Home Match Day Thread 07/10/2023 L1: OUFC v Bristol Rovers

[Golden Dr Otto]

Joey Barton reminds me a lot of Karl Robinson. His pre and post-match interviews were very rambly and odd. Flapping around like a hysterical, high-pitched loon on the touchline. A team featuring fragile, ageing star players who are the ‘best in the league’ and ‘you’ll see why we signed them’ if they could just play 90 minutes. Lots of deflection on any possible criticisms after the game. Unsurprisingly given his history, he’s a very dislikeable character!

Wearing his stone island and prancing around on the touchline, along with that interview, he struck me as being a bit basic and like the fan you don’t want to end up next to on the terrace

 

[oufc1991]

Joey Barton for me he's a pound shop Steve Evans the difference with Steve Evans is away from a technical area apparently he's a fairly decent chap where as Barton is a thug

 

[Osei Yaw]

It was 5-0. Wright and Creighton went. I fell asleep in the car on the way back and my chewing gum had fallen out of my mouth and into my hand. A f*****g shitshow of a day.

But surely it's better that it fell into your hand rather than down the back of your throat and you start choking?

You need to take the positives out of the situation.

 

[MJB]

I think we still have a few options. Across the front 3 we could still employ Harris, Goodram, Murphy, God, Leigh, Bodin and Ruben…

After sleeping on it, I thought there was a lot of nonsense yesterday. We can speculate that rovers are a decent side and should have scored or whatever, but there is absolutely no doubt that we were sub standard. If I was manning I would know that we should have scored at least 3 goals yesterday and should have not been under the pressure that we were for the last few minutes. If we would have shown the same levels of game management and decision making as the Exeter game, there would have been absolutely nothing to worry about.

Anyway, for me the break has come at A good time. We looked a bit leggy imo.

Also, I would like a striker and possibly a right back please.

100% this.

If we want to actually do something special this year and get promoted, we need to be this critical as a club.

Take the positives (and the three points) but learn from it and use the break to make clear the standards needed of winners (rather than cavalier attitudes of clubs who go on good runs but ultimately lose out in the play-offs or just outside the top six).

I sense that Manning understands this. We should have got a point at least against PV and we were fortunate to scrape three points yesterday, despite being in the box seat for the last half an hour.

We should enjoy the win as fans, but the club will want to use this as a learning opportunity and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

 

[derek]

Just one minor point, a number of people have referred to Murphy's chance (singular). I'm pretty sure there were two - one that went wide (not far though?) and one from a narrow angle that was on target but well saved.

He also got to the byline once more but a heavy touch took the ball out of play. I liked him at Stevenage, and yesterday.

As an aside, I prefer attempts that go wide to those struck straight at the keeper. There's a tendency to aim at the middle of the target, but that's usually where the keeper is. I noticed Harris started scoring regularly when he got out of that habit, but then got the suspension. I'm hoping he'll improve with more games under his belt.

 

[Jster]

We have to make clear that any sort of dissent, kicking the ball away, etc. will be clamped down on. The rule are clear and obvious. Just don't do it.

 

[MJB]

We have to make clear that any sort of dissent, kicking the ball away, etc. will be clamped down on. The rule are clear and obvious. Just don't do it.

Yep. And I also think it’s good for the game, generally. Players SHOULD get booked for kicking the ball away, even if it only goes ten yards.

 

[derek]

I understand why the second yellow was given, but again it did feel harsh. He barely kicked the ball 10 yards and it looked to me as though he was already in the kicking motion of when the ref blew the whistle.

Looking at the highlights I'd agree. He's passing to Murphy, who stops because the whistle's gone, so the ball goes past.

If Murphy had carried on a step or two and stopped the ball, I don't think that's given (not that I'm blaming Murphy at all).

 

[Jster]

No extended highlights up yet?

 

[Mojofilter]

Given suspensions and injuries, I now fully admit I was wrong and am glad Murphy is around. I hope he gets a start soon

 

[Barbadosyellow]

Players SHOULD get booked for kicking the ball away, even if it only goes ten yards.

Why not pick the ball up and hand it to the ref if you want to buy a few seconds for the team to get back in position. Or maybe that will be a straight red soon!!!

