Home Match Day Thread 13/12/2025 - MDT: Oxford United vs Preston North End

[Carpy]

 

[Ox4Eva]

We can change manager, change your lucky pants over whatever we want.

You know what, the issue is simple really..

We don't have players across this squad who are good enough at this level.

Not particularly anyone's fault, the gap at this level is big and we can't bridge it!

Up the U's!

 

[m]

That's strange we were told by some happy clapper Rowett lovers that could never happen .......

What are you talking about?

 

[Bath Yellow]

Vaulks long throws were mostly ineffective, most were headed away without much bother, no plan B

 

[carefreeoufc]

I don’t think we’ll see a change. The board have openly said that relegation wouldn’t be the end of the world. Why would they pay out to get shot of Rowett?

The more concerning element of the table is there is now a gap forming between us an 19th. Even more so when you see that Portsmouth and Blackburn are going to have to play again (ok one might lose).

Rowett has been let down, some players have been let down and we have been let down. Doesn’t matter who is responsible, we need to work out what changes can fix the second half of the season. Whether that’s on or off the pitch.

 

[uptheus]

We were "not very good" today, ref and linesmen were , PNE were a bunch of fouling time wasters.

I’m absolutely bemused as to how PNE are 3rd in the league as they looked a very poor team.

Like someone said to me before the game, PNE execute what we try to do e.g. set pieces, finish limited chance as and try to catch teams on the break, especially away from home!!

 

[Swaby39]

Bottom 3 tonight which is absolutely where we belong this season so far. We can have no complaints. We lost by just one goal today so… Guess that’s a good result?

First half I thought Preston were a good side and it was only after they got the second and dropped 30 yards that suddenly our attack found some life. We cannot continue to be so reactive in games and almost wait for the opponent to allow us in to the game.

I was pleased with the line up, but how we played still left me head in hands. Did Romeny get the ball in to feet once? It just reaffirmed to me that Rowett hasn’t got this in hand. He doesn’t know his best side, but sticks to the same principles irrespective of who is on the field and again, he got completely bossed by the opposite dugout.

What irks me is when Des and Manning were here - inexperienced in comparison - you could so often see we’d done our homework and had a very clear strategy. Didn’t always work, but it rarely felt like we rolled in to games looking to hold a shape and improvise on the rest. It’s aimless, it’s toothless, and feels like a real lack of care in how we’re playing - not entirely unlike Karl’s final months where you wondered whether we were even training as we hacked it long to Tyler Smith endlessly.

Rowett might have the ideal CV but this has run its course. It’s gone stale, he doesn’t have the answers and if there is a healthy budget come January, I wouldn’t want a disgruntled manager that’s lost his edge anywhere near it. Sacking him would make him a victim of circumstance (to a degree!!), but something has to give that could impact results and give ourselves a sniff of a chance at getting to the summer as a Champ club and regroup.

We need to take a punt at this point.

 

[OtteryYellow]

I've always been very pro Rowett and still am. But today made me think we're probably not going to make it. Not because we played badly, but because we were pretty good in the second half, and still didn't really get anywhere. We just don't have sufficient quality players to make an impact at this level. If we can get 2-3 players in January of the level of BdK, we might just have a chance. But if we don't, we're almost certainly down. Maybe Rowett will be fired? I hope not because I don't think anyone else would get too much more out of this squad.

It's all very fine margins, we are just a little bit below the required standard at the moment. We could easily have gone one or two up early on in the game and then the whole thing would have been different. I'm definitely not writing off our chances yet. Get Spencer, CamBran and cheese (and maybe even Phillips stays fit for a while) back alongside a couple of shrewd loans in January and we will be ok. I thought vaulks had one of his best games today and was unlucky to be on the losing side

Personally I like prelec, Romeny and bdk as a combination of quality footballers, I think they are a three to build the team around. Goodrham looked pretty uninterested to me, I know he is a fan of a rival championship club and maybe he's been promised a move there in January?

 

[m]

That we're even considering Phillips as a possible answer for absolutely anything is beyond depressing.

 

[pommy80]

Gary Rowett sounded fairly hopeless after the game. He doesn't have any real grip over this side unlike last season, when he at least knew how he would approach matches.

