Home Match Day Thread 04/11/2025 - MDT: Oxford United V Stoke City

[Carpy]

 

[Bazoufc]

Maybe we shouldn't have committed 30k per week on a CB journeyman who doesn't even play. That could have got us a decent midfielder surely.

if we didnt have him, we'd all be bemoaning the lack of depth at CB

 

[Bretch Hill]

I don’t think the style of football is a big problem. We had chances last night to go ahead and who knows what happens then. We had plenty of games last season where we did not look like scoring. This season we are just not finishing. Not easy chances but chances nonetheless.

Well on to Saturday then let’s hope for an all round better team performance and they take the chances. I guess my frustration at last nights game have really made me feel a bit more negative than I should be.

 

[werthersoriginal]

I came back from years away last season and stayed this season. I am trying to be an Oxford fan again but it is not the life and death it used to be for me.

I left on 62 minutes not long after we stuck a simple chance over the bar. Sometimes you know you are going to get beat and I just decided I had had enough medicine for the day.

I think next time I may just watch the CL with our game on Sky+ at the same time which is what I am sure a lot of people did last night looking at the empty seats in the East and North stands.

It's up to you, I'm not seriously going to slag someone off for not going to what is basically a leisure activity. I'm just a whole lot more interested in OUFC than the CL or any other competition. Plus my mates would take the p**s if I sloped off.

 

[ECYellow]

I'm an exile and always park in Grenoble Road but parking in Blackburd Leys would be an option only I don't know where to park, so any advice would be much appreciated, thanks.

There is parking along the following roads in Blackbird Leys that i know of:

Cuddesdon Way
Blackbird Leys Rd
Balfour Rd
Merlin Rd

Alternatively, you can park outside the Golden Ball (College Lane) in Littlemore or on the Cowley Road which abuts College Lane. Also, Littlemore British Legion allow fans to park there too, but you'd be encouraged to go and have a drink in there beforehand, obviously.

I hope that helps.

 

[SSO]

It's up to you, I'm not seriously going to slag someone off for not going to what is basically a leisure activity. I'm just a whole lot more interested in OUFC than the CL or any other competition. Plus my mates would take the p**s if I sloped off.

LOL believe me as you get older things will p**s you off more than they used to. Back in the day at The Manor I think I left early twice and one of those was when we got tonked 5-1 by Reading in the league cup. As you say it is a leisure activity we pay for and I wasn’t feeling that leisure last night.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

I'll admit that I left on about 80 mins last night, I don't normally do that and I stay until the bitter end. But I've got a 90+ mins drive home and didn't fancy being stuck in the car park and/or on Grenoble road for 30+ minutes before I could even make a dent in that.

We *might* have scored three goals in that 10-15 minutes and then I'd have felt like a right numpty, but the chances were not high!

 

[Osleroad]

And we've suddenly stopped looking solid at the back - we're letting in so many silly goals.

Maybe we need to bring Ben Davies in for s bit though Brown if we were to still use him might be too slow as a back now.

 

[Coffin Dodger]

To be fair, our defenders were just as bad. If their second goal hadn't gone in, it should have been a penalty. Cam literally threw their attacker to the floor. Our defenders were at it all night from corners.

I spotted that too.

 

[Essexyellows]

Bit weird watching a 0-3 defeat and not thinking we got battered.
We had chances as did they, they scored, we didn`t .
Seemed a very different Stoke from last season, seemed bigger, stronger and sharper than us.

Onwards and upwards.

 

[MarkG]

There were never 10,300 in that ground last night.

You’ll get the usual suspects using the same old excuses - traffic, roadworks, stadium & parking. Yet, none of this is new.

If you don’t want to sit in traffic on Grenoble Road or in the car park to get out after the game, then park in Blackbird Leys or Littlemore and walk through. If you aren’t particularly mobile, then arrange to get one of the dedicated football special buses to the ground, the ones that drop you outside. They pick up from various points across Oxfordshire.