 

[MJB]

Why not pick the ball up and hand it to the ref if you want to buy a few seconds for the team to get back in position. Or maybe that will be a straight red soon!!!

Well, precisely. There are smarter ways of doing these things - we need to do that if we want to win things.

 

[BrockBuster]

Wasn’t at the game today, and having seen the highlights the second yellow is obviously stupid, but from the outside and reading comments on here and elsewhere, doesn’t seem like it was the kind of game to bring on a young and inexperienced player like Smyth for his first league appearance of the season? Was it an enforced change? Seems like a slight misstep from Manning.

The injury/suspension list is also starting to add up. The Reading delay, as annoying as it is, does seem to have come at a good time for us.

Great result though. Five point gap to the playoffs with a game in hand is massive. When the fixture list came out we identified this run of games as a good chance to put some points on the board, so it’s extremely encouraging that the team are getting those points in the bank. Next handful of games look tricky on paper.

Two nil up against ten men against a side who were creating nothing except when we made individual mistakes.

If he wasn't going to bring on a younger slightly inexperienced player then for a runout, then he never would.

 

[BrockBuster]

Looking at the highlights I'd agree. He's passing to Murphy, who stops because the whistle's gone, so the ball goes past.

If Murphy had carried on a step or two and stopped the ball, I don't think that's given (not that I'm blaming Murphy at all).

Yeah, Murphy inadvertently made it look worse but agree there was nothing malicious there, he was already going to kick the ball when it happened. Think some of the criticism of Smyth being brainless etc is quite unforgiving.

Also thought the booking for the Rovers player who shot (and ended up being the first yellow of two) was incredibly harsh as well. Just a refereeing performance with no common sense. Essentially a taste of what football would be like if it was refereed by robots.

Albeit ones that seem to malfunction.

 

[North Wales Yellow]

Yesterday epitomised the most pleasing aspect of the Liam Manning era for me. Under KR at times we played better football, but I always felt we had to be a 7.5 or 8 out of 10 to win a game. This season we are getting results with 6/10 performances. Long may it continue.

 

[Norwich exile]

Dutch friend of mine watched his first OUFC game yday with me on iFollow. He couldn’t believe what a bonkers affair it was - I assured him that this season we’ve usually played a lot better (why all the head tennis when they were physically dominating us and our strength is keeping it on the deck?), and that subsequent games will likely be much tamer affairs! He was entertained though and said he’d be back for more!

 

[Joey]

Just one minor point, a number of people have referred to Murphy's chance (singular). I'm pretty sure there were two - one that went wide (not far though?) and one from a narrow angle that was on target but well saved.

He also got to the byline once more but a heavy touch took the ball out of play. I liked him at Stevenage, and yesterday.

I hate to be a negative ninny but when your three highlights of a players performance are a decent shot down the middle, missing a sitter and running the ball out of play uncontested then it's not all that promising.

I'd dearly love him to come good but I'm still in the camp that anything we get from him will be a bonus. He did well to get the ball for Brown's sending off to be fair.

 

[Marked Ox]

I hate to be a negative ninny but when your three highlights of a players performance are a decent shot down the middle, missing a sitter and running the ball out of play uncontested then it's not all that promising.

I'd dearly love him to come good but I'm still in the camp that anything we get from him will be a bonus. He did well to get the ball for Brown's sending off to be fair.

He had his full back panicking every time he got the ball as he was outpacing him whenever it was 1 on 1. He took the pressure off the defence a fair number of times with those runs.

 

[IsleofWightYellow]

I hate to be a negative ninny but when your three highlights of a players performance are a decent shot down the middle, missing a sitter and running the ball out of play uncontested then it's not all that promising.

I'd dearly love him to come good but I'm still in the camp that anything we get from him will be a bonus. He did well to get the ball for Brown's sending off to be fair.

You don’t think Murphy played well? I thought he did, obviously not everything he tried came off but he was better than Bodin was in the second half

 

[East Stand Fan]

Weird to think we've had two sent off twice already this season. I can't actually recall the previous time we were down to nine players in a match - can anyone enlighten me?

I think we had Moody and Bolland sent off during the infamous 1-0 home defeat to Scunthorpe where Joe Ross was discovered and Mark Wright made a racist remark. I'm sure the reds were late in those too but the game was already long lost.