Championship 14/03/2026 - MDT: Oxford United v Charlton Athletic

[SteMerritt]

 

[Village-Yellow]

Where are those 4 wins coming from e.g. which games?

It's silly season.

They could come from anywhere.

Some teams may be on the beach, some will be nervous about missing out on a promotion chance and others, just like ourselves, will be nervous about the drop.

Roll the dice and bring it on.

All I ask is that we continue to fight in the way we have shown these past few games and lets see where it takes us.

 

[The Voice Of Reason]

I think it’s Sam.

It would be nice is one got players and the other supporters.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

It was always likely to come down to who can make the most of a set piece (theirs were largely far better than ours).

Yes agreed, I meant to mention this. We have reverted to hitting the first man when taking corners. It is unforgivable really - you can practice taking a corner as much as you like and there is no pressure on the ball when you take the corner. What's more it is positively dangerous - other teams do leave a man or two up and a break away is always on in that situation.

Surely we must have someone who can do better?

 

[Slade Yellow]

Wouldn’t mind seeing Prelec playing the no.10 role in behind Lankshear!

Also with Mills on the right and Placheta on the left. It was nice to see Placheta doing the basics at one point yesterday e.g. beat his man and deliver a cross from the left! With Mills doing that on the right then the opposition really have to think, plus it probably pushes them deeper as they’ll be concerned about the pace etc.

Add to that, 2 strikers in Lankshear and Prelec.

That would be a front 4 I’d like to see with the players we’ve got.

Not when we revert to just defending in the last 10 minutes, very nearly came unstuck against Blackburn with this idea, we cleared the ball upfield yesterday without having a single player forward. Vaulks was not the player to bring on maybe Harris should have come on he could have collected or held the ball up stopping it from going straight back into our penalty area, or even Woo collecting and running forward?

 

[The Mighty Aldo]

Regarding sitting too deep.
I’m absolutely sure that Bloomfield didn’t tell them to leave Prelec on his own and the rest sit halfway inside your own half. In fact he was trying to get them forward to support him.
Those of us who have played the game know that in the last 10 minutes of a game it seems easier to defend what you’ve got, you don’t want to be careless and throw players forward because you can get caught out of position.
If you’re in the bottom six positions this becomes even more of a problem. It happened to Pompey the other night.
We have done this for some time even when we’re drawing away from home. Every point is precious and you don’t want to f**k it up, but sometimes you do

 

[Chris on a Bike]

You have to win that game. Hugely disappointing.

At least you've dropped the pretence of 'we'

 

[uptheus]

Not when we revert to just defending in the last 10 minutes, very nearly came unstuck against Blackburn with this idea, we cleared the ball upfield yesterday without having a single player forward. Vaulks was not the player to bring on maybe Harris should have come on he could have collected or held the ball up stopping it from going straight back into our penalty area, or even Woo collecting and running forward?

I was thinking from the start, not in place of Lankshear.

I’d rather play on the front foot than sit and hold on to a 1-0 lead!

 

[uptheus]

I maintain my stance, that this is gonna go down to the wire, and we are not in a position to pick and choose, so they are ALL must win games.

I hope so, but I’d rather we were safe before the last game away to Millwall, especially if they need a result for automatic promotion!!

 

[Twiggy85]

I hope so, but I’d rather we were safe before the last game away to Millwall, especially if they need a result for automatic promotion!!

Yeah could really do with Millwalls place being secure either way for that last game

 

[MarkG]

Can’t believe the people saying we made subs and defended too early this game when we’ve just got ten points from a possible 12 with the same tactic.

Bet they’d be up in arms if we’d made attacking subs and ended up with four points from late equalisers.

 

[NorthWestOx]

Dykes has just been withdrawn from the Charlton team due to illness. Replaced by Leaburn

We saw him walking towards (presumably) a car outside the south stand which we thought was a bit odd.

 

[NorthWestOx]

Konak off makes me nervous.

Why do we keep doing this?

 

[NorthWestOx]

Brown needs to apologise to every player in that dressing room. If we go down by one or two points you can point the figure squarely at him for that. Embarrassing.

