Away Match Thread 18/04/2026: Derby County v Oxford United

[Carpy]

 

[Thomas/Brock/Jones]

Konak came in January and is a starter and one of our better players to be fair.

Sorry yes Missed off him although a repacement for the injured BDK who has been a big loss

 

[Happyfan]

It's an interesting comparison that, because I'm not sure their records are that different.

Bloomfield started slow. You could put that down to his tinkering, us being sluggish about replacing Rowett (even after he'd gone), the fact we brought in 8 new players, a horrible fixture list in February, a mixture of all those things, and whatever else I've missed.

But he's done better in his first 18 games than Danny Röhl did in 23/4, and also better than he did with Luton last year.

Over the last 10 games, since he's found some sort of formula, we've won 4 and drawn 3 (which is the same return Röhl's Wednesday had in their last 10 games of 23/4). Over a season it's 69 points.

We might just run out of games, but it's my impression that if he was appointed a bit earlier we'd be safe, and if he was appointed in October, like Röhl, it's not too nuts to imagine Bloomfield might even have the better record.

Maybe there's one or two things about him that grate a bit, but I'd say he's done enough to keep his job whichever league we're in.

Bloomfield inherited a poor bunch of players.Yesterday day was the showing of that .The players missed two good unexpected chances to score .Both missed they are paid a lot of money to kick a football and are poor at that. , any other performance in a job you would be sacked.All through the season this has been a common denominator , every game missed chances.The players are poor, i think fans need to get off Bloomfields back.The prem loan players we have no way any of them are good enough to play in the premier league .That is why they are here. Tuesday night will be the nail in the coffin for relegation im afraid .We are where we are because the players are not good enough.It is no good clinging on the thought of West Brom getting a points deduction , we are not going to win our last three games.To be honest i cant see us winning any.

 

[Thomas/Brock/Jones]

Konak has excelled as well. All three are starters. Almost 30% of our starting 11. Makosso has done well when played. I’d say the jury is still out on Roosken etc.

Starters yes but apart from Konak for the past month they haven't quite had the effect on the team you would be looking for a la Murphy when we got promoted

 

[Osleroad]

It’s interesting the different messages from MB re the injured players..

What I’ve heard is:-

BDK - basically he’s chosen to have the operation but the implication is he could have risked playing on i.e. we’re in a relegation battle, it would have been good to have all hands to the pump.

Placheta - been on the bench recently, Woo been played ahead of him (that’s worked hasn’t it), then we hear he’s done his hamstring in training. I bet Placheta is annoyed (rightfully) that he hasn’t seen more action recently. It may be that he had a move lined up. But he should have had more minutes, and MB didn’t sound that disappointed that he’s out..

Then Jack Curry..

Words to the effect that he’s a trooper, wants to play through the pain. Far more positive language re him from MB than the other 2. That doesn’t scream squad harmony to me.

Then we turn Prelec into a perm, he’s hardly played and rolls his ankle and misses out. Are we confides he’s robust enough to be available for most of next season? I’m not..

It is easy to find faults at the moment, and I don’t want to be hypercritical, but I think the messaging re injuries is just a small sign of things (comms) not being up to it.

With BDK, if the club think he could have battled on and as he is a sellable asset, I’d have gone down the lines of..

1) Not hinting he could have played on.
2) Been really positive about having him available for preseason training, say how gutted he is. BDK actually felt the need to come out and comment.

Anyway on the scheme of things maybe I am being hypercritical, but think the messaging has been poor..

Think you are reading way too much into things. We criticise when players are not protected so if Currie makes his ankle worse and has to be subbed at a critical moment..Shemmy has often had a tight hamstring - it's why he has that home ice bath thing and perhaps with Konak and O'Donnell coming in BDK more expendable.

 

[Slade Yellow]

Yes… our bloody corners are frustrating. I just don’t get why they can’t be improved quite easily, yet we seem to do the same timid near post delivery, which is easily cleared.

Compare that to the Portsmouth winner today and it says it all.

Poor quality coaches that we have, same problems season after season says it all.
Being sentimental counts for nothing, until the bench is cleared the same dross will continue!

 

[Happyfan]

Surely you should have Un at the begging of your username?

