Home Match Day Thread 13-10-2020 L1 OUFC v Crewe Alexandra (2nd attempt MATCH OFF)

[m]

Some clarification from the EFL would be nice.

You do say funny things!

 

[Crewe]

If Crewe had no further positive tests, then I don't understand why the game had to be called off yesterday.

If as it appears PHE have had an issue with a cluster of infections, then it would make sense. But wouldn't the Wigan team have to self isolate?

Some clarification from the EFL would be nice.

Wigan wouldn’t have to because PHE do not count playing football as close contact (bizarre seeing as it’s a contact sport). You have to be exposed to someone for something like 15 minutes continuously. Hence the West Ham v Hull cup game a few weeks ago went ahead.

 

[Kamal]

Can't wait for the 3rd attempt match day thread

 

[ttg17]

They wanted to shut the club down, as they decided we had a ‘cluster’. Would have meant the next 5 matches PP. The club then essentially entered negotiations with PHE, and struck a deal that we can play again once everyone is tested and get the all clear. This all happened on Monday/Tuesday, meaning not enough time to test ahead of last night. The FL have been involved as well, and want to keep it all under wraps as they don’t want PHE ‘getting involved in football’. Hence the aloof statements we read yesterday.

Two more things. I am not an employee of Crewe, this is just what I have been told by someone who knows what they are talking about. Also, test and trace take a bow. It took them 9 days to get in touch with Crewe. 9 whole days. Disgracefully inept.

Thanks for coming and trying to shed some light from a Crewe perspective. I feel like there are three elements of this that don't really make sense, though:

1) From what you have said, four of your players have tested positive for the virus over the past two-or-so weeks (Owen Dale, Olly Finney, Omar Beckles and Ryan Wintle). But these cases haven't occurred simultaneously, and only two currently are confirmed as positive. Why would these two be considered a 'cluster', while Tranmere, with two positive cases going into the weekend, was not? Do the two recent cases contribute to the sense of it being a 'cluster'? If so, why was the Saturday match allowed to go ahead? It doesn't really add up.

2) Postponing your 'next 5 matches' from Saturday would mean you wouldn't have played again until 31 October. That would essentially amount to a squad-wide 21 day 'quarantine' from the date of your last match (10 October) - or, if what you say about the dates of the two more recent positive tests being from after our first postponed match (3 October), a 28 day 'quarantine'. This doesn't align with any of the other time scales or guidance from the government or the relevant health services as far as I can make out. Why would PHE impose a 'quarantine' in terms of an arbitrary number of matches, rather than in terms of time? It doesn't really make sense.

3) One of the issues that has vexed me, and I'm sure many other Oxford fans, so much about this whole saga is the lateness of the announcements of postponements. Assuming the negotiations you describe were ongoing on Monday, it must have been abundantly clear that Crewe were never going to be able to fulfil their fixture with Oxford the next day. So why was an announcement of postponement only made four hours before kickoff? This is better than 40 minutes, granted, and I think I speak for everyone sensible when I say in the current environment I obviously have no issue with matches being postponed in the interests of the safety of players and staff - but the lateness of these announcements is a real issue, and hints at a more significant lack of knowledge or control than you / your source are letting on.

Ockham's Razor would suggest, to me, that there has been a pretty significant outbreak at Crewe that the club have tried to conceal, and the EFL / relevant authorities have only found out about it in the last couple of days. The timescales and subsequent actions in terms of playing/postponing matches don't add up, and there has been a very telling lack of transparency or consistency about this most recent incident. I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but I just don't see what else had substantially changed between yesterday and Saturday that meant such drastic action had to be taken at such short notice.

 

[Crewe]

1. No idea.
2. The 5 matches included a Cheshire Senior Cup tie against Witton Albion that was due to be played this evening. So the 5th match would have been Doncaster away on the 24th, 2 weeks after the Wigan game.
3. In regards to the late announcements, I agree, and they really annoyed me as well. But what I will say is this, and once again feel free to take it with a pinch of salt. I know for certain that Oxford knew PHE were involved, and your club knew the game wouldn’t be going ahead way before it became official. Not good for fans, but hey, we are always at the bottom of the list.

In regards to your final paragraph about a cover up, I bloody hope not because my ‘source’ was sat next to me for 2 hours in a pub last night, and they work for the football club. I don’t particularly fancy 2 weeks isolation.

 

[SSU1965]

I agree. So why did they call Crewe ‘shysters’ without the full facts?

