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

[SteMerritt]

 

[uptheus]

Why do we keep doing this?

I don’t know why we put both McDonnell and Vaulks on, why not just put McDonnell on if you’re taking Konak off because he’s struggling energy wise.

I do wonder why players like Mills and Konak only seem to be able to last 60-70mins!

 

[Oxford84]

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

Yep, i think he was a little deeper but wed gone from having a striker plus 3 behind him keep Charlton back to having Prelec plus Placheta, they couldnt close down Charlton.

 

[SirAndyOfCrosby]

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

'I bet you'd also complain if we did the extreme opposite' is always the worst counter-argument on this forum.

 

[BicesterU]

I don’t know why we put both McDonnell and Vaulks on, why not just put McDonnell on if you’re taking Konak off because he’s struggling energy wise.

I do wonder why players like Mills and Konak only seem to be able to last 60-70mins!

I think it might because of the vast distances they cover over that time, and the huge amount of physical and mental energy that uses.

 

[ThatSlopesATwelfthMan]

I think it might because of the vast distances they cover over that time, and the huge amount of physical and mental energy that uses.

Absolutely. In the last few games Mills playing that dual role has had to show levels of athleticism and raw fitness beyond any Oxford player I can recall. He's developing into a potentially elite player and others are noticing. Konak's a perpetual motion machine in the middle too.

 

[90syeIlow]

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 .

Cumming, please.

It's really not hard to get his surname right.

 

[BrockBuster]

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

Cause and effect. Every mistake has a consequence, this one is two points lost.

Most mistakes aren't so cut and dry. That's not to say his performances this season aren't worth more than that, but it's still pretty undeniable he doesn't make that foul, we get three points.

But yes, it may be he and his teammates are spurred on by this painful mistake to play even better this season and we end up with more points than we would have. It's just a painful mistake that he shouldn't have made.

 

[BrockBuster]

Stupid comment.

Thanks for adding some constructive feedback to the debate.

 

[uptheus]

I think it might because of the vast distances they cover over that time, and the huge amount of physical and mental energy that uses.

It’s strange why young fit men don’t seem to be able to last a full game, but may be it’s managing the better/more influential players game time because there limited across the squad.

 

[BrockBuster]

It’s strange why young fit men don’t seem to be able to last a full game, but may be it’s managing the better/more influential players game time because there limited across the squad.

Football has changed, potentially for the worse in the sense now you have five subs. With that being the case, players in certain roles are expected to give everything for sixty minutes or so and be replaced. Or if you're not, you're up against players potentially much fresher than you.

Never before in football have we had a situation where you have the opportunity to have half your outfielders with 'fresh' legs come latter periods of the game.

 

[Marked Ox]

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.

Isn't there a stat that the less possession we have the more points we get?

 

[lodeyellow]

Cumming, please.

It's really not hard to get his surname right.

With Jacob Knightbridge also on their books, Oxford Utd seem to like goalkeepers with “not really hard to get right if one takes the trouble” surnames.

 

[RgYellows]

'I bet you'd also complain if we did the extreme opposite' is always the worst counter-argument on this forum.

Close but “oh I’m not allowed to have an opinion then” has it beat.

 

[TailsWeWin]

What about the sarcasm-riddled “Thank you for your extremely constructive contribution to this debate” ?

 

[m]

With Jacob Knightbridge also on their books, Oxford Utd seem to like goalkeepers with “not really hard to get right if one takes the trouble” surnames.

It's not a new thing though, and arguably we've been better at it.

Paul Kee had a mere three letters in his surname and yet a very real potential for confusion.

 

[Trevor L]

It’s strange why young fit men don’t seem to be able to last a full game, but may be it’s managing the better/more influential players game time because there limited across the squad.

It's just modern football. From the era of no subs through to the present day the increasing number of options to bring on fresh players has transformed the intensity of the physicality, not always, to my old fashioned view, to the benefit of the spectacle or the players. It's not so much that they can't last 95 minutes, it's more that players (excluding keepers and defenders) know they are likely to play for 60 and they must put everything physically into that hour. It would be interesting to have data on rates of injury in recent years, my uninformed guess would be that injuries have increased with the intensity.

 

[Made-in-Jericho]

Looking forward to Elek v Purkiss round two of 'Maintain Attack or Go Defensive?'. Should be plenty of fireworks.

 

[Wallop]

Looking forward to Elek v Purkiss round two of 'Maintain Attack or Go Defensive?'. Should be plenty of fireworks.

I'm not - it made the whole Dub last time no more than a petty squabble. If those two start again, I'm skipping through the pod.

 

[Boris]

It's not a new thing though, and arguably we've been better at it.