No i am realistic i dont cling on delusion.I have watched every game to make my assumption.

 

[Happyfan]

Play him every minute you can. Try and sign him, and if you can, build the team around him next year.

The guy is absolute class and without him we’d have been down many weeks ago.

He is not good enough clutching on straws here .That is why he is not even on the bench at Brentford and will not make the first team.

 

[uptheus]

Whenever we lose a game, some people claim we lack fight. You do know it is possible to give your all and still lose right? It's lazy kneejerk analysis.

Sorry, I didn’t see MPH and Donley really putting the effort in yesterday.

 

[Thomas/Brock/Jones]

Konak more than likely to be playing abroad next season , league 1 even the Championship unlikely to tempt him I'm afraid .

 

[Big Ronaldo]

Yesterday was a sad denouement of a season where we barely got ourselves going.
The only time I really felt we were finding some kind of traction results wise was in the last four or five weeks where we started to look reasonably competitive.
There had to be a game where we came unstuck and I am afraid that our juddering performance at Derby was it.
I believe that the players have given it all they have although I am not sure that we have seen the best of a few previously mentioned.

As a club, we have to concede that the whole financial world of championship football is a yawning gap that we have difficulty bridging.
You only have to look at the Stadiums of these clubs to see the gulf and span of what it is to compete here, let alone the fiscal talent package required on their pitches to sustain their survival.
Not that it hasn’t been a brilliant ride. One that has given me great pleasure (and palpitations of frustration).
We are not quite done yet but how ironic that Netflix comes to town next to hammer in the nail!

 

[Oxford84]

I’ll see you in a years time when we’re playing you

Not if its the scummers, they wont be going up.

 

[Steve Gilbert]

Poor quality coaches that we have, same problems season after season says it all.
Being sentimental counts for nothing, until the bench is cleared the same dross will continue!

I am not sure the coaches are asking players to hit the first defender every corner!
Players have to take responsibility for things like that.

 

[Foley]

A real shame that none of the amazing players bought in in Jan have really excelled then.
Donely ,MPH the only starters and while some good games none of them have been the difference between staying up or going down ....so far anyway

Konak? Our best player in my view over the past month.

 

[Thomas/Brock/Jones]

Konak? Our best player in my view over the past month.

Agree , he wasn't on the original list I was replying to and missed him off .

 

[MiddleBartonYellow]

Looks to me like they have ran out of steam, maybe against Wrexham he needs to freshen it up a bit. Harris for Donley and Emakhu for PH perhaps.

 

[windmill]

Yesterday was a sad denouement of a season where we barely got ourselves going.
The only time I really felt we were finding some kind of traction results wise was in the last four or five weeks where we started to look reasonably competitive.
There had to be a game where we came unstuck and I am afraid that our juddering performance at Derby was it.
I believe that the players have given it all they have although I am not sure that we have seen the best of a few previously mentioned.

As a club, we have to concede that the whole financial world of championship football is a yawning gap that we have difficulty bridging.
You only have to look at the Stadiums of these clubs to see the gulf and span of what it is to compete here, let alone the fiscal talent package required on their pitches to sustain their survival.
Not that it hasn’t been a brilliant ride. One that has given me great pleasure (and palpitations of frustration).
We are not quite done yet but how ironic that Netflix comes to town next to hammer in the nail!

Oxford..a town? That's a new one.

 

[werthersoriginal]

It’s quite simple. When we go down, Tim, Ed and Matt have to go.

Yes we’re so massive, it would be like Spurs going down!!

 

[Slade Yellow]

I think we are done in the champ for now. A mixture of emotions really including frustration, sadness and a bit of anger. I’m also relieved because I think if we are being totally honest, it was a very hard watch for the best part of two years.

I think most weekends I was left perplexed with our decision making, and frustrated at not doing what literally every other team were capable of doing.

Today for example, 2 goals for us would not have been exceptional finishing…it’s just expected in the championship and I doubt Derby could believe it themselves.

I often find myself doing my nut when we get opportunities whilst others try and tell me they are half chances. Nah, we aren’t clinical enough and our decision making is mid table league 1. That’s ultimately where we will be 1 yr from now, whereas this time last year I thought we would be so much better.

s**t coaching!

