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

[Carpy]

 

[Village-Yellow]

But you don’t know that before you go, and more importantly, that why we need to fans there, to support, but if that’s the reason, then may be best they don’t go!

I think if 6000 to 7000 stalwart fans can’t get motivated to produce an atmosphere , relying and a few extra thousand floaters is really not going to help unless the performances are there to lift the whole crowd.

It’s a chicken and egg situation and we are in a huge hole at the moment.

 

[trainingcone]

Emakhu giving off big Buckley-Ricketts energy last night.

Rarely have I seen such an inept performance. Although most of the rest of the team and management weren't far behind him in the pile of shite. Makosso and Placheta on the right was an absolute calamity from a defensive point of view, but everything about last night was an embarrassing calamity.

Last 3 windows have absolutely done for us as a Champ team and we all know that the mentality of us being in the Champ was "ahead of schedule" as expressed by Tim Williams is an all pervasive mindset throughout the management structure. In the great scheme of things, I am not sure they care that much of we go down, so long as we get spades in the ground at the triangle

Bottom line is I don't think they actually care if we go down.

Got that feeling when attending the fans forum last August.

 

[Billyox]

We’ve been recruiting for League One in the last two transfer windows. No wonder it’s the management’s expectation!

100% something ive said before
I know it will cost more but you cant tell me there isn't players that are at championship clubs that are not in there squad of 25 who wouldn't of come to us to give us more experience and more championship level

 

[Sheik Djibouti]

Got that feeling when attending the fans forum last August.

Quite. The only saving grace is that this doesn't feel quite as desperately bad from a footballing side as it did last time we had an owner whose primary focus was on building a new ground.

At least this time, there is at least a waft of planning for the future and investing in (some) players with some future return value.

We're not quite at the Joe Kinnear/David Kemp levels of desperation.

Yet....

 

[uptheus]

T

I,ve been hugely disappointed with Brannnagan this season, would put Konak in his place, we desperately need athleticism but agree with rest.

That Konak is raw and a liability. He’s not the answer. Probably has more energy, but doesn’t seem to have a football brain yet!

Like I said before, Ed needed to worker smarter not harder, but the whole recruitment/management team did.

It’s why I get bemused when fans make comments about players they’ve hardly seen or a couple of clicks on TikTok, along the lines of, like he’s going to be great we’re staying up/making the play offs.

Personally I’d like to reserve judgement until they’ve played for us, but you can normally get a gut feel quite quickly e.g. you could see that Makosso had something about him by his touch, positioning and awareness etc, whereas, Emakhu was the opposite. And by saying that, I’m not saying that Makosso will turn out to be a world beater with Emakhu bring dross, but some fans were saying after seeing Emakhu on Saturday that he was amazing, but I said otherwise!

Those same fans were saying the crane re; Jin-Woo, but again, I saw a player do one of two things, but nothing that looked that amazing to me, but again, by saying that I’m not saying he won’t just that I’ve not seen enough yet to pass judgement.

Just keep things in perspective!

 

[AssHead]

And before people say the lack of home fans was down to the weather, school night etc, well
Norwich fans managed it from Norwich! so what’s your excuse?

I have a very different view.
Whether someone chooses to pay money to partake in an activity, it is their choice. If less people choose to do so, then that’s a signal that the ‘product’ on offer isn’t good enough.

Someone can still support Oxford without going to the game. They just derive more enjoyment from sitting at home with a beer in their pants watching it on a cheap IPTV feed than being cold and not being allowed a beer in the stands (and paying £25 for the privledge). If increasing crowd numbers is the aim (and I’m not sure it is) then the club needs to do better than their 60secgoal montage and light show. Also, playing some goddamn attacking football would be good.

At this point, I’d rather stab myself in the perineum than watch yet another long ball to Harris.

 

[m]

That Konak is raw and a liability. He’s not the answer. Probably has more energy, but doesn’t seem to have a football brain yet!

Like I said before, Ed needed to worker smarter not harder, but the whole recruitment/management team did.

It’s why I get bemused when fans make comments about players they’ve hardly seen or a couple of clicks on TikTok, like he’s going to be great we’re staying up/making the play offs.