I understand nobody wants to see a manager sacked, neither do i. However, at the moment, there is little evidence of Rowett's USP. It all just looks messy and chaotic.

Next week at Charlton is a must win. How on earth we will go about it is anyone's guess.

He’s been like that for weeks now. It’s been quite obvious after listening to his press conference’s that he has run out of ideas, and belief in this team.

 

[Toe knee]

Doesn't mean they are right though does it - they should be blaming tje organ grinder not the monkey

Both...

 

[Mateo Corbo's Tackle]

It’s b*****s, I’m sorry. We looked like children against men last year. This year, we are not getting overpowered. The eye test shows me that and the stats back it up. There is talent in this team and they are playing within themselves, and too many of our fans think they’re right to.

Damn, all that incoherent rambling I’ve been putting out for the last couple of months when I should have just written this…

 

[Maurice Earp]

I’m absolutely bemused as to how PNE are 3rd in the league as they looked a very poor team.

Like someone said to me before the game, PNE execute what we try to do e.g. set pieces, finish limited chance as and try to catch teams on the break, especially away from home!!

Totally agree with you mate.

 

[Maurice Earp]

Better game than many I have seen, unfortunately same result.

Ref was horrid, but you won’t blame him for the goals.

Rubbish.

The referee and his linesmen were truly appalling.

 

[TailsWeWin]

Can I come?

I'll bring whisky and wine?

Me too.

 

[Mateo Corbo's Tackle]

It's all very fine margins, we are just a little bit below the required standard at the moment. We could easily have gone one or two up early on in the game and then the whole thing would have been different. I'm definitely not writing off our chances yet. Get Spencer, CamBran and cheese (and maybe even Phillips stays fit for a while) back alongside a couple of shrewd loans in January and we will be ok. I thought vaulks had one of his best games today and was unlucky to be on the losing side

Personally I like prelec, Romeny and bdk as a combination of quality footballers, I think they are a three to build the team around. Goodrham looked pretty uninterested to me, I know he is a fan of a rival championship club and maybe he's been promised a move there in January?

I hate to say it, but Vaulks just isn’t quick enough on the ball. If he hits it first time, fine, but if we are going to survive in this league we need midfielders who are dynamic and quick-footed.

 

[Matt W]

We can change manager, change your lucky pants over whatever we want.

You know what, the issue is simple really..

We don't have players across this squad who are good enough at this level.

Not particularly anyone's fault, the gap at this level is big and we can't bridge it!

Up the U's!

I would say it is the recruitment then

 

[Oldman159]

For what it’s worth….

An interesting starting lineup. I thought we held them quite well in the first half and they were no great shakes overall. Some glimpses of skill and forward thinking (not much I agree) throughout the game. I guess that is our lot this year. There is a disconnect between defence and attack it seems. We seem incapable of making the ball stick.
And I was shocked when the subs were made and equally so as to who went off. Puzzling, for sure.
As for relegation? I imagine we would struggle in league 2 let alone L1.

Conceded soft goals again. Their goalie must have been their MotM though. Portsmouth win too…not a good afternoon.

Finally…The refs performance in the first 10 minutes clearly showed me we would get very few decisions go our way.He set himself abysmally low standards which he totally failed to achieve. He was supported by the ‘Refs assistant’ who assisted him very well mainly by ignoring foul throws, shirt pulls and penalty shouts by PNE for 95 minutes. Appalling.

Hey ho…..

 

[Joey]

I would say it is the recruitment then

Since Mitchell has been in charge he's done an excellent job, providing he's cut some slack after having targets lined up in the summer only to be told a month into the window that the money he was promised didn't exists so had to rip it up and start again while every other team carried on their initial plan.

We're never going to attract the best players in the league but they're more capable than they're showing.

 

[Matt W]

Since Mitchell has been in charge he's done an excellent job, providing he's cut some slack after having targets lined up in the summer only to be told a month into the window that the money he was promised didn't exists so had to rip it up and start again while every other team carried on their initial plan.

We're never going to attract the best players in the league but they're more capable than they're showing.

We don't seem to have the right calibre of players in the right positions though. I'm not privy to what goes on, but there is something amiss.

 

[West Oxon U’s]

Today saw yet again an avoidable defeat against a very ordinary Preston team with the U’s conceding another two poor goals.