If you don’t particularly like the stadium, then that is understandable, but if you’ve been supporting us throughout our time at the Kass then you cannot tell me it’s any worse now that we are in the Champ than when we were watching dross on a Tuesday night in tiers 4 and 5! Just get on with it and support YOUR team, my god they need every one of us.

Mark my words, if it were a big FA Cup game, people will have battled through their excuses to get there.

The club cannot allow a malaise to set in, where it is normalised to see empty seats at home games this season. Hopefully they are all over this for Ipswich (Friday night - end of the working week, Friday traffic and before pay day for some).

Siege mentality is required on and off the pitch and to create that we need our house full to bursting and noisy.

Who said there were 10,300 (or even 10,362) at the game last night?
That's not how published attendances work. It includes 7200 (I think) season ticket holders whether they attend or not, or if they are resold on the exchange. With the away fans taken off, it leaves an official home attendance of 8966.

The diaspora of Oxford United fans who no longer live within say 50 miles of the ground is significant, and so Tuesday and Friday nights are going to be the games you miss. The point has been made before but many ST holders get their ST to both support the club financially and to guarantee a seat for games they don't want to miss.

Also the box and restaurant packages are likely to be less attractive as you are also trying to get a box holder to drag along people on a Tuesday night.

If I read @Colin B numbers from MIllwall. 280 people put their ticket up for exchange and roughly 1/3 (95) ended up being sold. I don't know how many might have put their ticket up for Stoke, probably a lot more, but I don't think a lot would have sold as they tend to be single seats, and "better" views from the South Stand are available on general sale.

 

[The Mighty Aldo]

Maybe we shouldn't have committed 30k per week on a CB journeyman who doesn't even play. That could have got us a decent midfielder surely.

In my opinion Davies should be playing and Brown moved to left back whilst Currie is sidelined. He is far more comfortable bringing the ball out of defence than Helik, Long or Brown.
Gives us more options

 

[Kamal]

I left on the 47th minute (or whenever the third went in).

 

[carefreeoufc]

In my opinion Davies should be playing and Brown moved to left back whilst Currie is sidelined. He is far more comfortable bringing the ball out of defence than Helik, Long or Brown.
Gives us more options

I wouldn't be disappointed to see Brown, Davies, Helik and Ter Avest as a back four or even Long in there for Helik on Saturday (assuming Ter Avest is fit). Walking back from the game last night I said to a friend that I'd been dissapointed with Helik a little of late. You can forgive some of the defensive performance if he's popped up with a goal or two, but we're still waiting for that.

 

[uptheus]

Something I noticed on my way to football last night on the Sandford road they had traffic cones all the way from the junction with Grenoble Road to almost the A4074 and on match day there has always been parking along there for those who can walk to the ground. A bit naughty for whoever was responsible.

They’ve been doing that for the last few games, meaning people either walking back to their cars or just walking along that side of the road are more at risk of being hit as the brain dead traffic management company think blocking off a lane is better!!

Also, making vehicles who park in the science park go back towards the stadium roundabout where the majority of vehicles are trying to exit, thus making it more difficult for them to get out isn’t very clever either. Thick as s**t. Talking of s**t, the sewage works smell is f*****g horrendous!

 

[greatunclekip]

I think people thought in the summer that we may be able to do better than Matos, not do without anyone at all which is what happened!

That happens to us a lot!

 

[Oufcrealist]

For me, we were utterly outclassed, whilst being pretty pathetic (I don't buy this we played well but each to their own). We weren't much better versus Millwall but all realism pops out the window when you score a 96th minute equaliser. We were equally as poor at Wrexham for long spells.

It's OK to call that out. I am one of the most positive people in the stand, I am a big GR fan and like the style to an extent in terms of what we're trying to achieve but last night stank. He needs to get a grip of the situation.

Stan Mills is a liability both defending and out of possession. In fact, too many stood still watching and now the malaise has started to creep into Jamie's game - why is he parrying shots into dangerous areas (whilst his defence are second to react). Two really poor goals from Jamie recently before you look at Watford. He's our best keeper by a mile, yet he has no competition whatsoever.

