Home Match Day Thread 18/5/2021 Play Off L1 OUFC v Blackpool

[Dilla]

One more season for KR not promoted next season then that has to be it, the clock is ticking

Why though? Overachieving with our budget surely.

 

[Leysboy]

That was abysmal. We didn’t lay a glove on them. We were very poor, and when we did get a rare sighting on there goal, we failed to capitalise.

fair play to Blackpool they will be in the final, and I hope they play Lincoln in the final.

Not listening to Jerome on the way home radio will be turned off, and I’m feeling extremely deflated right now.

 

[WuTang]

Wanted to stay calm even if we lost, but it's hard not to be frustrated, I feel like we bottled it. We threw our own game out the window, even when under no pressure at the back we were consistently launching it long and giving it away. On the chances we did make, we bottled those whilst Blackpool made sure they took theirs.
Didn't expect us to progress in the playoffs but beyond disappointed with that performance. Home advantage, fans back and only needed to hold onto a draw or narrow defeat, so so poor.

 

[chuckbert]

Powell’s millions

Power's minions?

 

[Ox4Eva]

If we can get an early goal, its game on.

Always proud of the club, up the U's!

 

[unification]

Play like you give a s**t Ruffs jesus

He is definitely going

I know people post emotively but it’s poor form to accuse Ruffels of not trying. 300+ matches for us and not one I can think of where he could be accused of that.

Going or not, he deserves better than comments like that.

 

[Dilla]

Go to Blackpool and give it a good go.

 

[IsleofWightYellow]

I pointed out that Ruffels is dodgy defensively before and some just didn’t want to hear it. The guy is not at all good at defending against decent players. He’s made defensive mistakes time and time again this season.

The slow Elliott Lee wide right doesn’t work without a good, attacking full back who will constantly make runs past him out wide and let him drift inside. Karl should know that.

James Henry goes missing sometimes, and can’t take easy chances sometimes. He’s not consistent - if he was, he wouldn’t be with us I guess. It wouldn’t upset me that much if he left.

A 3-0 home loss in a playoff semi final isn’t good enough, sorry. They’re a decent side but if you’re in the playoffs you should be too.

 

[ttg17]

Snuck into the playoffs at the death, came up against a really good Blackpool team. We weren't as bad as the score reflected, we had chances, Henry and Sykes in particular, and didn't take them, but you have to give credit to Blackpool because they are a very good side and on the day they turned up and showed us why they finished where they did. I'm less upset losing 3-0 to Pool than I was losing to Wycombe because it's clear to see they are just better than we are. I'll tune in on Friday, cheer us on, and hopefully we can at least keep things interesting till the end of the 90.

Exactly this. I don't think any of us had really appreciated how good Blackpool are, I certainly hadn't, but they finished third for a reason. We had our chances, we gifted them the crucial first goal, on another day maybe the rub of the green is with us. But no shame in losing to them.

 

[Concretebob]

If we can get an early goal, its game on.

Always proud of the club, up the U's!

Exactly, what is the point in supporting a club if you give up so easily.

 

[Londonroader1]

Pool the far better side. A poor performance sadly.
OUFCX

 

[unification]

Hanson didnt do anything wrong. Ruffels on the other hand.

He doesn’t do a lot right either. He’s just ordinary. Good enough for a game against Northampton. Not dynamic enough to tackle the top six sides.

Not a total dud like Pekalski but in terms of return on investment he’s been found wanting.

 

[battman]

Really poor performance today. If the Burton game showed the best a Karl Robinson side could be, this showed us at our worst. For all the passion and flair we have, we can't rely on that alone to better a well-organised Blackpool side.

Blackpool are a resolute outfit, but that's three games now in which he's failed to get the better of Neil Critchley's side and work out a plan on how to stop them.

We lacked a cohesive game plan and didn't know what to do when we went 1-0 and soon 2-0 down. It's like the players were told to make a good start and the rest would follow. We couldn't cope with their high pressing or their counter-attacking, both which Karl and the coaching staff should have been well aware of.

For all those that bemoan that Karl has to do a rebuilding job every season and that 'it's not fair' that we judge him after 3.5 years at the club for consistent disjointed performances like this, I'd remind you that Critchley has been in charge at Blackpool since March last year.

Karl has a really rotten record in the games against the bigger sides (I'm talking about League One sides, not the free hits against PL opposition), and we're always as likely to completely fluff our lines than we are to do something magical.

 

[brassmonkey]

Blackpool played pretty much exactly the same way they did in the league match. Pressed us high. Outfought us in midfield. Won all the second balls and defended resolutely. You would have thought that our manager would come up with a plan to overcome this.

 

[Mad Dog]

Think that'll be the last we see of sicknote at oufc.

 

[FalmouthOx]

270 minutes + against Blackpool and we haven’t scored against them. As mentioned in this thread, they’re a resolute outfit. They managed that game superbly and were fabulously clinical. I’m very impressed by them.

That was a let down. It was obvious we were the junior partner of the two teams but I expected more from us. A bit more spark and more ideas. The belief looked drained from us from the 70th minute onwards. Sam Winnall going off was a final insult.

Still, it’s not totally over. 90 more minutes to go and at the very least give Blackpool a game. A 1-0 win would feel like a moral victory of sorts.

You do wonder whether the game would have been different had Sam Long been involved ...

Hanson was absent - we didnt have a right back for much of the game - abysmal all around. Player performances : No one more than a 4. We made them look like superstars. The scum would have hammered us today

 

[oufc1991]

I don’t want to turn this into a KR rant but he gets outdone more often than not by decent managers there are some teams
We can bully and beat like when we went on that run of consecutive wins but the decent managers know how to set a team up to make us useless like Blackpool did tonight will KR take us any further than league 1 im unsure but he’s done a decent job getting us into the play off this season

 

[brassmonkey]

He doesn’t do a lot right either. He’s just ordinary. Good enough for a game against Northampton. Not dynamic enough to tackle the top six sides.

Not a total dud like Pekalski but in terms of return on investment he’s been found wanting.

Agree. Goes back to not having adequate defensive cover.

 

[OUFCwaffle]

Think I'll just delete Twitter for another few more months.

 

[bashamwonderland]

Karl needs to break a habit of a lifetime and come up with a new set of tactics for the away leg.

Unfortunately I think this is beyond his capabilities.