Home Match Day Thread 11/04/2026 - MDT: Oxford United v Watford

[SteMerritt]

 

[Orkney Islands Yellow]

Welcome to the forum.

I may be wrong but I always assumed it was because he brought ‘spark’ to games with his energy, commitment and general character.

I think its a Welsh thing for people named Mark, like Mark Hughes at Man Utd in the 90s for example. @SEACOLE

 

[OX14]

Really hope we stay up but if we go down and Leicester go down the common denominator is Gary Rowett.
Wasn’t he in charge of Birmingham when they went down?
So in three years he will have kept 1 team up in the Championship and taken 3 down, obviously hoping he won’t and we stay up but not a good look for him

I always argued Rowett should have been shown the door far earlier than December but a few usual suspects on here were claiming he was the best we could get and it was the players at fault.

Sure we have added some players to the mix but the fact Rowett has gone into Leicester who have a far superior squad and returned 9 points from 10 games proves he isn't the manager he used to be.

I think whatever happens from now we need to stick with Bloomfield and give him the required budget for next season to either get us back up or keep us in this division and push up towards mid table.

 

[Osei Yaw]

Another reason to be grateful for the win is that we don't have to read through a load of nauseating posts about how their 'technicians' took us apart yesterday.

Pretentious shite.

 

[holdsteady]

Sheffield Wednesday fought Watford to two very unexpected draws! And Coventry on Saturday! Playing for pride as they go down!

COME ON YOU YELLOWS!!

Ken

Toronto, Canada

I still don’t see the harm in having confidence to beat one of the worst teams to have played at this level, if we don’t fancy our chances in winning that one then we might as well concede.

 

[Eric Blair]

Slightly different though. Players will always make mistakes, especially those towards the bottom of the league, but there's no excuse to be managed as poorly as we were in the summer. That ridiculous tour set us back, we clearly weren't fit and it cost us points early on including on the opening day which looks absolutely crucial now.

Pair that with making some excellent signings in Spencer and BDK early doors before suddenly turning off the money so the recruitment team had to pivot halfway through the window and we shot ourselves in the foot massively. If we do end up narrowly going down, in fact even if we stay up, it's important that doesn't get forgotten and written off. Absolutely shambolic stuff.

Yeah, fair point. The summer was an absolute nightmare

 

[Eric Blair]

Bloomfield (and Dodds) deserve a lot of credit. We’re a handy side now with tons of doggedness and a welcome sprinkling of the dark arts.

Mark Harris has definitely improved in 2026, nowhere near as much as Stan Mills, but he actually is now being played as a second striker - where he contributes.

Konak was superb. He mops up trouble without fouling much. The talented yet flaky oppo midfielders were getting so frustrated. Great to see.

So critical that we have left and right footed dead ball specialists now. Watford were freaked out by the end. Terrible error for second goal.

We can do this. Wrexham is the key game in my opinion. The players owe us after a weak performance in Wales.

As for Pompey late winner , nothing we can do about it. Just keep the form up.

COYY .

Good summary

 

[Bitter]

As said above I’m genuinely stunned how he has failed to get a tune from them.

And credit to Bloomfield, he has from us. Albeit too late .

Troll

 

[Billyox]

I still don’t see the harm in having confidence to beat one of the worst teams to have played at this level, if we don’t fancy our chances in winning that one then we might as well concede.

Sheffield Wednesday getting some good results is a good thing it will keep our team at least focused that it isn't going to be a walk over.

The trouble with that game is our supporters will think it should be a walk over and if we are not 3 up inside 20 minutes will start to turn on the team.

Much like every team we play think they have a god given right to beat us and when they are not that start on there team

 

[Village-Yellow]

Sheffield Wednesday getting some good results is a good thing it will keep our team at least focused that it isn't going to be a walk over.

The trouble with that game is our supporters will think it should be a walk over and if we are not 3 up inside 20 minutes will start to turn on the team.