We have got to a stage where the squad looks fractious. The bench look like they want to leave because they're not getting chances. Tom Bradshaw posting his Millwall goals reel on his Instagram looks to be a dig. Big changes needed in January.

And bringing on Sibley - do me a favour - that was for the benefit of Erick T who was sat there - with GR discreetly making his point about his squad.

Very good post. On Sibley though, he has played at left back for Derby a number of times. GR wouldn't be thinking about giving him a go there if Currie is out would he? I don't think GR has a lot of faith in Leigh. I'd move Brown there and bring Davis in personally.

 

[TailsWeWin]

Who said there were 10,300 (or even 10,362) at the game last night?
That's not how published attendances work. It includes 7200 (I think) season ticket holders whether they attend or not, or if they are resold on the exchange. With the away fans taken off, it leaves an official home attendance of 8966.

The diaspora of Oxford United fans who no longer live within say 50 miles of the ground is significant, and so Tuesday and Friday nights are going to be the games you miss. The point has been made before but many ST holders get their ST to both support the club financially and to guarantee a seat for games they don't want to miss.

Also the box and restaurant packages are likely to be less attractive as you are also trying to get a box holder to drag along people on a Tuesday night.

If I read @Colin B numbers from MIllwall. 280 people put their ticket up for exchange and roughly 1/3 (95) ended up being sold. I don't know how many might have put their ticket up for Stoke, probably a lot more, but I don't think a lot would have sold as they tend to be single seats, and "better" views from the South Stand are available on general sale.

Yes; some people continue to think we all live a comfortable 20 minutes walk from the Kassam.
I’m lucky enough to be able to attend Tuesday night matches (and those like Wrexham away) because I’m retired and I have a car. Credit to those who make their way to matches via several trains and buses. But I don’t like this “why can’t you get off your sofa and get to the match” superior attitude.

You pays yer (season ticket) money, and you takes yer choice.

 

[werthersoriginal]

Yes; some people continue to think we all live a comfortable 20 minutes walk from the Kassam.
I’m lucky enough to be able to attend Tuesday night matches (and those like Wrexham away) because I’m retired and I have a car. Credit to those who make their way to matches via several trains and buses. But I don’t like this “why can’t you get off your sofa and get to the match” superior attitude.

You pays yer (season ticket) money, and you takes yer choice.

Yes I agree with you. The point I was trying to make earlier (not very well) was that we need more local fans.

 

[PottersRightBoot]

Coming in from Surrey last nights traffic and parking was pretty painful.And that was ‘off car park’, which I very rarely frequent these days.

Yes , I know , 3-0 gubbing, but still didn’t mind the game, the overall quality of football on display is about 8 times what we got in the Robbo era eg. Stoke were well worth watching -and come on, we definitely had our moments as well. Eg lovely effort by Mills just before the killer third.

Have said it before and will say it again, crowds are being badly affected by Sky Plus weeknight
programme.

 

[m]

I left on the 47th minute (or whenever the third went in).

I have reduced your 'trufan' score to 38% in the league table.

We're not angry, we're disappointed.

 

[SSO]

I left on the 47th minute (or whenever the third went in).

I was going to do that but remembered the 4-3 v Ipswich attacking the London Road second half. We were 2-0 down at HT had a chance early in 2nd half then they scored to make it 3-0 pretty much like last night.

 

[tonyw]

A good Stoke team against a very average Oxford side.

In those sort of games you need to be clinical if you are to get anything out of them.

Something that we certainly are not.

I said it earlier on the thread, but we had 28 touches in the Stoke box last night - which I believe is the most we've had in any game since we got back into the Championship.

To have the ball in the box that many times, but only manage to hit the target once all game (and from a mis-hit cross at that) illustrates very clearly what our problem is going forwards. We've got forwards with good movement, good strength and speed and the ability to carry the football (moreso than we did last year) - but our forwards' decision making and shooting is collectively poor. Nowhere near Championship standard. Frankly the only player we have in whom I have any confidence that they're actually going to hit the target when presented with a chance is Cam.