 

[Slade Yellow]

Not long back from Derby after consuming some pretty crappy food and pretty dispiriting football.

It was a hurtful performance and result. Not a great surprise, but disappointing we weren't cohesive enough to actually muster some aggression, especially first half where we just stood off and watched Derby play.

It was all very low energy and we cannot carry such anaemic efforts from MPH, Donley, Lankshear and even Mills to a degree.

We are likely to drop to L1 now and we will need a serious overhaul by serious and experienced people. Are they at the club...?

We are too often pedestrian, we try to slow the game as much as possible and reduce it to a series of set pieces. If we are in league one, the squad needs a serious restructure to produce a more dynamic team capable of directing games. If we are relegated, that must be the aim, to contest automatic promotion and be better adjusted to the Championship when we return.

But we aren't down yet and it's important to fight, so let's see if we can get to 47 pts on Tuesday evening.

We will undoubtedly stick with the same two incumbents on the bench who simply consider themselves in jobs for life regardless of how crap they actually are, same basic problems each year even with different players! If they stay, expect another struggle next season.
s**t at taking a corner, unable to score, no motivation, ball watching, and more!
We need to stop the rot which most is occurring at our feeble coaching level.

 

[Teacher]

Problem with Emakhu is that he is hopeless off the ball. Doesn’t read the game and doesn’t want to track back. That being said, it simply can’t be MPH again. Emakhu worries me but maybe I’d go with it.

I would start Jin-Woo in the 10. He takes up good positions and has a lot of energy. He always wants the ball and the way he moves reminds me of James Henry in terms of the actual action. That said, he needs to stop falling over.

Got to win Tuesday and that starts with some brave calls from the manager.

 

[MiddleBartonYellow]

We will undoubtedly stick with the same two incumbents on the bench who simply consider themselves in jobs for life regardless of how crap they actually are, same basic problems each year even with different players! If they stay, expect another struggle next season.
s**t at taking a corner, unable to score, no motivation, ball watching, and more!
We need to stop the rot which most is occurring at our feeble coaching level.

You actually know that they are crap do you. Have you been there and watched the training to be able to come to that conclusion.

 

[Theox07]

Am I the only one who thinks are defence are been so good this season so underrated it’s ridiculous are attack has let us down

We have let less goals than the teams below we’re on 55
Hull city 61 goals they are 6th btw
Wrexham 60 goals 7th
Bristol city 55 the same
qpr 65 goals
Sheffield untied 59 goals
Swansea 56 goals
Preston 55 goals
Portsmouth 57 goals
West Brom 56 goals
Leicester 65 goals
Sheffield wed 83 goals

And are defence is under constant pressure people need to put more praise on the likes
Of
Sam long
Helik
Brown

 

[Teddydee1980]

Am I the only one who thinks are defence are been so good this season so underrated it’s ridiculous are attack has let us down

We have let less goals than the teams below we’re on 55
Hull city 61 goals they are 6th btw
Wrexham 60 goals 7th
Bristol city 55 the same
qpr 65 goals
Sheffield untied 59 goals
Swansea 56 goals
Preston 55 goals
Portsmouth 57 goals
West Brom 56 goals
Leicester 65 goals
Sheffield wed 83 goals

And are defence is under constant pressure people need to put more praise on the likes
Of
Sam long
Helik
Brown

Agree with this. Our issue is our lack of threat. Saw a comment earlier suggesting Long would be a squad player in L1...such disrespect on his name. Has been a solid 7 at least every game...made less errors than Brown, Currie and Spencer. If we go down and Long stays (which I would expect) he'll be one of the better defenders in the division.

 

[outsidethebox]

Pre season was a bit of a disaster. Summer recruitment poor. Awful slow start to the season. Apart for occasional flashes, eg Bristol City away, football was pretty poor. Add in injuries to key players and the late/delayed managerial change.

It needs a really good summer sort out and I'm OK about Bloomfield being given the chance to do that.

 

[Theox07]

Agree with this. Our issue is our lack of threat. Saw a comment earlier suggesting Long would be a squad player in L1...such disrespect on his name. Has been a solid 7 at least every game...made less errors than Brown, Currie and Spencer. If we go down and Long stays (which I would expect) he'll be one of the better defenders in the division.

