West Oxon U’s
Well-known member
- Joined
- 14 Dec 2017
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- 9,095
the football gods usually even things out. still doesn’t excuse that yesterday thoughAs I recall in the home game v the black cats last season,Eastwood was blatantly blocked off for their goal from a corner and the goal stood.
Unfortunately the standard of refereeing is poor at this level.It seems ironic that the best referees will be helped with VAR to come to the correct decision whereas we will have to put up with it for most of the season.
We can only hope that these poor decisions balance themselves out
After 1 game we're 12th in the league.League One Table - Football - BBC Sport
Find out which football teams are leading the pack or at the foot of the table in the League One on BBC Sportwww.bbc.co.uk
At the same stage last season we were 24th and finished the season in 12th.
So by my calculation, a similar 12 place improvement this season would see us finish .........1st.
We're gonna win the league!
Deja vu..........
Same as last season for much of the game....
The yellows came out of the traps determined to press high, be aggressive in the defence and keep the ball moving in the middle of the park...
The goal came after the home side defenders dilly and dallied with the ball in an area they shouldn’t be doing it howveryou could argue that we should and could have been 1-0 up before the goal came. The next 15 - 20 minutes after the goal was all Oxford and when Dickie slammed the ball into the back of the net with a bullet header from a corner it sent the 1100 or so Yellows fans absolutely crazy albeit only for about 10 seconds until it turned to heads in hands and hands on heads as fans were looking around to actually find out why the goal was disallowed.
It seemed to disrupt us as a team for the remainder of the first half as Sunderland seemed to have more of the ball without really doing much with it and when we did try and break away there was always a foot left in or a push on an Oxford player to break the play up and on the half time whistle the 2nd goal we so deserved did not come...
The 2nd half was all about one man, no it wasn’t Ben Woodburn, or any other yellows players, it wasn’t Karl Robinson, it wasn’t even any of the Sunderland players of any of their coaches, it was the shower of sh1t of a referee who lost the whole concept of the game with a string of bad decisions, bias, incompetence, lack of experience, not up to reffing a big crowd, who knows.. we can’t change it, he will certainly know by now if he has seen replays of the disallowed goal and the penalty incident that one if not both decisions were incorrect which cost us 3 valuable points on the road.
We all would have settled for a point earlier this week and two weeks ago it was more like keeping the score down as there was little activity from the club in attracting good players in time for the season opener.
So all in all, a long journey, proper home fans, a cracking stadium, the yellows were there in numbers and sang their hearts out and although early days it looks like we have the basis of a team on the pitch to be proud of....
Also we are 13 points above bottom place, which we didn't achieve until April last season!
Brave header by Dickie and as for Mackie I bet that goes on at every free kick and corner in every game this season.
Mackie always plays to the limits of the rules, and will block and harass the keeper but having seen that picture you'd have to say that it was the right decision to give the foul. But I would argue that he didn't need to do it as there was no stopping Dickie and he would have probably beat the keeper to the ball anyway.
The penalty was difficult as you could clearly see that the ball was played, but Ruffels was a bit clumsy in going to ground so easily. It gave the ref a decision to make as to whether the player was impeded before the ball was touched. Having already seen his bias we gave him that opportunity to get Sunderland back into it.
But aside from those two decisions, I thought that we still edged the game and gave Sunderland plenty to worry about. Fosu and Woodburn tired, but scared the hell out of Sunderland in the first 30 mins. Mackie did what Mackie does. He ran and hassled and gave others space. His awareness of blocking off the defender for Fosu's goal is something that only he really brings to the game. Along with Henry they made it an uncomfortable day for their defence. Gorrin and Brannagan look a real class apart, and the defence was immense. Eastwood made a couple of decent saves and never looked troubled, the penalty aside, Ruffels was solid, Cadden looked good and will trouble teams going forward, Mous was absolutely solid and led the defence well, but top marks to Dickie who has really stepped up and looks a natural leader who I would give the captains arm band to when Moore eventually replaces Mous.
It's amazing how much can change within a week, but after losing Whyte last weekend and the fears of replicating last seasons start, to a real belief that we can really challenge in this league. And we've still got Moore to come in, Woodburn to get sharp, Hall and Mackie to get to full fitness, Forde to come in, and the potential for 3 more players including a striker or 2!!!
The future's bright - the future is yellow!!!
PS. I told you not to worry!!! ?
What did you think of the performance/result?One result, a draw, has demonstrated our mastery, I see.
I’ve already posted my thoughts.What did you think of the performance/result?