 

[MarkG]

@admin it’s not a MDT

 

[ECYellow]

Who said there were 10,300 (or even 10,362) at the game last night?
That's not how published attendances work. It includes 7200 (I think) season ticket holders whether they attend or not, or if they are resold on the exchange. With the away fans taken off, it leaves an official home attendance of 8966.

The diaspora of Oxford United fans who no longer live within say 50 miles of the ground is significant, and so Tuesday and Friday nights are going to be the games you miss. The point has been made before but many ST holders get their ST to both support the club financially and to guarantee a seat for games they don't want to miss.

Also the box and restaurant packages are likely to be less attractive as you are also trying to get a box holder to drag along people on a Tuesday night.

If I read @Colin B numbers from MIllwall. 280 people put their ticket up for exchange and roughly 1/3 (95) ended up being sold. I don't know how many might have put their ticket up for Stoke, probably a lot more, but I don't think a lot would have sold as they tend to be single seats, and "better" views from the South Stand are available on general sale.

I’m fully aware of how attendances are published.

It was more a point to how the published figure differs significantly compared to bums on seats.

Interestingly, do you think we have a higher number of supporters that travel more than 50 miles to games than other Championship teams?

Hopefully the club are keeping track of those ST holders that do attend vs those that do not, and if we are in the fortunate position to have a high number of fans wanting ST’e next year (entirely league dependent, no doubt!) then perhaps a more informed purchasing criteria can be found in advance, and people that will actually go to games will have the opportunity to purchase a ST which is at a significantly cheaper cost vs buying game by game - as those people without a ST have to do at the moment.

It’s not a dig at anyone, but we need to somehow have the ground full when the players are ready to start. Personally, It felt demoralising last night seeing so many empty seats and a very flat first half atmosphere.

 

[MarkG]

I’m fully aware of how attendances are published.

It was more a point to how the published figure differs significantly compared to bums on seats.

Interestingly, do you think we have a higher number of supporters that travel more than 50 miles to games than other Championship teams?

Hopefully the club are keeping track of those ST holders that do attend vs those that do not, and if we are in the fortunate position to have a high number of fans wanting ST’e next year (entirely league dependent, no doubt!) then perhaps a more informed purchasing criteria can be found in advance, and people that will actually go to games will have the opportunity to purchase a ST which is at a significantly cheaper cost vs buying game by game - as those people without a ST have to do at the moment.

It’s not a dig at anyone, but we need to somehow have the ground full when the players are ready to start. Personally, It felt demoralising last night seeing so many empty seats and a very flat first half atmosphere.

As to your first point I think the answer is yes.
In the Chanpionship we still take several hundred to midweek games like Preston and Hull and Burnley last season.

So those are fans travelling from the North and even Scotland I’ve seen to northern games

we aren’t near enough selling out home games to bring in some “use your ticket or lose it” scheme.

The excellent dot counters show that there are hundreds of tickets with weeks to go , rather than sold out.

 

[MiddleBartonYellow]

I never go to midweek games, mainly because it’s too much of a hassle getting home from work and then rushing to get up there. I’m almost about to retire so once I do I may start going again but as games are always live it’s too easy to just sit in the chair and watch it.

 

[JOHN BOY]

I left on the 47th minute (or whenever the third went in).

That's the spirit.

 

[Oxford84]

Yep and that was my cue to leave about 30 mins early. Wow do you know how quiet the roads are then?

Totally outplayed at the back and didn’t take our chances up front which were there from the first minute. So many mistakes all round the pitch but we had enough chances to stay in the game without necessarily playing well.

The chance just before HT to go in undeservedly 1-2 just had to be taken. That goes in and you have the chance to get something second half.

Missed grandsons birthday tea and watching CL for that on a foul night. Might think twice next time.

f*****g champions league!

 

[Oxford84]

Birmingham fans were singing the exact same thing earlier in the season as well!

I'm sensing a theme

When have Stoke and Millwall ever played anything but s**t football for the last 30 years??

 

[Mad Dog]

When have Stoke and Millwall ever played anything but s**t football for the last 30 years??

Exactly, so for them to say Rowett's football is s**t...