11/03/2026 - MDT: Oxford United v Blackburn Rovers

 
Only slight disappointment for me tonight, player wise, was Prelec. The difference between him and Lankshear was so stark - one battles and chases everything, the other seemed to stroll around a bit half hearted. Considering he was fresh off the bench I expected much more intensity and energy from him, I don’t think he won a single challenge. Got to do more.
 
Cam, Konak and Donley look a proper centre midfield, sides are not just coming straight through the middle of us anymore. The 70% possession the opposition have isn’t quite as useful when you actually have to work hard and show some quality to do something with it.
 
dickwalton1964 said:
Only slight disappointment for me tonight, player wise, was Prelec. The difference between him and Lankshear was so stark - one battles and chases everything, the other seemed to stroll around a bit half hearted. Considering he was fresh off the bench I expected much more intensity and energy from him, I don’t think he won a single challenge. Got to do more.
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I think he was under instructions to hold his position but I was disappointed he didn’t win any of his duels or cause them more problems.
 
Essexyellows said:
Comment on the BBC live scores......................

"This Blackburn Rovers performance is a reflection of the clueless, disgraceful hierarchy. A fish rots from its head. You would never know this is a must win game in a relegation battle, by looking at these Rovers players. They dismantled an experienced Championship squad that finished seventh last season. They let John Eustace walk away. They deserve everything they are getting now."

:ROFLMAO:
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The comment was made by "Coley, Preston". It's a bit like us commenting on them down the A420.
 
Another well battled and deserved win, with some good individual performances. Konak and Long really stood out for me.

For 70+ mins it was really comfortable, just a shame we didn't get a second (MPH fluffed his lines badly), but I felt the change of shape made us too deep, although it's hard to argue too much when we saw the game out.

We're making a good go of this now, which is great to see. Get behind the team for the rest of the season, they might just do this.

COYY!
 
dickwalton1964 said:
Only slight disappointment for me tonight, player wise, was Prelec. The difference between him and Lankshear was so stark - one battles and chases everything, the other seemed to stroll around a bit half hearted. Considering he was fresh off the bench I expected much more intensity and energy from him, I don’t think he won a single challenge. Got to do more.
Click to expand...

It was almost like he had no idea of the game state or what we needed him to do. Very strange. Hopefully just an off day for him
 
A really decent performance tonight. Blackburn were largely unable threaten and only exerted half-hearted pressure in the last 10 minutes when we sat a little too deep.
As for us, we really could have put this game to bed by the end of the first half.
Strong, dominant performance.
Konak, Mills, Brannagan, Donley, Lankshear and Long - superb.
We are working our arses off out there and the results have followed.
Brilliant stuff from everyone tonight.
 
holdsteady said:
Cam, Konak and Donley look a proper centre midfield, sides are not just coming straight through the middle of us anymore. The 70% possession the opposition have isn’t quite as useful when you actually have to work hard and show some quality to do something with it.
Click to expand...

I’m not huge on stats but at one point in the first half I looked and saw that it was 68% possession to Blackburn but we’d had 18 touches in their box compared to one touch in our box from them. It’s stats like this that make an absolute mockery of the possession stat.
 
Stan Mills what a shift
Sam long terrific in that position with Mills doing the running
Konak improving each game and transforming our midfield
Donley finally a physical presence in the 10 role
Currie hell of a shift too
Referee was good
Fans did their bit at the end to help see us home
Impeccable minutes silence
Would like to see a bit more from MPH in the box
Same 11 on Saturday given we can use 5 subs
 
Last 4 games for all the 5 teams in the mix: 3 wins for Oxford and 1 for all the other 4 between them. IF we can keep that trend going for a few more matches the table will be transformed.
 
dickwalton1964 said:
I’m not huge on stats but at one point in the first half I looked and saw that it was 68% possession to Blackburn but we’d had 18 touches in their box compared to one touch in our box from them. It’s stats like this that make an absolute mockery of the possession stat.
Click to expand...

They can have the ball around their box, can’t hurt us and one mistake from letting us in.
 
londonyellow said:
It was almost like he had no idea of the game state or what we needed him to do. Very strange. Hopefully just an off day for him
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To be fair, at that point (I think) we had Harris on the left, Vaulks and Brannagan in the middle, McDonnell on the right with Spencer, Long, Helik, Brown and Currie as a back 5. It couldn’t have gone more defensive. I thought he was being instructed to play that way, basically as two blocks of five.

Good result! Some very good performances, some owned (and loaned) players coming good under the new regime.

