no confidence outfit under KR depending on the month.

...but it’s nice to dream especially with Brannagan and Winnall and a cheeky little transfer window incoming

 

[Bath Yellow]

12th. 28pts 20 played. Blackpool 13th. 27pts 20 played

 

[OxfordNondie]

time to get the reality check in

On a good run but some warning thoughts

Ruffels whilst scored 2 yesterday - to me his defending his primary role - is still very poor. Any good winger seems to have his measure
Centre Halfs - any injury to either would leave us struggling to cover
Midfield ok - if we can repeat the second halves as per Northampton games - would be great
Henry and Kelly - playing based on their historical feats - to me days are numbered and need replacing
Taylor - goal scorer of class but stop fouling man !!
Pace - where - distinct lack of

KR solve these thoughts and we have a promotion winning side - and yes this year

 

[Eaststanding]

time to get the reality check in

On a good run but some warning thoughts

Ruffels whilst scored 2 yesterday - to me his defending his primary role - is still very poor. Any good winger seems to have his measure
Centre Halfs - any injury to either would leave us struggling to cover
Midfield ok - if we can repeat the second halves as per Northampton games - would be great
Henry and Kelly - playing based on their historical feats - to me days are numbered and need replacing
Taylor - goal scorer of class but stop fouling man !!
Pace - where - distinct lack of

KR solve these thoughts and we have a promotion winning side - and yes this year

Henry is far from done; he’s been playing like an average league one player but just recently he’s started playing like the excellent league one player he was last season.
McGuane has massively improved and has the potential to create chances in the same way that Baptiste did, he needs to work on closing down though; at Plymouth he didn’t pick up the runner who scored, and yesterday he didn’t close down the shot that hit the post and from which Hemings scored. Improve his defensive sharpness and he’ll really be a player to watch.
The perennial clamour for pace to be added to this squad seems a little redundant if they can score 5, and should have been more, without pace. I can’t recall many , if any teams we’ve played so far that have obvious pace in their teams?

 

[werthersoriginal]

Henry is far from done; he’s been playing like an average league one player but just recently he’s started playing like the excellent league one player he was last season.
McGuane has massively improved and has the potential to create chances in the same way that Baptiste did, he needs to work on closing down though; at Plymouth he didn’t pick up the runner who scored, and yesterday he didn’t close down the shot that hit the post and from which Hemings scored. Improve his defensive sharpness and he’ll really be a player to watch.
The perennial clamour for pace to be added to this squad seems a little redundant if they can score 5, and should have been more, without pace. I can’t recall many , if any teams we’ve played so far that have obvious pace in their teams?

We look so dangerous when we get the ball on the edge of our area and start to pass it forward, all moving together! The ball is doing the work, not a little chap running fast. But a speedy forward is a great outlet and plan B for when the smooth passing isn’t working so well.

 

[Pillox]

The perennial clamour for pace to be added to this squad seems a little redundant if they can score 5, and should have been more, without pace. I can’t recall many , if any teams we’ve played so far that have obvious pace in their teams?

Burton shipped 4 at home to Wigan in the match before, you can only beat what's in front of you and we did that very well but it doesn't mean we are world beaters.

Pace is crucial in the modern game, if for no other reason than it means the opponent cannot defend high and leave space behind. And this in turn means your players who don't have pace have space to do what they do.

 

[UTM]

Was a great win , but we shouldn’t fool ourselves Burton are very , very poor and going on this game, have no chance of staying up . But 4 wins on the bounce ,great .

 

[ZeroTheHero]

Was a great win , but we shouldn’t fool ourselves Burton are very , very poor and going on this game, have no chance of staying up . But 4 wins on the bounce ,great .

That's fine. The first (and to my mind, main) thing to ensure this odd season is that we are still in L1 at the end of it. So far, it looks like Burton, Swindon and Wigan are the ones you'd have your money on plus one other. We are (now) quite a lot better than many of those 'others', so as long as standards don't slip we will be OK. I think we are probably going to end up as an upper mid-table team with a shot at the playoffs - injuries and signings permitting.