Personally I’d like to reserve judgement until they’ve played for us, but you can normally get a gut feel quite quickly e.g. you could see that Makosso had something about him by his touch, positioning and awareness etc, whereas, Emakhu was the opposite. And by saying that, I’m not saying that Makosso will turn out to be a world beater with Emakhu bring dross, but some fans were saying after seeing Emakhu on Saturday that he was amazing, but I said otherwise!

Those same fans were saying the crane re; Jin-Woo, but again, I saw a player do one of two things, but nothing that looked that amazing to me, but again, by saying that I’m not saying he won’t just that I’ve not seen enough yet to pass judgement.

To be fair we had 11+ liabilities out there yesterday.

I didn't have any faith in any of them, and neither did anyone else as far as I could tell.

Still annoyed at one of the most genuinely pathetic performances in many years.

 

[Oxfordpete]

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

They are thinking
We could play out under 21s and rest the first team squad lol

 

[m]

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

Scouts as in a scout troop?

I'd imagine they'll fancy their chances.

 

[Matt W]

Cummings was not committed from the start he had enough time to clear that ball but he dithered . He basically pulled out in case the Norwich player caught him after he cleared the ball. Totally down to Cummings .Time to give Ingram a chance .

I think Cummings is a terrific keeper but he is not a commanding presence, he seems to lack confidence certainly with distribution, his voice, and imposing himself on the opposition

 

[maccydee]

Rotherham were not in championship last season. Cardiff, Luton and Plymouth were.

I watch Cardiff and Oxford regularly. At the moment Cardiff are light years ahead of Oxford.

 

[Sheik Djibouti]

I watch Cardiff and Oxford regularly. At the moment Cardiff are light years ahead of Oxford.

In form teams at the top of their league tends to look that way.

We on the other hand are an absolute shambles. We haven't once worked out our best formation of starting 11 this season. No consistency and now another 8 players added to the mix who we somehow think will miraculously gel into a competent squad capable of pulling off the great escape. What are the odds?

 

[Toe knee]

ROWETT was useless he got us in the mess in the first place.It looks like Bloomfield is carrying it on.
As for recruitment dud after dud. Something has not clicked since Des's first 8 matches in the championship. Apart from a fight & a little battle from the returning injured players.. to avoid relegation last season..

 

[Matt W]

I'm sorry but Rowett was not a 'very good organiser of average players'. He was here for over a year and still couldn't work out his best team, was poor with bringing on subs and changing tactics when things weren't working. He even preferred Leigh over Currie at one stage.

I don't care if he didn't like the preseason or lack of recruitment during his tenure - he could have done much more with our squad but deicded to throw his toys out of the pram and get himself sacked so he could sit on a sky sports panel.

We're seeing the outcome of a cocktail of bizarre recruitment, drastic changes in philosophy from one manager to another - Buckingham to Rowett, then to tinkerman/over thinker Bloomfield.

The players looked confused and passionless

Makosso at RB was a bizarre sight
Cummings lacks any form of intimidation or distribution prowess

We actually played what felt like 6 at the back last night with Cam and McDonnell holding.

MPH/Placheta/Emakhu Looked like strangers together, as they are

I feel Rowett just killed any form of forward play patterns but that is the man who kept us up/hired to do a job last January.

The club took him on then decided not to back him at all, I'm sure due to his footballing philosophy. Whatever the hell happened in the summer on footballing matters I would love to know. The whole thing stinks

 

[Mad Dog]

There’s no given we will be alright in league one.

This current squad of players, under this clown of a manager, would struggle in league one.

Neither are good enough.

 

[Toe knee]

This is why you shouldn't chop & change your manager every couple of months. It takes a good few seasons to build a squad to your liking.
manager & head of recruitment have got to be on the same page. It really looks like we're all over the place.
Say's it all when you can only get your 3rd choice to manage the team...

 

[Bicester Yellow]

Matt bloomfield

“we wanted to try something we saw another team do, and started work on it yesterday”

I bet that team didn't try playing
a left cb at left back
a right back at left cb
A right cb at right back tho eh matt

Saying that and doing that is nigh on a sackable offence, in the most important game this season.

