Home Match Day Thread 10/02/2026 - MDT: Oxford United v Norwich City

[Carpy]

 

[Vancouver Yellow]

You imagine now it’s may 2025, and in the summer of that same year you invested in the squad like we’ve seen in the last few weeks…but 4 or 5 players came in with the obvious ones let go…. It wasn’t rocket science.

That and a championship level pre-season as requested by a championship proven manager.

I’m in utter astonishment at the way the club has self-detonated over the last 7/8 months, and I’m in total shock at tonight’s display. I really cannot recall another match that we’ve been THIS poor. Not even away at QPR at the back end of Des’ reign. That was genuinely embarrassing.

 

[carefreeoufc]

Said on several threads before Rowett was sacked that there were no sunlit uplands when getting shot.

I appreciate his heart was no longer in it, he felt let down, literally said he didn’t know what else to do and probably had to go. But the hopium that we were signing some up and coming manager was always so wide of the mark. You only have to look at who we were linked with.

Bloomfield, desperate for a job, mr nice guy, taken Luton down and sacked from Luton in L1. Maybe he’ll turn it round and this will be our wake up like when we last 4-0 under Buckingham. I don’t know.

If I was being overly gracious, I’d say Bloomfield thought he’d try something different to rectify our abysmal record midweek after a decent weekend performance. If I was being realistic, I’d say he’s tinkered way too much and his selection was clueless. I’ve no idea how much the players have had to prepare in that formation. But they presumably rested Sunday and have only had Monday on the grass.

Rowett, for all his faults, would never have set up a defence like that with the players that were available. Ok, he’d have probably started Harris, but f@ck me! What was Bloomfield thinking. He needed to change it immediately.

Glimmers of hope… we gifted a form team two goals of the three. Mills and Romeny performed well as did Jin-Woo. Albeit, anyone not completely sh!t would have looked good today. McDonnell looked ok, he’ll do well for us.

We lost today due to our tactics. We have some time to go until Boro away. Bloomfield should use the FA Cup game to set up a formation with players in their proper, known position and at least get us working to something we can use for the rest of the season.

Appreciate it’s boring to keep going on about it, but with the players we’ve brought in this Jan, had they been with us in August, Rowett would have had us comfortably outside the relegation places. There are a handful of people with a lot of explaining to do.

At least the L1 chanting from Norwich fans and Sunday league performance from the ref gives us a taste of what may be to come. It’s all going to hinge on turning round an awful home record against the teams around us.

 

[Chippy]

Bloomfield holding his hand up to getting it all wrong tonight

Was an utterly bizarre defence selection and the positions they were asked to take up.

You’d almost say it was the selection of a manager wanting the sack, but he’s 6 games in not 46!

Some of those at the very top, TW, GF and EW must be considering their positions tonight, I’m still shell shocked by how bad that was.

 

[Northstand Grandad]

Would we have been better off with Rooney?

 

[AssHead]

How Emakhu has 2.3 on the player ratings above 2.2 Harris is crazy.

Directly at fault for the goal that literally ended and hope.
Put in the worst cross I've seen in my lifetime watching football.
Lost possession numerous times.
Misplaced almost every single pass.

Why have you turned into a Harris apologist tonight. He’s not going to sleep with you, you know.

 

[Nadi-]

Can’t believe the manager said the fans want wingers. And he picked his team around that.
If his selections are going to be a reflection of things that are said on here. We’re in big trouble.

 

[90syeIlow]

Get f*****g angry. Get some gallows humour going. Get some old Beano chants or the left side/right side song going.

If you know it’s not working on the pitch, make an event of it.

It was like a morgue.

Were you there tonight and did you start any of this?

 

[yellowbow]

Was an utterly bizarre defence selection and the positions they were asked to take up.

You’d almost say it was the selection of a manager wanting the sack, but he’s 6 games in not 46!

Some of those at the very top, TW, GF and EW must be considering their positions tonight, I’m still shell shocked by how bad that was.

There’s been a lot of puzzlement and confusion tonight but I think the one thing that we can all be 100% certain of is that those three will most definitely not be considering their positions.

I don’t think there’s three other people on the planet who have been elevated so far above their level of ability and have things so cushy.

 

[Toe knee]

How the hell did every Oxford fan at the stadium & at home , know that defensive line up was wrong.
Apart from the manager ,his assistant & coaches is beyond me..

 

[Chippy]

Can’t believe the manager said the fans want wingers. And he picked his team around that.
If his selections are going to be a reflection of things that are said on here. We’re in big trouble.

The fans didn’t want 4 centre backs across the back line though and Sam Long at left centre back (not his fault he was asked to play there). If fans were listened to then Harris wouldn’t be up front either.

 

[Teddydee1980]

Talking of gallows humour - when we came out second half, my brother and I were joking about Bloomfield wanting to 'keep it at two, at least draw the second half nil nil'

Minutes later.

 

[BicesterU]

Can’t believe the manager said the fans want wingers. And he picked his team around that.
If his selections are going to be a reflection of things that are said on here. We’re in big trouble.

He'll be telling Jerome his first car and favourite cheese in the pre-Sunderland press conference.