Defence carried us last season we didn’t sign enough attackers and it has shown when ur top scorer is only on 9 goals ur in trouble

 

[The Mighty Aldo]

Am I the only one who thinks are defence are been so good this season so underrated it’s ridiculous are attack has let us down

We have let less goals than the teams below we’re on 55
Hull city 61 goals they are 6th btw
Wrexham 60 goals 7th
Bristol city 55 the same
qpr 65 goals
Sheffield untied 59 goals
Swansea 56 goals
Preston 55 goals
Portsmouth 57 goals
West Brom 56 goals
Leicester 65 goals
Sheffield wed 83 goals

And are defence is under constant pressure people need to put more praise on the likes
Of
Sam long
Helik
Brown

Have to say the defence have been outstanding, whoever has played. They have the odd wobble eg Norwich and Stoke but generally have been solid.That incudes Leigh ,Ter Evest and Davies when he’s played.
Just think in most games we never get above 30% possession and they are under constant pressure.
Unfortunately our midfield have to sit deep to help combat that lack of possession.
All stems back to the real problem of not getting in the right midfielders and forwards to stay in this division.
Out wide we only have one championship quality player and that is Mills. Up front Lankshear tries very hard and I feel should become a very good player, but he shouldn’t be expected to be our main striker, I doubt Spurs expected him to play nearly as much as he has.
We have blown unnecessary money on Romney and Dembele We could have spent that combined money on a better central striker.
If Peart Harris and Donley are looking to put themselves in the shop window they have failed. Peart Harris in the first few games looked promising and a cut above Philips, but he is no better.
Having said this how we can be expected to compete with clubs like Wrexham , Ipswich, Coventry, Saints all who have three/four strikers for two spots at their disposal

 

[JayOx88]

This wasn't realistic.

Bloomfield has done well with his resources and should have more points on the board had it not been for some absolutely braindead errors from a few players.

But for me, it ultimately was realistic.

Don't get me wrong, Bloomfield has improved us compared to Rowett and he deserves some credit for that. He undoubtedly has a manner and management style that the players have bought into and a few have definitely improved under him - Mills being the obvious one.

But Bloomfield also has a better squad than Rowett did, and I'd argue a lot of the reason we're better is that we simply have better players after the January transfer window and a lot of that will be down to the recruitment team.

For me, Bloomfield is incredibly weak tactically and if players are being called out for 'braindead' decisions then Bloomfield needs to be too. Since he arrived, there have been a catalogue of incredibly bizarre team selections and substitutions that have really hindered us and it has taken him far too long to recognise what partnerships do/don't work and what changes can be made to positively impact a game. He are some instances where I feel his decisions are holding us back.

- Sheffield United away: back 5 with no wing-backs available.
- Birmingham at home: 2 in midfield for the entire game.
- Charlton at home: incredibly negative last few minutes that invited Charlton to repeatedly launch the ball into our box, resulting in a panicky defence.
- Portsmouth away: didn't change quickly enough after our goal, should have brought on Makosso and reverted back to a back 4.
- Derby away: not recognising that Helik and Brown are quite weak against really aggressive strikers like Carlton Morris and can be easily bullied, leaving Makosso on the bench again.
- Repeatedly bringing Vaulks on in place of Konak and having him alongside Brannagan in a two, making us lose grip on the game.
- Acting too slowly to replace MPH and Donley in multiple games where they've been either gassed or complete passengers.
- Phasing out some players without an apparent reason why others appear untouchable. I include Ciaron Brown here, whose position this year should have been under more scrutiny considering his form.
- Finally, Norwich at home... his masterpiece.

I think it's far too simplistic to say that we just don't have enough quality and that Bloomfield is doing the best with what he's got. At one point during the Portsmouth game we sat outside the bottom three and if it wasn't for fine margins we would be at least another 4 points ahead with Charlton and Pompey both down 1 each. This isn't a team that's cast adrift and can't compete - the opportunities have been there for us to have our destiny in our own hands and Bloomfield has made a bit of a mess of it. I actually think he's underperforming by 4 points solely based on his decisions, and that's being generous.