Only criticism for tonight was our first change (Spencer on). We shifted too defensively at that point and we allowed Blackburn (albeit toothless) to pressure us. We got lucky with the Cumming incident.

That said, could/should have been out of sight first half. Definitely should have when MPH had a chance to finish the game.
 
Just home, a really good evening. The tribute and respect shown by everyone towards Amelia was impeccably done, very touching and I’m sure it meant a lot to her family and friends.

Performance wise for 70 minutes it was very good, we controlled the tempo, looked street wise and got forward at every opportunity, it’s a far cry from what we’ve seen before this season and is long overdue. Don’t think we’ve controlled a game that well since Stoke at home last season. Then came the most mind blowing substitutions I’ve seen in a while - replacing Konak with Vaulks was mental. Lost all control and the change of shape invited Blackburn to come and grab the most unlikely of points. There’s a time and place to do it, tonight was not that night and I don’t want to see it against that poor an opposition moving forward.

Negatives aside, plenty of positives from that. The attacking midfield 3 of Mills, Donley and MPH are really setting the tone at the moment, they are clinical to our press and do it well. Bit of tension towards MPH and a few comments here I’ve noticed but that was a good overall performance from him and the current front 4 is undroppable right now.

Konak - you can see why he went for big money at such a young age, he is gonna be an immense player one day and we’re seeing some shoots of it at the minute. An all action, modern, positive defensive midfielder. It’s a position we’ve struggled with for years but he’s been the best at it in a long while.

Brannagan - Seriously seriously good, a captains performance and looking back to his best, it’s no surprise with the support behind (and in front of him)

Helik - Strolled it, yet again. We’re just so much better with him at the back.

Mills - Physically he’s got the potential to be a ridiculously good winger, mentally and quality wise he’s a long way off but when you get a mix of all 3 at once you can see how good he can be, and was tonight.

There’s still a long way to go and it is far from over, just like it was 3 games ago. It’s laughable the amount of people that had written of this season with 12 games to play, I so hope they have egg on their faces come May. As I say, still a long long way to go and there will be ups and downs and I imagine a point where we are back 3 or 4 points off safety, but we’re giving ourselves a chance here. Back the boys, those that turned up did it brilliantly tonight, they will need us to be at it for the remaining 9 games, this is no time to let up.
 
WE Yellow said:
Just home, a really good evening. The tribute and respect shown by everyone towards Amelia was impeccably done, very touching and I’m sure it meant a lot to her family and friends.

Performance wise for 70 minutes it was very good, we controlled the tempo, looked street wise and got forward at every opportunity, it’s a far cry from what we’ve seen before this season and is long overdue. Don’t think we’ve controlled a game that well since Stoke at home last season. Then came the most mind blowing substitutions I’ve seen in a while - replacing Konak with Vaulks was mental. Lost all control and the change of shape invited Blackburn to come and grab the most unlikely of points. There’s a time and place to do it, tonight was not that night and I don’t want to see it against that poor an opposition moving forward.

Negatives aside, plenty of positives from that. The attacking midfield 3 of Mills, Donley and MPH are really setting the tone at the moment, they are clinical to our press and do it well. Bit of tension towards MPH and a few comments here I’ve noticed but that was a good overall performance from him and the current front 4 is undroppable right now.

Konak - you can see why he went for big money at such a young age, he is gonna be an immense player one day and we’re seeing some shoots of it at the minute. An all action, modern, positive defensive midfielder. It’s a position we’ve struggled with for years but he’s been the best at it in a long while.

Brannagan - Seriously seriously good, a captains performance and looking back to his best, it’s no surprise with the support behind (and in front of him)

Helik - Strolled it, yet again. We’re just so much better with him at the back.

Mills - Physically he’s got the potential to be a ridiculously good winger, mentally and quality wise he’s a long way off but when you get a mix of all 3 at once you can see how good he can be, and was tonight.

There’s still a long way to go and it is far from over, just like it was 3 games ago. It’s laughable the amount of people that had written of this season with 12 games to play, I so hope they have egg on their faces come May. As I say, still a long long way to go and there will be ups and downs and I imagine a point where we are back 3 or 4 points off safety, but we’re giving ourselves a chance here. Back the boys, those that turned up did it brilliantly tonight, they will need us to be at it for the remaining 9 games, this is no time to let up.
Click to expand...
Seven twats didn’t turn up tonight and as a result we were under 10K
 
WE Yellow said:
Just home, a really good evening. The tribute and respect shown by everyone towards Amelia was impeccably done, very touching and I’m sure it meant a lot to her family and friends.