 

[Billyox]

Nearly 4 hours since the team sheet come out and I still cant work the thinking behind it and if I cant work it what hope have the players got

All well and good bloomfield coming out and saying we got some things wrong
It was wrong from the start and the time to change it was after 15 minutes before it got worse if he wanted to own his mistake you make that change you dig in to half time go in 1 nil down and then really change it

But its ok cos there are a honest bunch

 

[Chippy]

There’s been a lot of puzzlement and confusion tonight but I think the one thing that we can all be 100% certain of is that those three will most definitely not be considering their positions.

I don’t think there’s three other people on the planet who have been elevated so far above their level of ability and have things so cushy.

Fair point. Someone needs to be considering their positions tho, and dishing out a hat trick of P45’s asap.

 

[Older Shotts]

s**t ground.
s**t manager.
s**t team.
s**t attendance. No way was that over 10k.
We are down.

 

[Northstandboy]

Can’t believe the manager said the fans want wingers. And he picked his team around that.
If his selections are going to be a reflection of things that are said on here. We’re in big trouble.

We wanted a striker but he didn’t get us one!

 

[Billyox]

Can’t believe the manager said the fans want wingers. And he picked his team around that.
If his selections are going to be a reflection of things that are said on here. We’re in big trouble.

Oh in that case bloomfield if your reading i want more than 2 in midfield

 

[trainingcone]

The worrying thing is that we will go down this season and how will we cope in L1?. We need to get a winning mentality back in the club to survive in L1. Look at Rotherham last season, way out if their depth in the championship and this season struggling in L1. This season has been a total balls up from the top management here.

Im not happy, this club is better than this. Just hope the stadium gets the go ahead at least that will soften the blow of relegation this season.

 

[38yearsofpain]

s**t ground.
s**t manager.
s**t team.
s**t attendance. No way was that over 10k.
We are down.

It was because 2k season ticket holders didnt bother going. No goal at home in 2026 tends to make lots of fans not bother.

 

[Oufccraig45]

At least ive kept my money in my pocket for sunday waa thinking about it until that shite that was served up tonight

 

[Jster]

I wonder what any Sunderland scouts made of us tonight!?

 

[BicesterU]

In the absence of

Nearly 4 hours since the team sheet come out and I still cant work the thinking behind it and if I cant work it what hope have the players got

All well and good bloomfield coming out and saying we got some things wrong
It was wrong from the start and the time to change it was after 15 minutes before it got worse if he wanted to own his mistake you make that change you dig in to half time go in 1 nil down and then really change it

But its ok cos there are a honest bunch

In the absence of another explanation, I can only assume that the four CBs was in the how of adding some defensive stability behind a relatively attacking front 6.

Listening to him talking after the game, I also assume it's the last we'll see of any kind of back four for a while.

 

[werthersoriginal]

That was truly pathetic, a new low. I blame the manager and I’m not going to slag off all the players but I thought Emakhu was really rubbish and worryingly uninterested. (I thought Harris was one of our better performers , at least he cares, but people are going to pick on him).

 

[werthersoriginal]

The worrying thing is that we will go down this season and how will we cope in L1?. We need to get a winning mentality back in the club to survive in L1. Look at Rotherham last season, way out if their depth in the championship and this season struggling in L1. This season has been a total balls up from the top management here.

Im not happy, this club is better than this. Just hope the stadium gets the go ahead at least that will soften the blow of relegation this season.

Next season is a whole new game, we’ll have a new manager and a largely new team.

 

[Chippy]

I wonder what any Sunderland scouts made of us tonight!?

Quaking in their boots I should think.

 

[PQ]

At the end with Rowett, the players had seen so many contradictory and baffling team selections that they had no faith whatsoever in their manager doing what was best for them. They were lost, disinterested.

It’s happened again. What’s incredible is it took such little time.

Can’t be underestimated how damaging that back four selection was, on a number of levels.

Desperation!?

 

[Sarge]

lost 3-2 v city in ox senior cup tonight too - u18s were leading 1-2 and good value for the lead too going into time added, then conceded 2 in time added

 

[PQ]

, Bloomfield says he made a mistake.....did he not realise that at half time????.
It's rubbish what he said,

I smelled bullshit.

 

[tonyw]

You know, if Bloomfield had gone with that same XI, but played Sam Long at RB (where he's played a couple of hundred times before) and slotted Makosso in at CB alongside Helik, I could just about have understood it. The four CBs across the backline approach has worked for us in the past on occasions. It's not sexy, but it can be effective as long as the opposition doesn't have too much pace on the flanks (and Norwich really didn't)

But slotting Makosso out on the right side where he looked like a fish out of water, and then having Sam Long play LCB and push up rather aggressively.....well that led directly to the first two goals, and meant the game was over within twenty minutes.

And then the second gargantuan problem was the fact that our entire attacking strategy, for the first half at least, seemed to be lobbing balls down the channels for our forwards to chase against much bigger and more athletic opposition defenders. We displayed zero ability to play the ball through the middle of the park.

Sigh. Hard to see where we go from here. With the squad we have, and the form we're in......feels like we're just rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic at the moment.....

 

[Jster]

That was truly pathetic, a new low. I blame the manager and I’m not going to slag off all the players but I thought Emakhu was really rubbish and worryingly uninterested. (I thought Harris was one of our better performers , at least he cares, but people are going to pick on him).

Agreed, Harris was one of our better players, though it was a low bar.