Though, he has saved us on a number of occassions too.

 

[Swaby39]

Why do we keep doing this?

I think he played the McDonnell card way too early. We can already see his limitations on the ball and that was Bloomfield effectively saying we’re going to see this out without the ball. Vaulks essentially equates to “just another body” at this point that we throw on to fill a space but otherwise know we’ll get nothing from him.

At 2-0 maybe you can afford to take Konak off but the game was much too tight to rip up working formulas unless absolutely necessary.

I think with the Emakhu selection, the subs, the formation change, the timing of those changes etc, Bloomfield got a fair amount of the game wrong unfortunately.

 

[BrockBuster]

Though, he has saved us on a number of occassions too.

Aye, which everyone is aware of - you don't get voted players' and fans' player of the season otherwise. In addition I'm sure he's well liked behind closed doors and it'll be quickly forgotten by his teammates.

But doesn't change what happened and he should be embarrassed and apologetic.

 

[MiddleBartonYellow]

Brown needs to apologise to every player in that dressing room. If we go down by one or two points you can point the figure squarely at him for that. Embarrassing.

Stupid comment.

 

[londonyellow]

Aye, which everyone is aware of - you don't get voted players' and fans' player of the season otherwise. In addition I'm sure he's well liked behind closed doors and it'll be quickly forgotten by his teammates.

But doesn't change what happened and he should be embarrassed and apologetic.

I'm sure he will be. Equally, I'm sure his team mates will understand that everyone makes mistakes. Maybe even you.

As gutting as it was, it won't be Brown's error that gets us relegated this season – it'll be our awful form for the first 75% of the season. No need to get things out of proportion

 

[MiddleBartonYellow]

It has to be said though, another team that kept possession against us. Some believe it doesn’t matter but I don’t see how you can dominate a game with only 38% possession, you’re constantly on the back foot.

 

[Symp59]

Yes if Lanksher scores when through then it doesn't matter about the Brown mistake when as a team we don't have many chances the scrutiny is always on the defence. The Konak decision was annoying maybe he's carrying a knock but you do feel he might create something which can't be said when Mcdonnell and Vaulkes are both on

 

[JOHN BOY]

I'm sure he will be. Equally, I'm sure his team mates will understand that everyone makes mistakes. Maybe even you.

As gutting as it was, it won't be Brown's error that gets us relegated this season – it'll be our awful form for the first 75% of the season. No need to get things out of proportion

Or the 2 points given away yesterday.

 

[Happyfan]

Seeing their penalty in the big screen, what the hell is Brown doing?!

If I was the manager I’d be fuming and fining him!

A stupid foul to make but the pulling and grabbing is continually happening in the areas at corners maybe he thought he would get away with it.When are the Refs going to clamp down on this?
Also having a Goalkeeper who is not fully committed and dithers before coming for the ball does not help.This Happened three times in the first half players cleared due to the goalkeepers dithering.This has cost us goals in previous games not coming to collect.Brown was not counting as on previous occasions the goalkeeper coming out.If the Goalkeeper had been committed and called out im sure he would have cleared or been fouled.
All in all a preventable goal.Hoping these two points lost do not cost us survival.

 

[Happyfan]

A team struggling for quality and form, and lacking in fight, passion, desire and identity a lot of the time as well. All qualities Long has produce in abundance.

Yes he's not been perfect, but he's been played in multiple positions, and wherever he's played, on average, he's outperformed every other player this season.

He's been a model pro, as usual, and a credit to the club this season.

Agreed if we had ten Sam Longs we would not lose many games.Always steady.

 

[Oxford84]

Do you think that at 1-0 down against the second bottom side in the league, and needing just a handful of points to secure safety, that Charlton would've just carried on playing as they were for those last ten minutes?

Yep they did exactly that ,hoof it towards the box, we just made that easier for them.

 

[Oxford84]

Can’t argue with that, but I’d say Charlton still with us sitting deep had nothing about them and the result was decided purely by a monumental cock up. You can’t tell me we looked in any trouble, because we didn’t. More pressure, yes, but it was well managed.

