Ref Watch +++ 13/07/20 L1 Play Off FINAL - OUFC v Wycombe+++

[Pillox]

Getting Taylor transformed our season

He won't be here next year but that'll be his choice not ours

 

[greatunclekip]

Going into lockdown we had won 5 on the bounce and may well have got into the auto’s with the tools at our disposal.

Covid fucked things up, so I guess we will never know.

One draw into a win and were up automatically. Story of this season really. So near, yet so, so far.

 

[Northstandboy]

"bring on Swindon" with no fans!

Rather be playing Birmingham with no fans!

 

[brassmonkey]

Crazy season too finish outside the playoffs and be winners is truly remarkable. We were heading for mid table before the Covina rescued us. I’ll take it though

True. You shouldnt even have been in the play offs.

 

[UTM]

Love my caravan holidays too be fair. I’ll enjoy the trip too Bournemouth next year

That is nice .

 

[Norwayyellow]

Crazy season too finish outside the playoffs and be winners is truly remarkable. We were heading for mid table before the Covina rescued us. I’ll take it though

All the best sometimes it goes for you

 

[Mellowyellow]

Massive clear out looming - will probably start tomorrow - Eastwood, Dickie, Brannagan, Taylor and Browne going back. KR will reluctantly be lured to a Championship club with Mous taking over. Sad and bad night.

That would be a very poor, but predictable move by the board, who will no doubt come out with the usual promises. Mous cannot take over, he has no experience, when we need experience to steady the ship, to stay away from the wrong end of the table.

 

[OUFCwaffle]

We do need a complete re-shuffle, let's be honest. Taylor and Dickie will not be playing with us next year.

Marcus Brown can f**k off and Woodburn. Too many times does he just prance about with the ball trying to be all fancy pancy and then fucks up. He is not a team player and doesn't deserve to wear the shirt.

I just hope we can keep the core players that work hard like Sykes, Ruffles, Branners, Gorrin etc. And then build on that. But no more of these pre Madonna premier League rejects that have no respect for the club.

We just have no backbone at the moment. Accepting lower offers for players rather than sticking it out. We lost promotion when Fosu and Baptiste went, lost all of our soul that gave us so much hope at the start.

Where was that spirit today?

 

[MC Yellow]

Crazy season too finish outside the playoffs and be winners is truly remarkable. We were heading for mid table before the Covina rescued us. I’ll take it though

Congratulations... without Covid lockdown I would seriously question you getting into the playoffs.

But it happened, you got a playoff place yet still had to get through 3 matches. You did, so fair play.

Enjoy the championship.

 

[battman]

I do hope we're looking back in a year's time and thinking 'thank god we got promotion to the Championship with fans in the stadium'. As much as Wycombe will celebrate tonight, I think deep down they know it'll be a one-season thing. And half of that will be playing in empty stadiums, where's the fun in that?

 

[UTM]

‘To’

it is spam mate .

 

[Thecurraghofkildare]

First half we were dire. Kelly coming on at half time made a big difference and we were much more effective second half and the only team that looked like winning until calamity struck.

Back four all did well and gave them nothing from open play. Dickie really didn't put a foot wrong all game, Moore was excellent apart from not heading the ball away but it certainly looked like he got a call from the keeper. Full backs solid but not spectacular. Easty has been poor all the play offs and sadly almost single-handedly cost us promotion after a great career at the club.

Gorrin has to be our most overrated player - really don't know what he offers other than a guaranteed booking each game. Brannagan won't be going anywhere based on that performance, maybe he isn't fully fit but offered nothing (seemed to be playing left back first half!?) and half the player he can be. Henry incredibly frustrating, some great passes at times, others miscued when good runs had been made and why he didn't shoot.....Taylor would have been offside anyway if the ball had reached him from the cross.

Sykes by far our best attacking player, constant menace down the right, great pace (he gave Akinfenwa a five yard head start over six yards and still beat him to the ball!) and thought his crosses were spot on given. Just some great defending by Stewart who deservedly was MOTM (although Lee Hendrie would have given to one of their players if we had won 6-0 so biased was he in his views).

No fan of Browne - just too much of an individual rather than a team player and Matty Taylor was disappointing throughout the playoffs perhaps due to injury but he is just a goalscorer waiting for chances to be put on a plate for him and he doesn't offer any threat over the top - we were crying our for a forward with pace to get in behind and surprised that Browne wasn't tried in this role as was getting little joy down the left.

All in all, gutted to lose to an anti-football, mediocre team who really didn't deserve the victory but were handed it by our mistakes. That said, we are probably at the right level for next season and would have struggled enormously if going up whereas at least we can look forward to two more wins over the Scum now.

 

[Pillox]

That would be a very poor, but predictable move by the board, who will no doubt come out with the usual promises. Mous cannot take over, he has no experience, when we need experience to steady the ship, to stay away from the wrong end of the table.