The U’s find ways week in , week out of conceding very soft, preventable goals that will surely result in the club’s relegation.

Brown out-jumped by Storey at the back post from a looped cross from Small but perhaps there was a lack of communication between Leigh and Brown.
Or should Cumming have caught the cross? A big, dominant stopper cleans everybody out and claims the cross.

For the second goal Devine easily skipped past Brown and pulled the ball back for Jebbison to sweep into the net past Cumming. That was the sum total PNE’s attacking
ambition but it was easily enough to triumph against a U’s team that look bereft of a game plan or lack confidence in a strategy at the moment.

Oxford had many opportunities to get something out of the contest but lack belief. Rowett showed his own lack of belief by his puzzling substitution of strike duo Prelec and Lankshear with fifteen minutes to play for the totally out-of-sorts M.Harris and the lesser spotted T.Bradshaw. The changes ensured a safe passage to three points for a patchy Preston outfit who occupy third spot in the Championship table tonight.

For me, Rowett’s post-match sum up and demeanour suggests his time is fast running out.

 

[Matt W]

I wanted to say too, that during Will Vaulks' interview with Radio Oxford, he said the club has come a long way in short period. Not in my book, it has taken since 2006, so 19 years of rebuilding, some incredible players, exciting teams to get to this point. We (the fans) are not thinking of the past 18 months. I would like him to understand that point as it is important to us.

Gary Rowett also said something about letting them play with more freedom in the second half - I honestly think they are shackled to certain ways of play, which creates fear of mistakes/risk. Why not try from the beginning at home, near Christmas when we are DESPERATE for a home win?

There seems to be no idea on the attacking play, it is predictable to a me a 49 year old sat on his backside let alone professional footballers in opposition teams.

 

[Joey]

We don't seem to have the right calibre of players in the right positions though. I'm not privy to what goes on, but there is something amiss.

I think we do but the manager isn't getting the best of them. People were rightly quick to praise Rowett when the likes of Leigh and Vaulks turned their form around last season when he turned up but now players are playing badly it seems it's all on the player and the manager can't do anything about it. It has to cut both ways, if you praise he manager for raising levels he has to take some blame when they drop.

I'm not suggesting we're good enough for a playoff challenge or even being a stable mid table team but we're capable of competing more than we have this season.

Regarding the summer window I don't know how much you're on here but it's been discussed at length. Nothing will be confirmed officially but we hamstrung ourselves massively in the last window by promising he recruitment team a budget then suddenly taking it away after most of it had been spent. Aside from the many comments from Rowett the most obvious clue is we spent the best part of million on Spencer when we already had three right backs while we were so light at the top of the pitch. It would be mental to do that unless you thought you had more to spend.

 

[Joey]

Yet you already know nothing will happen - the Board will simply sack GR and the s**t will carry on

Still at least that will.keep mostvof the keyboard warriors on here happy for a few weeks at least

Are keyboard warriors the ones who think we're capable of better than 19 points from 21 games?

Absolutely the board are the bigger issue but Rowett needs to stop having excuses made for him, he's vastly experienced at this level and is performing worse than Buckingham with a much better team.

 

[Matt W]

I think we do but the manager isn't getting the best of them. People were rightly quick to praise Rowett when the likes of Leigh and Vaulks turned their form around last season when he turned up but now players are playing badly it seems it's all on the player and the manager can't do anything about it. It has to cut both ways, if you praise he manager for raising levels he has to take some blame when they drop.

I'm not suggesting we're good enough for a playoff challenge or even being a stable mid table team but we're capable of competing more than we have this season.

Regarding the summer window I don't know how much you're on here but it's been discussed at length. Nothing will be confirmed officially but we hamstrung ourselves massively in the last window by promising he recruitment team a budget then suddenly taking it away after most of it had been spent. Aside from the many comments from Rowett the most obvious clue is we spent the best part of million on Spencer when we already had three right backs while we were so light at the top of the pitch. It would be mental to do that unless you thought you had more to spend.