Much like every team we play think they have a god given right to beat us and when they are not that start on there team

I think the majority of our supporters are not silly enough to expect this or indeed start to turn on the team.

Every game is huge and will be incredibly tense and difficult.

As fans all we can do is get fully behind them, and there is no doubt that we will.

 

[BicesterU]

I still don’t see the harm in having confidence to beat one of the worst teams to have played at this level, if we don’t fancy our chances in winning that one then we might as well concede.

There's a difference between having confidence we can beat a side - as we have had in a few games recently - and expecting to just have to turn up to do it.

I haven't seen very much of the latter on here, but I do think there are a few who have already chalked this one down as a win, which can be dangerous.

It might look like one of our easier remaining games, but we can't afford to let that effect how we prepare and how we attack the game.

It's a cliche, but there are no easy games in this division and we need to bring our A-game and the intensity we had yesterday against whoever we're playing.

*If* we do that, I'm confident we'll beat them, just as I'm confident we'll win a lot of games we do that in.

 

[Oxfordpete]

Everything was great yesterday bar that sooo lucky Pompy goal would have made so much difference but if we play like we did in the second half im sure we will be ok

 

[ZeroTheHero]

I thought the ref yesterday wasn't too bad compared to some we have had. But he had a horrible job trying to sort out the wrestling and shirt pulling at free kicks and corners. It's become endemic in the game, and has to be got rid of. The argument is that since the ball is dead ( before the kick is taken) a ref cannot give free kicks (or penalties) until it is taken. I think that has to be changed and that foul play *can* be punished in such circumstances. While we are at it, a throw taken too far from the place where the ball goes out should be counted as a foul throw and the throw given to the other team.

 

[The Mighty Aldo]

I always argued Rowett should have been shown the door far earlier than December but a few usual suspects on here were claiming he was the best we could get and it was the players at fault.

Sure we have added some players to the mix but the fact Rowett has gone into Leicester who have a far superior squad and returned 9 points from 10 games proves he isn't the manager he used to be.

I think whatever happens from now we need to stick with Bloomfield and give him the required budget for next season to either get us back up or keep us in this division and push up towards mid table.

I thought Leicester were lower mid table after their points deduction so for the to be in the position they are is really poor.
Just goes to show a lot of teams have some extremely good players but put them in a relegation scrap and they don’t want to know.
Watford are lucky they have enough points because if they had to scrap for their team they would t be interested,

 

[Billyox]

I thought the ref yesterday wasn't too bad compared to some we have had. But he had a horrible job trying to sort out the wrestling and shirt pulling at free kicks and corners. It's become endemic in the game, and has to be got rid of. The argument is that since the ball is dead ( before the kick is taken) a ref cannot give free kicks (or penalties) until it is taken. I think that has to be changed and that foul play *can* be punished in such circumstances. While we are at it, a throw taken too far from the place where the ball goes out should be counted as a foul throw and the throw given to the other team.

Every free kick corner throw in he stopped us from taking it to have a word imo he should stopped it once got Everyone together said his piece and then after that start pointing to the spot
It got to much yesterday in fact its to much in every game and until a ref has the the b*****s to give pens it will just carry on

 

[OX14]

I thought Leicester were lower mid table after their points deduction so for the to be in the position they are is really poor.
Just goes to show a lot of teams have some extremely good players but put them in a relegation scrap and they don’t want to know.
Watford are lucky they have enough points because if they had to scrap for their team they would t be interested,

Before Rowett joined Leicester they had a PPG of 1.18, Rowett’s 10 games in charge including playing Sheffield Wednesday returned 0.9 PPG.

They have actually got worse under him.

 

[Foley]

Sheffield Wednesday getting some good results is a good thing it will keep our team at least focused that it isn't going to be a walk over.

The trouble with that game is our supporters will think it should be a walk over and if we are not 3 up inside 20 minutes will start to turn on the team.