 

[MiddleBartonYellow]

It is painful to see that some people on here have to be abusive, but I suppose it’s the society that we live in. The word is respect for people only trying to do their job, even though at the moment they are falling short.

 

[lodeyellow]

And before people say the lack of home fans was down to the weather, school night etc, well
Norwich fans managed it from Norwich! so what’s your excuse?

Sorry, but these sorts of post really irritate me. People don’t need to give excuses for not going to games (or indeed for leaving a few minutes early or any other “behaviours” merited unacceptable by “true fans”).

It’s hardly surprising if some people decide not to attend a game on a wet midweek night in the middle of winter to watch a team that’s been performing poorly in the vast majority of their home games. We should accept that among our fanbase there are supporters with varying levels of commitment, as will be the same at all clubs. Whatever their degree of support, it should be valued both by fellow fans and by the club.

For what it’s worth, my “excuses” for not attending last night are that I’m in my early 80s, I live 97 miles away from the stadium by the shortest route, and nowadays I’m not too keen on nighttime driving. So I opted to stay at home and watch the match on TV. But I’ll be at Sunday’s game and, I hope, at all remaining weekend fixtures this season - plus the midweek match v. Blackburn, as I’ll be staying overnight afterwards (at some expense).

 

[Made-in-Jericho]

Still fuming having slept on it.
We left the stadium when the 3rd goal went in; first time in over 40 years I’ve done that as I just couldn’t see any other outcome other than a heavy defeat and just had no stomach left for what was being served up.
A 250 mile, 5-hour round trip for that offering was utterly galling considering all the costs.
The only cheap thing was the season ticket which is feeling more of an albatross each week.
I don’t see how we get out of this and the empty seats all around us shows many others have come to the same conclusion.
The only positive was getting out of the car park quickly (with a whole load of other cars) and being home well before midnight.

 

[KentYellow]

Terrible performance, obviously - for me the one glimmer is Stan Mills, who seems our best player by quite some distance at the moment. Must start games.

 

[Peterdev]

Well at least that answered the question of what league we will play in next season.

We are just not very good, you can come up with this or that, personally never want to see a centre back partnership of Long and Helik again, but, big picture and looking from outside the OUFC fan bubble, we just have a poor team/squad for this level that isn’t competitive.

Our crowds/support is just reflective of what/where we are, a bad team who are relegation bound and that this isn’t fun anymore.

I travelled a 100 mile round journey out of loyalty more than hope I would enjoy tonight, will do the same Sunday, but I have written this season off now and in truth I am looking forward to league one and hopefully actually seeing us be competitive, playing a bit of football and seeing wins/us score some goals.

Same. 100 mile round trip. Worst game I’ve seen this season. Even Brighton we gave it go. Two stupid goals conceded before some had even sat down.
Stadium appeared 75% capacity.
No wonder it was easy getting out at FT
Lots had left early

 

[Morris Oxford]

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.

You reap what you sow.

Summer 2025 was a complete and utter mess, and that is on the senior management team, it set the tone for the whole season.

Signing 8 outfield players in January, laudable those it is, is clearly a desperate attempt to put right those summer mistakes, in a way it’s an acknowledgment of those mistakes, but it’s too late the damage has already been done.

We went into the start of the season totally under cooked, losing, confidence and momentum is so important in professional sport and we didn’t give ourselves a fair chance. Totally self inflicted.

As regard to last night, football managers make mistakes, we all do, but last nights back 4 set up was a worryingly bad mistake, especially in such an important game, If that was Rowett some on here would be implying he had deliberately set us up to lose and wanted the sack.

Plans now need to be put in place for next season in League 1.

 

[Ox4Eva]

Then we’ll always be a league 1/2 team at best and definitely not a top 30!

Based on our support you are right!

But the likes of Bournemouth prove that finance comes first, before large crowds.