Paul Kee had a mere three letters in his surname and yet a very real potential for confusion.

Especially after we signed Lance Key

 

[Boris]

With Jacob Knightbridge also on their books, Oxford Utd seem to like goalkeepers with “not really hard to get right if one takes the trouble” surnames.

When you consider how many people incorrectly spell the incredibly easy Donley, you have to wonder about Yellows' fans literacy levels. See also United captain and club legend Brannagan, who is also our second-longest-serving player, and people still often can't get his name right

 

[werthersoriginal]

When you consider how many people incorrectly spell the incredibly easy Donley, you have to wonder about Yellows' fans literacy levels. See also United captain and club legend Brannagan, who is also our second-longest-serving player, and people still often can't get his name right

'Rowatt'

 

[JayOx88]

We obviously don't know what would have happened if we hadn't gone ultra-defensive, but I don't think anyone on here was clamouring to throw bodies forward and kill them off. More that, it was just frustrating to see us completely change an approach that had them at arms length to one that completely played to Charlton's strengths.

I didn't like it against Blackburn but it made more sense than on Saturday. Blackburn were not as physical as Charlton and I couldn't see which of their players had an obvious aerial threat who could do us damage. Charlton, on the other hand, had Leaburn and Lloyd Jones in the box and probably couldn't believe their luck that we were just inviting them to pump balls towards the two tallest players on the pitch by some margin.

I would be amazed if the messages before the game didn't go along the lines of us needing to be extra-disciplined and try to avoid giving needless set-pieces away in our own half as Charlton thrive on putting the ball in the box, so it then doesn't make sense to pivot to a game plan in the last 10 minutes that literally invites them to do that over and over again.

Brown obviously has to hold his hands up and say he's made an individual error, but then I also think it's fair to say that it isn't all his fault and his shirt-pull is evidence that the way we were seeing the game out was a mistake. He obviously didn't have much confidence in Cumming up against Jones (no doubt influenced by the last-ditch panic against Blackburn) and if your Centre Backs are panicking when your goalkeeper is going up to compete then it makes a mockery of the plan. You need a strong goalkeeper who commands his box for this type of approach to make sense and we just don't have that.

Charlton had absolutely no footballing nous and all we had to do was limit them getting the ball into our box to see the game out. It was incredibly frustrating to see us throwing 2 points away so needlessly and I hope this is another lesson that Bloomfield has learned. He's done a lot right the last 2 weeks and he just needed to have a bit more confidence in the team to carry on doing what it was doing.

 

[Big Ron]

When you consider how many people incorrectly spell the incredibly easy Donley, you have to wonder about Yellows' fans literacy levels. See also United captain and club legend Brannagan, who is also our second-longest-serving player, and people still often can't get his name right

Some bloke behind us at the Blackburn game spent the whole match referring to ‘Will Lancashire’.

 

[Toucan]

When you consider how many people incorrectly spell the incredibly easy Donley, you have to wonder about Yellows' fans literacy levels. See also United captain and club legend Brannagan, who is also our second-longest-serving player, and people still often can't get his name right

Some posters don't know the difference between your and you are and also of and have. Players names are the least of our literacy concerns.

 

[Mateo Corbo's Tackle]

I think the “on the beach” aspect could really play into our hands. We have three, potentially four of our last eight opponents sipping their pina colada by our games, in all likelihood.

I suspect Millwall and Wrexham will be secure in their play off spots but not with a shout of the autos, Watford will be in mid table obscurity.

These three could end up being our “easiest” games, and I’m even including Sheff Wed in that.

 

[Oxymoron]

Some posters don't know the difference between your and you are and also of and have. Players names are the least of our literacy concerns.

As my old boss used to say "Know your shit else we'll know you're shit"

 

[SirAndyOfCrosby]

As my old boss used to say "Know your s**t else we'll know you're s**t"

Gillian McKeith?

 

[lodeyellow]

Some posters don't know the difference between your and you are and also of and have. Players names are the least of our literacy concerns.

Much less important than the apostrophe, for example.

 

[Ewes]

When you consider how many people incorrectly spell the incredibly easy Donley, you have to wonder about Yellows' fans literacy levels. See also United captain and club legend Brannagan, who is also our second-longest-serving player, and people still often can't get his name right

I sniggered at our back 4’s names a couple of seasons ago - Moore Long Brown Dickie.

That’s twice as good as the famous cricketing phrase “The bowler’s Holding, the batsman’s Wiley”.

 

[m]

I sniggered at our back 4’s names a couple of seasons ago - Moore Long Brown Dickie.

That never happened unfortunately.

Moore Long Dickie Ruffels.