Much like every team we play think they have a god given right to beat us and when they are not that start on there team

I think that out supporters have been really good in understanding the context if games and have really got behind the team

 

[Billyox]

I think that out supporters have been really good in understanding the context if games and have really got behind the team

On the whole yes but yesterday before we scored there was a little bit of unrest around me luckily we scored soon after and it calmed them down

 

[Jster]

Bloomfield now has exactly half our season's points total (from just 17 of the 42 games).

 

[Billyox]

Bloomfield now has exactly half our season's points total (from just 17 of the 42 games).

Because we are now actually having a go at attacking rather than sitting back and thinking 1 nil defeat is a good result

 

[OX14]

Bloomfield now has exactly half our season's points total (from just 17 of the 42 games).

If we go down the relegation will be mostly on him.

Rowett's ppg was 0.86 over 22 games Which over a season would have got us to 39 or 40 points.

Bloomfield's ppg is 1.29 over 17 games. Over a season that is 59 or 60 points.

 

[Village-Yellow]

Everything was great yesterday bar that sooo lucky Pompy goal would have made so much difference but if we play like we did in the second half im sure we will be ok

It is frustrating, but not half as frustrating as not getting our 2-1 lead over the line , having got ourselves in front against their 10 men.

But it is what it is and we can't do anything about what goes on around us.

We are showing that we are very much in the fight to stay up and hopefully between now and the end of the season we may have our own slice of luck that could just be the difference .

 

[PottersRightBoot]

I thought the ref yesterday wasn't too bad compared to some we have had. But he had a horrible job trying to sort out the wrestling and shirt pulling at free kicks and corners. It's become endemic in the game, and has to be got rid of. The argument is that since the ball is dead ( before the kick is taken) a ref cannot give free kicks (or penalties) until it is taken. I think that has to be changed and that foul play *can* be punished in such circumstances. While we are at it, a throw taken too far from the place where the ball goes out should be counted as a foul throw and the throw given to the other team.

Sort of agree but if we hadn’t engaged with the dark arts yesterday then we probably wouldn’t have won.

 

[Big Ronaldo]

Interesting watching Pompey fans away at Boro , singing ‘we are staying up.’
I can’t remember us singing that at all.

 

[Chris on a Bike]

Interesting watching Pompey fans away at Boro , singing ‘we are staying up.’
I can’t remember us singing that at all.

Nor should we until the end of whatever game clinches it.

 

[Boris]

Its quite impressive how many away supporters think there players are not fit to wear there clubs shirts after playing us

Maybe they should all just get different shirts

 

[Trevor L]

I'm surprised Donley hasn't had a mention, I thought he had a superb game behind Lankshear. Two of the best loanees I can remember in terms of ability and commitment.

 

[SirAndyOfCrosby]

I'm surprised Donley hasn't had a mention, I thought he had a superb game behind Lankshear. Two of the best loanees I can remember in terms of ability and commitment.

I thought Donley was very poor yesterday. Lost count of the number of times he gave the ball away. And set pieces largely poor too.

He doesn't hide, I'll give him that. But he was way off it yesterday (as he has been for a couple of games now - might be all those Northern Ireland games catching up with him).

 

[JOHN BOY]

Sheffield Wednesday getting some good results is a good thing it will keep our team at least focused that it isn't going to be a walk over.

The trouble with that game is our supporters will think it should be a walk over and if we are not 3 up inside 20 minutes will start to turn on the team.

Much like every team we play think they have a god given right to beat us and when they are not that start on there team

In my opinion it will be a very hard game.

 

[Trevor L]

I thought Donley was very poor yesterday. Lost count of the number of times he gave the ball away. And set pieces largely poor too.

He doesn't hide, I'll give him that. But he was way off it yesterday (as he has been for a couple of games now - might be all those Northern Ireland games catching up with him).

It's a game of opinions!

Fwiw his pass completion rate was 70% according to the BBC sport page, higher than most.

 

[NorthWestOx]

Long long long long way to go.

All we need is a team of Sammy Longs