Although I have now given some explanation, although perfectly understandable not to believe me.

hello Crewe I'm not disputing anything you've tabled but the club/EFL needs to explain the reasoning to be fair

 

[Oufc28]

Can't wait for this game to be played and it's the dullest 0-0 in history.

 

[mooro]

Can't wait for this game to be played and it's the dullest 0-0 in history.

Perhaps both sides should just agree to go for that and not bother trying to rearrange the actual game

 

[nige01ox]

3. In regards to the late announcements, I agree, and they really annoyed me as well. But what I will say is this, and once again feel free to take it with a pinch of salt. I know for certain that Oxford knew PHE were involved, and your club knew the game wouldn’t be going ahead way before it became official. Not good for fans, but hey, we are always at the bottom of the list.

I suppose that's why the club were putting tweets out yesterday morning linking with previews to "tonight's rearranged game", informing fans about their ifollow passes for the game, and the local sports rag had an interview with our new striker who is returning to fitness about "why tonight is a bonus to him". But of course you know for certain that Oxford knew, so they were clearly fake news.

 

[captainox]

I suppose that's why the club were putting tweets out yesterday morning linking with previews to "tonight's rearranged game", informing fans about their ifollow passes for the game, and the local sports rag had an interview with our new striker who is returning to fitness about "why tonight is a bonus to him". But of course you know for certain that Oxford knew, so they were clearly fake news.

To be fair, there was 3.5 hours between the club's last preview type tweet and the announcement that game was off. (11:20 to 14:59) which is an unusually long time without anything on a matchday. Suggests there may have been some discussions ongoing.

And OM articles are always pre-written with the addition of "tonight" where necessary. The tweet with that article was at 7am as many tweets relating to pieces in the print copy always are. Others at 6am and 0630

 

[bazzer9461]

Crewe won’t be putting any statement out other than what they have already said

Why? Something to hide? What was the reason for PHE for calling the game off?

 

[bazzer9461]

Yes, so the isolation period starts from the day they took their tests, which was Wednesday 30th September. And because they tested positive, their 11th day was the day of the Wigan game, meaning they could play.

It the question is did they isolate on the day of the test? Because Beckles didn’t

 

[Orkney Islands Yellow]

If true, I wonder why PHE intervened? Not happy with Crewe's protocols over the past couple of weeks maybe? Didn't want a group from a high risk area travelling to a lower risk area at this time?

 

[bazzer9461]

Beckles did not have symptoms, so isolated from his test day. Wintle I’m unsure. I think he had symptoms against Newcastle, so in that case would have been clear a day earlier than Beckles.

No Beckles didn’t isolate from the rest date! He travelled with the squad a couple of days after the test so he fucked up.

 

[bazzer9461]

So what should Crewe have done last night?

Did Crewe travel yesterday

 

[bazzer9461]

So what should Crewe have done last night?

Did Crewe

The alleged deal was struck with PHE.

The word is alleged, s**t will hit the fan if they did maybe Crewe passed brown envelopes to all concerned in alleged deal.

 

[Oufc28]

Perhaps both sides should just agree to go for that and not bother trying to rearrange the actual game

Could be the help we need to get a clean sheet ?

 

[bazzer9461]

I agree. So why did they call Crewe ‘shysters’ without the full facts?

Although I have now given some explanation, although perfectly understandable not to believe me.

So what’s the explanation you’ve apparently been given?

 

[captainox]

It the question is did they isolate on the day of the test? Because Beckles didn’t

Already posted on here.

 

[bazzer9461]

1. No idea.
2. The 5 matches included a Cheshire Senior Cup tie against Witton Albion that was due to be played this evening. So the 5th match would have been Doncaster away on the 24th, 2 weeks after the Wigan game.
3. In regards to the late announcements, I agree, and they really annoyed me as well. But what I will say is this, and once again feel free to take it with a pinch of salt. I know for certain that Oxford knew PHE were involved, and your club knew the game wouldn’t be going ahead way before it became official. Not good for fans, but hey, we are always at the bottom of the list.

In regards to your final paragraph about a cover up, I bloody hope not because my ‘source’ was sat next to me for 2 hours in a pub last night, and they work for the football club. I don’t particularly fancy 2 weeks isolation.

Hope you get tested as you say next to someone in the pub who works at the club. As regard PHE and us knowing that would have to be yesterday’s game and not the original game as Artell suggested that we knew.