I'm on here quite a bit and have been since it was TIU. I don't know what happened with budgets in the summer, who would? My point about recruitment is that we're completely threadbare in midfield with just Cameron Brannagan missing. Vaulks looks knackered and is not fast enough of flexible enough to play week in week out in the Championship, much as I'm fond of him for on and off the field reasons

 

[tonyw]

To be honest, I thought the attacking play was OK today (at least until Lankshear & Prelec went off). Not great, but OK. We scored a great goal, forced a couple of decent saves and hit the crossbar. We did enough to get something from the game - even win it - if we'd defended properly.

But we didn't. For the 5th game in a row, we've conceded a goal to a set piece, or second ball following a set piece. We were soooo slow to get out to stop the cross coming back in. Frankly, I just don't think our method of set piece defending.....get literally everybody back inside the area.....is working, and I think the coaching staff needs a rethink.

And the second goal, bloody hell. Talk about being half asleep after the restart. We made it so, so simple for them to work around us, and then Helik didn't track his man properly across the area. Defend like that and literally every team in this division is going to score goals against us.

There were several other occasions where Preston forwards had far too much space in our half, and a better team going forwards would have punished us much more than Preston did.

This is a problem. The whole ethos of Rowettball is keep it tight and try and nick something. But we're not tight at the moment - haven't been all season - and so we're losing games even when we're having more of the possession and more of the play like we did today.

Charlton starting to feel like a must win game for GR.

 

[bicesterox]

For what it’s worth….

An interesting starting lineup. I thought we held them quite well in the first half and they were no great shakes overall. Some glimpses of skill and forward thinking (not much I agree) throughout the game. I guess that is our lot this year. There is a disconnect between defence and attack it seems. We seem incapable of making the ball stick.
And I was shocked when the subs were made and equally so as to who went off. Puzzling, for sure.
As for relegation? I imagine we would struggle in league 2 let alone L1.

Conceded soft goals again. Their goalie must have been their MotM though. Portsmouth win too…not a good afternoon.

Finally…The refs performance in the first 10 minutes clearly showed me we would get very few decisions go our way.He set himself abysmally low standards which he totally failed to achieve. He was supported by the ‘Refs assistant’ who assisted him very well mainly by ignoring foul throws, shirt pulls and penalty shouts by PNE for 95 minutes. Appalling.

Hey ho…..

I think the A R on the South Stand side waited for a call from the ref before raising his flag, they all seem to do it, like they can't think for themselves even on simple things like which way a throw is going

 

[TailsWeWin]

It’s clear the summer transfer window was a mess.
Rowett knows it, and is now p*ssing against the wind.
What better way of reminding the board than bringing on Harris, Goodhram and Bradshaw to save the game, showing the paucity of our attacking options?
Most of the current squad are way out of their depth, and he knows it. The game was over on 77 minutes.

 

[Joey]

I'm on here quite a bit and have been since it was TIU. I don't know what happened with budgets in the summer, who would? My point about recruitment is that we're completely threadbare in midfield with just Cameron Brannagan missing. Vaulks looks knackered and is not fast enough of flexible enough to play week in week out in the Championship, much as I'm fond of him for on and off the field reasons

I just wondered because it's been discussed a lot on here.

The long and short of it was the budget was promised and then changed after most had been spent, Williams shafted the recruitment team and the club. Several posters who have proven they know bits have said as much alongside the evidence (Spencer) and the many comments from Rowett where he said he wasn't happy. Based on the transfers we got in before this happened (BDK and Spencer) an most of those last January I'm more than happy to cut Mitchell some slack.

Agree on Vaulks and we're definitely short midfield so regardless of the budget change that's a black mark but again, it's harder to get the players in when you're suddenly looking for frees or cheap loans. I think Krastev could do a job mind you but he barely gets on the pitch.

 

[Trevor L]

Vaulks I thought had his best game for a long time. He and BDK must be knackered trying to carry this midfield. But the long throw is incredibly overused now.

I was very puzzled by Leigh's positioning. On one occasion for a Preston corner he was around the penalty spot while Lankshear found himself, intelligently I thought, covering the now vacant full back area.

 

[tonyw]

Just some stats I looked up to back up my previous post......

Last season we conceded 9 set piece goals all season - only Burnley conceded fewer in the Championship.

This season we have conceded 12 set piece goals already before Christmas!
For a team like us with a limited forward line, we simply have to be tight at the back especially in set piece situations. We're not at the moment, and if we don't sort it out, we're going to go down.