We still might get out of this mess and I still believe in the players to win the next two games, and I'll be there giving it my all for them. But let's not pretend Bloomfield's worked a miracle to drag us here, the January investment was heavy and we should be going into the next 3 matches being able to control our own future in the division.

 

[Village-Yellow]

Whenever we lose a game, some people claim we lack fight. You do know it is possible to give your all and still lose right? It's lazy kneejerk analysis.

I felt we just looked a bit jaded yesterday and seemed to lack the sort of press and urgency I felt the game required. No in depth analysis, I am not that technical. It was just how I saw it.

But yes, I do appreciate it doesn’t always work out despite the best of efforts.

Given what we have done recently (even though results didn’t always go our way) I just felt it was a bit off yesterday.

It’s just how I saw it, but I certainly don’t want that to diminish how hard and how much effort they have put in this season, it’s certainly not that.

 

[90syeIlow]

But for me, it ultimately was realistic.

Don't get me wrong, Bloomfield has improved us compared to Rowett and he deserves some credit for that. He undoubtedly has a manner and management style that the players have bought into and a few have definitely improved under him - Mills being the obvious one.

But Bloomfield also has a better squad than Rowett did, and I'd argue a lot of the reason we're better is that we simply have better players after the January transfer window and a lot of that will be down to the recruitment team.

For me, Bloomfield is incredibly weak tactically and if players are being called out for 'braindead' decisions then Bloomfield needs to be too. Since he arrived, there have been a catalogue of incredibly bizarre team selections and substitutions that have really hindered us and it has taken him far too long to recognise what partnerships do/don't work and what changes can be made to positively impact a game. He are some instances where I feel his decisions are holding us back.

- Sheffield United away: back 5 with no wing-backs available.
- Birmingham at home: 2 in midfield for the entire game.
- Charlton at home: incredibly negative last few minutes that invited Charlton to repeatedly launch the ball into our box, resulting in a panicky defence.
- Portsmouth away: didn't change quickly enough after our goal, should have brought on Makosso and reverted back to a back 4.
- Derby away: not recognising that Helik and Brown are quite weak against really aggressive strikers like Carlton Morris and can be easily bullied, leaving Makosso on the bench again.
- Repeatedly bringing Vaulks on in place of Konak and having him alongside Brannagan in a two, making us lose grip on the game.
- Acting too slowly to replace MPH and Donley in multiple games where they've been either gassed or complete passengers.
- Phasing out some players without an apparent reason why others appear untouchable. I include Ciaron Brown here, whose position this year should have been under more scrutiny considering his form.
- Finally, Norwich at home... his masterpiece.

I think it's far too simplistic to say that we just don't have enough quality and that Bloomfield is doing the best with what he's got. At one point during the Portsmouth game we sat outside the bottom three and if it wasn't for fine margins we would be at least another 4 points ahead with Charlton and Pompey both down 1 each. This isn't a team that's cast adrift and can't compete - the opportunities have been there for us to have our destiny in our own hands and Bloomfield has made a bit of a mess of it. I actually think he's underperforming by 4 points solely based on his decisions, and that's being generous.

We still might get out of this mess and I still believe in the players to win the next two games, and I'll be there giving it my all for them. But let's not pretend Bloomfield's worked a miracle to drag us here, the January investment was heavy and we should be going into the next 3 matches being able to control our own future in the division.

That's a very good post.

The positives outweigh the negatives for me regarding Bloomfield, but I can certainly see his mistakes like you've pointed out and unfortunately we've been the architects of our downfall all season, under both managers.

 

[JayOx88]

That's a very good post.

The positives outweigh the negatives for me regarding Bloomfield, but I can certainly see his mistakes like you've pointed out and unfortunately we've been the architects of our downfall all season, under both managers.

That's fair enough. I'll admit I'm on the extreme side of not giving much rope to managers/head coaches, mainly because I expect incredible attention to detail given the money they are paid. Particularly for a club like us, it's vital that everything is extracted out of the squad and I believe there are coaches out there who would have done more. In our position, even only 2 points more moves the needle massively.

But I definitely agree that in being the architects of our own downfall the responsibility doesn't sit solely with Bloomfield and there have been so many mistakes made on and off the pitch.