 

[ThatSlopesATwelfthMan]

I can only assume Bloomfield and the analysts based yesterday's disastrous experiment on an assumption that Norwich would play roughly the same as they have since Clement took over. Technical, very high pressing, organised but lacking pace out wide and up front. Unfortunately Toure's performance last night changed everything and must be one of the finest debuts in the champ for years.

The priority should have been to keep our structure simple and balanced, to resist fan emotions and to try and establish a consistent shape for the run in that allows injured players to slot in as they regain fitness without massive disruption. Instead we were treated to a bizarre hipster version of something even elite players would struggle to execute well after weeks of training. There were numerous times in the first half we were effectively had four centre backs playing a back one against the league's in form team.

I'm in the 'never leave early' brigade but if we'd come out in the second half without a change was planning to leave at 50 mins. We can nitpick about individual players but last night was on the manager. He set the players up to fail. Bloomfield said in his interview that he learned a lot. I hope that's true.

 

[Billyox]

You reap what you sow.

Summer 2025 was a complete and utter mess, and that is on the senior management team, it set the tone for the whole season.

Signing 8 outfield players in January, laudable those it is, is clearly a desperate attempt to put right those summer mistakes, in a way it’s an acknowledgment of those mistakes, but it’s too late the damage has already been done.

We went into the start of the season totally under cooked, losing, confidence and momentum is so important in professional sport and we didn’t give ourselves a fair chance. Totally self inflicted.

As regard to last night, football managers make mistakes, we all do, but last nights back 4 set up was a worryingly bad mistake, especially in such an important game, If that was Rowett some on here would be implying he had deliberately set us up to lose and wanted the sack.

Plans now need to be put in place for next season in League 1.

Managers will always make mistakes but its how they react to that mistake to wait to half time was criminal it wasn't working and I mean it wasn't working at all and because bloomfield didn't react he lost us the game after 20 mins

 

[The Mighty Aldo]

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.

Unless he listens to you, my friend

 

[Frustrated Yellow]

But you don’t know that before you go, and more importantly, that why we need to fans there, to support, but if that’s the reason, then may be best they don’t go!

Oh I think it's getting pretty sure that we are going to see brown stuff when we go

 

[Mad Dog]

This is why you shouldn't chop & change your manager every couple of months. It takes a good few seasons to build a squad to your liking.
manager & head of recruitment have got to be on the same page. It really looks like we're all over the place.
Say's it all when you can only get your 3rd choice to manage the team...

I agree, but Rowett had to go, he did his job of keeping us up, and respect to him for that. But he should never have been kept on for this season.

As soon as the final whistle went at the end of last season, we should've gone all out for a new manager and entire coaching/backroom team, and then gone all out in the summer window to start building his squad, the way he wanted it, and then allowed him time to settle in, hopefully avoid relegation, and then keep building, his team.

What we did was keep a manager at the club, who was renowned for setting his teams up for playing turgid football, AND didn't even back him properly, instead sent him on a jolly to Indonesia to ride on a stuffed f*****g lion, and then when we did finally replace him, replaced him with an utter f*****g moron, and then spent the entire January window bringing in a load of shite players, none of which are anywhere near Championship standard.

You reap what you sow I'm afraid.

 

[battman]

Having listened to Bloomfield post game, he admits the setup was a mistake, but I’m just bemused he thought it could possibly work to begin with. A back four turning into a back three with Sam Long of all people being the one moving into midfield, what? All to give us that extra striker, which even that didn’t work.

He says that he’ll learn from this, and what I’m worried is that he’ll think that a back four just can’t work, meaning we’re resigned to playing a negative back five at home for the rest of the season.

But what we really needed to do was keep it simple with a familiar shape and players playing in their natural positions. We should be playing 4-2-3-1 at home with players not deviating from the following roles:

GK: Cumming or Ingram
RB: Spencer or Long
RCB: Makosso, Helik or Long
LCB: Davies or Brown
LB: Currie or Roosken
CM: Two of BDK, Brannagan, McDonnell, Konak and Vaulks
RW: Mills, Jeon or Płacheta
AM: Donley, MPH or Romeny
LW: Emakhu, MPH or Jeon
ST: Lankshear, Prelec or Harris

Bloomfield: square pegs in square holes please.