Had we stayed exactly as we were for 75 mins and conceded from being unnecessarily ambitious we’d say Charlton were lacking ideas and we should’ve just shut them out and taken the 1-0. Points are precious.

As I said in the post before I think staying in a 4231 while playing a bit more pragmatically would be the best of both worlds, so I’m not acquitting Bloomfield of blame here. It would’ve allowed us to stop the crosses a bit whilst also staying compact, but in a shape they’d spent 75 minutes playing pretty comfortably. The shape change was unnecessary based on what I was watching. My only complaint is that the finger pointing goes immediately to Bloomfield post-match from the majority before Brown who may as well have picked the ball up and drop kicked it in his own net. Pretty unforgivable stuff but it’s Bloomfield getting the pelters for what, putting Brown in a situation where he has to defend a bit more for 10 minutes? Come on… that’s a helluva let-off for an international footballer.

I would say Brown and the others had to do more defending than they had to because we went too defensive.

 

[Village-Yellow]

Or the 2 points given away yesterday.

It’s about what happens during the whole of the season.

There will be no end of circumstances where we can ring fence dropped points, careless errors, bad referee decisions etc etc.

I’m sure, if you try hard enough, you may also be able to think of moments where players have saved us points or gained us points.

It seems utterly ridiculous to lay the blame on one particular individual for one particular incident.

Regrettable and frustrating things happen in football all the time, as do moments of pure brilliance and joy. It’s the football rollercoaster.

We are a team and we win together, we lose together, we stand together.

This witch hunt is nonsense.

 

[Oxford84]

Regarding sitting too deep.
I’m absolutely sure that Bloomfield didn’t tell them to leave Prelec on his own and the rest sit halfway inside your own half. In fact he was trying to get them forward to support him.
Those of us who have played the game know that in the last 10 minutes of a game it seems easier to defend what you’ve got, you don’t want to be careless and throw players forward because you can get caught out of position.
If you’re in the bottom six positions this becomes even more of a problem. It happened to Pompey the other night.
We have done this for some time even when we’re drawing away from home. Every point is precious and you don’t want to f**k it up, but sometimes you do

But the subs Bloomfield made did leave Prelec on his own up front.

 

[werthersoriginal]

It’s about what happens during the whole of the season.

There will be no end of circumstances where we can ring fence dropped points, careless errors, bad referee decisions etc etc.

I’m sure, if you try hard enough, you may also be able to think of moments where players have saved us points or gained us points.

It seems utterly ridiculous to lay the blame on one particular individual for one particular incident.

Regrettable and frustrating things happen in football all the time, as do moments of pure brilliance and joy. It’s the football rollercoaster.

We are a team and we win together, we lose together, we stand together.

This witch hunt is nonsense.

Well no serious people are suggesting Brown is being told off

 

[Oxford84]

Can’t believe the people saying we made subs and defended too early this game when we’ve just got ten points from a possible 12 with the same tactic.

Bet they’d be up in arms if we’d made attacking subs and ended up with four points from late equalisers.

It wouldnt be attacking subs it would be maintaining what wed been doing for most of the match.

 

[The Mighty Aldo]

But the subs Bloomfield made did leave Prelec on his own up front.

No Plachetta was still on
But even then we weren’t under any real pressure until the mistake by Brown

 

[LowerSouth]

A stupid foul to make but the pulling and grabbing is continually happening in the areas at corners maybe he thought he would get away with it.When are the Refs going to clamp down on this?
Also having a Goalkeeper who is not fully committed and dithers before coming for the ball does not help.This Happened three times in the first half players cleared due to the goalkeepers dithering.This has cost us goals in previous games not coming to collect.Brown was not counting as on previous occasions the goalkeeper coming out.If the Goalkeeper had been committed and called out im sure he would have cleared or been fouled.
All in all a preventable goal.Hoping these two points lost do not cost us survival.

Cummings has made several vital saves this season , but I do agree with your observation regarding his hesitation in this game and also wondered if it may have contributed.
Another factor was something we have seen throughout the season , the clearance to an opposing player, who then drilled the ball into the penalty box .