Your right

It'll be mackie

 

[Big Ronaldo]

Sykes played okay but his goal was a cross.
Brannagan was clearly not the fit and nowhere near the flying midfielder of earlier this season.
Taylor and Browne were largely anonymous, as was Henry who I particularly rate.
Easty was at fault for both goals and everyone knows it. As a group, despite some wonderful football this season we have fallen well short of the level that is required to be promoted. It hurts as We have largely been superb this season. But we never really showed up at Wembley ( or the play-offs tbf) yet again when s**t came to shove. There is something missing beyond our limited budget and I wish that I had the wit and wisdom to know what it is.
Fair play to Whycome, at least they knew who they were and what they were about. But us?
I wish I could say that this team will stay together and Fight again next season. But that is it for some. Game over. Our best chance of promotion has passed us by in a whirlwind of mediocre Performances just when we needed brilliance.
We will see an exodus of talent now, but let’s hope that we get players in who are even hungrier to push this club on to greater success.?

 

[GreenMachine]

Being able to play Swindon is not a silver lining.. Oxford United championship team.. Oxford united bottom half of league one. I'd rather be fighting for survival in championship than most likely doing the same next year in League one. This is a big loss. Stuck in the 3sided joke stadium again too. Least if we had got to championship we may have been able to finance some sort of forth temporary stand. Not now though. It's just hard to swallow especially the way it Happened and knowing the strength of the league next year and our finances. No money from any of these playoffs.. We will be in a sorry state come start on next season.

 

[brassmonkey]

The board wont be that bothered about not going up. They showed their intentions when selling baptiste on the cheap.

 

[Andy1505]

Unfortunately I'm not really that surprised and not even that disappointed, it was kind of inevitable! The truth is we weren't good enough tonight, Wycombe deserved the win, they wanted it more than we did and they took their chances. Yes it would have been fun to see us on tv more but no doubt people would be coming on here moaning if we had gone up and were getting battered every week next season!

Yes we had all the possession tonight but we didn't convert it into goals, and we've gotta say honestly that we were slightly lucky to get past Pompey. I for one will wish Wycombe good luck next year, tho you kinda think they will need a lot of luck to not come straight back down. As we would have!

Yes it will be tough again for us next year, there will
be a lot of big teams coming into the league, and the finances along with talk of wage caps etc won't make it any easier, this realistically probably was our best chance for a long time to get up. But let's hope we're in a stronger position than some other clubs, apparently Tiger has a plan for now so let's hope he finally delivers on it.

We always have to sell players, as we did with Whyte, Fosu and Shandon yet we still gave it a decent go this year. We all know the team needs a good strengthening all over, as I for one think our squad didn't have enough depth ie full backs, wide players, too many central midfielders and Mackie as back up striker is unfortunately not gonna get us up. Trust in KR and the scouting team to do their thing, plenty more Sykes's and Whyte's our there if you know where to look.

With all that is going on in the world let's keep some perspective on life, and be grateful we are alive and kicking, and let us pray for those who have lost their lives due to this awful situation.
We still have a club to love and follow.

 

[yellowbow]

I really hope Robinson stays but I have a feeling that he wont like what the board has to say concerning next season and so might walk. Next season will be about pulling our horns in (excuse the pun) and starting from scratch, using younger hungrier players. Maybe, if Robinson doesn't fancy the challenge, then Mous will be the perfect fit.

All guesswork though, the dust needs to settle on this for a day or two .

 

[werthersoriginal]

Being able to play Swindon is not a silver lining.. Oxford United championship team.. Oxford united bottom half of league one. I'd rather be fighting for survival in championship than most likely doing the same next year in League one. This is a big loss. Stuck in the 3sided joke stadium again too. Least if we had got to championship we may have been able to finance some sort of forth temporary stand. Not now though. It's just hard to swallow especially the way it Happened and knowing the strength of the league next year and our finances. No money from any of these playoffs.. We will be in a sorry state come start on next season.
[/

If you want to be a football fan you need to be able to deal with these things. We blew our chance tonight but only got into the playoffs by the skin of our teeth through a last minute goal

 

[RyanioBirdio]

I thought we were missing a spark really. We needed someone to take the game by the scruff of the neck and to really start running at Wycombe.

Couldn’t agree more with that. Tonight was where and when we really missed that Fosu or Baptiste character. One loves to get shots away and get at defenders, the other can actually carry the ball forward and get on the turn through the middle. I am not using this as an opportunity to bang the “we should never have sold them” drum, I’m merely saying that yes, this was the sort of night where we missed the types of player they happen to be. We didn’t have an awful lot of attacking depth with Holland not being able to get fit and stay on, and Hall not being allowed to feature etc. I think we were one attacking option short when we needed it, but that even so we had enough moments to get ahead and should’ve had enough about us to find one more gear. It was there for the taking and for a number of reasons it just didn’t happen.

Fair play to Wycombe, goals win games and that’s all that matters, but they’ve seen our keeper flap at a corner which has then seen the ball go in off him, and then a calamity at the back gifted them a penalty ten minutes from the end. They offered nothing at all outside of that - I would’ve rather lost a game that felt like the other team shaded it, or where it at least felt on a knife edge. Tonight felt like watching a team snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

As a side note, after the Portsmouth game Eastwood said on Radio Oxford that he was going to stay still for McGeehan’s penalty, but dived at the last moment because “if you stand still and it goes in the corner you look a right plonker” or words very close to that effect. I would genuinely love to know if Wycombe had someone listen back to the post match and if they made sure that any penalty in normal play went down the middle as a result. Merely an “I wonder if...” thought, nothing more. It doesn’t matter now anyway.