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

I'm not sure I think we were as bad as everyone else seems to think. Second half especially, we played some decent football and carved out some good chances that we didn't make the most of. Unfortunately the three key moments of the game
Didn't go our way: their first goal (Eastwood got totally wrong and Ruffels got bullied), the Henry 'pass' (I'm still trying to work out why he didn't shoot), and their second goal (Browne giving up on an underplayed backpass and a complete miscommunication between Moore and Eastwood).

I think the entire club will struggle to pick itself up after that. I'm not sure I've felt as deflated as this supporting the club since the L2 relegation.
 
People saying with Wycombe's style "they can keep it" but in what way were we the more entertaining side over the last three games? We created less than they did. In this game, Wycombe weren't just firing mortar strikes into our box they were playing calculated and well executed long balls with fast runners. Strong set pieces that fans could actually get excited about. When was the last time we could genuinely get excited by corners?

Will they get spanked in the Championship? Yes. But I won't be looking at Wycombe and thinking they play ugly football anymore because to be frank, they don't.

I'm still relatively happy in League 1 and hope we can remain competitive next season. And I Ionder how many of those who started tonight will be Oxford players next season.

You've changed your tune from #anyonebutWycombe ?

Mostly agree though. I'd argue we created more but were utterly inept with it. They weren't.

It wasn't cynical anti-football from Hell, it was a solid (enough!) team performance from them.
 
People saying with Wycombe's style "they can keep it" but in what way were we the more entertaining side over the last three games? We created less than they did. In this game, Wycombe weren't just firing mortar strikes into our box they were playing calculated and well executed long balls with fast runners. Strong set pieces that fans could actually get excited about. When was the last time we could genuinely get excited by corners?

Will they get spanked in the Championship? Yes. But I won't be looking at Wycombe and thinking they play ugly football anymore because to be frank, they don't.

I'm still relatively happy in League 1 and hope we can remain competitive next season. And I Ionder how many of those who started tonight will be Oxford players next season.
they had 4 chances all game to our 13.
 
People saying with Wycombe's style "they can keep it" but in what way were we the more entertaining side over the last three games? We created less than they did.

Not sure we created less. But the stats do show that possession is a pointless stat to win.

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Eastwood has had a weird play offs, made a massive save in the shoot out but been a liability in the actual games, can’t seem to read the game anymore. Some people said Archer was a flapper who would come unstuck but since he came back Eastwood has been that.
 
Emotions are running high, and everyone will be rightly gutted. But we've had to play in circumstances which are always much harder for a footballing side than one that plays more directly. It was hard to get up to full fitness, and even harder to get the sharpness that we need. Actoss the 3 games Henry and Taylor offered little, Brannagan struggled to get control of the game and Eastwood has made far too many errors. But you can count on 1 hand the errors they'd made during the normal season.

We need to rest, regroup and go again whenever the season starts up. It is sickening to come so close, but let's not start turning on the players and manager who have given us a fantastic season.
 
People saying with Wycombe's style "they can keep it" but in what way were we the more entertaining side over the last three games? We created less than they did. In this game, Wycombe weren't just firing mortar strikes into our box they were playing calculated and well executed long balls with fast runners. Strong set pieces that fans could actually get excited about. When was the last time we could genuinely get excited by corners?

Will they get spanked in the Championship? Yes. But I won't be looking at Wycombe and thinking they play ugly football anymore because to be frank, they don't.

I'm still relatively happy in League 1 and hope we can remain competitive next season. And I Ionder how many of those who started tonight will be Oxford players next season.
The thing is, and I would be the first to hold my hands up and admit we got outplayed today, they (resptively) really weren't, and really do. They created no proper chances from open play, they were all from crowding the box at set pieces. And a quick striker anticipating a ball over a centreback and starting his run when he sees his CB looking like he's about to launch it is very generously a 'well executed long ball'.

The whole frustration for me is that it's not hard. It's hard to play football like a Pep Guardiola team, it requires technique, concentration, imagination, all the things we love about football. We at least try and do that. It's much less hard to boot the ball up to a bunch of supremely athletic men, in the hope that the opposition will make a mistake (as today) or that the ball will fall and someone will be able to nip it into the net (again, as today). It's so basic. Which is why it's so frustrating when you allow it to win, as we have done today.
 
Had been mentally preparing for this feeling all week but didn't think it would be as bad as this. To lose in that manner is beyond a travesty. Two of the softest goals you could hope to see (not to mention one offside, after the ball looked it had gone out) and some absolute sitters missed. That Henry chance is going to go down in infamy. What a ridiculous thing to do.

We weren't outplayed and we weren't second best. They kept us at arms length in the first half, granted, but never looked like scoring a second. Our football in the second half was so fluid at times and we blew them away, missing a number of big chances. To get back in the game, make a boatload of chances, not take them, and then to have them score from a boot upfield that their offside forward runs onto to win a pen is just hairwrenchingly frustrating.

I know we should probably play the gracious winners and hold our hands up and congratulate Wycombe, and to be fair they'd been having a great season (up until December), but we were the better team today in every department - they didn't create any chances and didn't defend well. They were time wasting from the first ten minutes.

We've thrown away promotion.
Yeah we ought to be gracious, but to lose to a group who fail to play football, they just ruin the game is galling. I hope they get thrashed each and every week.
 
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