Performance wise for 70 minutes it was very good, we controlled the tempo, looked street wise and got forward at every opportunity, it’s a far cry from what we’ve seen before this season and is long overdue. Don’t think we’ve controlled a game that well since Stoke at home last season. Then came the most mind blowing substitutions I’ve seen in a while - replacing Konak with Vaulks was mental. Lost all control and the change of shape invited Blackburn to come and grab the most unlikely of points. There’s a time and place to do it, tonight was not that night and I don’t want to see it against that poor an opposition moving forward.

Negatives aside, plenty of positives from that. The attacking midfield 3 of Mills, Donley and MPH are really setting the tone at the moment, they are clinical to our press and do it well. Bit of tension towards MPH and a few comments here I’ve noticed but that was a good overall performance from him and the current front 4 is undroppable right now.

Konak - you can see why he went for big money at such a young age, he is gonna be an immense player one day and we’re seeing some shoots of it at the minute. An all action, modern, positive defensive midfielder. It’s a position we’ve struggled with for years but he’s been the best at it in a long while.

Brannagan - Seriously seriously good, a captains performance and looking back to his best, it’s no surprise with the support behind (and in front of him)

Helik - Strolled it, yet again. We’re just so much better with him at the back.

Mills - Physically he’s got the potential to be a ridiculously good winger, mentally and quality wise he’s a long way off but when you get a mix of all 3 at once you can see how good he can be, and was tonight.

There’s still a long way to go and it is far from over, just like it was 3 games ago. It’s laughable the amount of people that had written of this season with 12 games to play, I so hope they have egg on their faces come May. As I say, still a long long way to go and there will be ups and downs and I imagine a point where we are back 3 or 4 points off safety, but we’re giving ourselves a chance here. Back the boys, those that turned up did it brilliantly tonight, they will need us to be at it for the remaining 9 games, this is no time to let up.
Click to expand...

Mills a long way off mentally and quality wise? What?
 
Just got in……..wow
This was for you Amelia, hope you were looking down feeling very proud. First of all probably one of not the best minutes silence absolutely impeccable, credit to the Blackburn fans and the Oxford fans for being absolutely silent for at least a minute before the official minutes silence.

On to the game as someone else has said that has to one of not the best set of officials we’ve had this season.
Glad we scored and thank you Jamie Donnelly and congratulations on you first goal for Oxford.
The defence were immense, the midfield played superb and the front 3 as we expected out a hell of a shift in.
Would have liked a 2nd goal to calm my nerves but we played as whole even the substitutions kept with the play and didn’t look out of place when they came on.
A mention to Matt Bloomfield wasn’t to sure especially after the Norwich debacle but he’s come good and has done a lot with the team since the Rowett part of this season.
Sleep
Well special young lady hope we the club have done you proud.
 
dickwalton1964 said:
Only slight disappointment for me tonight, player wise, was Prelec. The difference between him and Lankshear was so stark - one battles and chases everything, the other seemed to stroll around a bit half hearted. Considering he was fresh off the bench I expected much more intensity and energy from him, I don’t think he won a single challenge. Got to do more.
Click to expand...
I think he got told not to go around chasing the ball and to hold to make it difficult for them to play throw the lines, but there were a couple of times he should have pressed high, and or, run into the channel as an outlet, but he did neither, very disappointing. Just wondering if he wasn’t sure whether to stick or twist!
 
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I feel like it might be some kind of secret weapon and I don't think even the people around me saw it. But I don't think that was a back 4 first half. I think it was a back 5. But I don't want to say any more in case it is a secret.
 
Almost a perfect night for this exile in my Man City/Utd local. Watching our game - by a personal favour - on my own in the pool room while the rest of the pub is disappointedly watching Man City capitulate to Real Madrid. Our game ends, I ask the barmaid to switch to WBA v Southampton and Southampton equalise seconds after she works out how to change channels. And then an old friend who I haven't seen for ages (occasional OUFC attendee with me until he found himself a partner) walks in and we have a good old chat. After-hours pint and then home on the bus. If Carlsberg...
 
I do think we haven’t got to get too far ahead of ourselves and lose sight of how valuable a draw and solitary point can be. We aren’t going to keep this winning run going for the next nine games and a draw at home to Charlton won’t be the worst result after tonight. Of course we will want to win but I’d have taken four from these two before tonight.
 
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