Home Match Day Thread +++ 2/3/19 OUFC v Scunthorpe United Matchday Thread +++

Interesting to see if sykes keeps his place next week or whether brannigan comes straight back in.
 
Why change the team at all? If this lot keep winning, even if it’s an uglier style than KR intends, stick with it. Brannigan, Mackie, Browne etc have to earn their way back in, not get a free ticket back into the starting XI because they’re perceived to be better. For me, a team of battlers who can get us out of this predicament is better than a load of flair players with PL clubs on their CVs.
 
unification said:
Why change the team at all? If this lot keep winning, even if it’s an uglier style than KR intends, stick with it. Brannigan, Mackie, Browne etc have to earn their way back in, not get a free ticket back into the starting XI because they’re perceived to be better. For me, a team of battlers who can get us out of this predicament is better than a load of flair players with PL clubs on their CVs.
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I'd bring Brannagan straight in for Henry. Looks exhausted and has stopped making the late runs into the box that got him those 10 goals.
 
unification said:
Why change the team at all? If this lot keep winning, even if it’s an uglier style than KR intends, stick with it. Brannigan, Mackie, Browne etc have to earn their way back in, not get a free ticket back into the starting XI because they’re perceived to be better. For me, a team of battlers who can get us out of this predicament is better than a load of flair players with PL clubs on their CVs.
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I would play Whyte as his substitution totally changed the game especially as they couldn't cope with Graham when he moved to the left.
 
unification said:
Why change the team at all? If this lot keep winning, even if it’s an uglier style than KR intends, stick with it. Brannigan, Mackie, Browne etc have to earn their way back in, not get a free ticket back into the starting XI because they’re perceived to be better. For me, a team of battlers who can get us out of this predicament is better than a load of flair players with PL clubs on their CVs.
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I agree but to be fair to Brannigan and Mackie I don't think they could ever be accused of a lack of effort or not battling.

Brannigan especially has been one of our better players this season. Good to finally have some competition and pace coming off bench.
 
Tomox said:
I agree but to be fair to Brannigan and Mackie I don't think they could ever be accused of a lack of effort or not battling.

Brannigan especially has been one of our better players this season. Good to finally have some competition and pace coming off bench.
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I think that’s the difference at mo , more threat coming off the bench.
 
Foley said:
I would play Whyte as his substitution totally changed the game especially as they couldn't cope with Graham when he moved to the left.
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Agreed, we’ve looked best with Whyte on the right and Graham left. If Branners came back in it would be tough to drop Sykes. Perhaps Henry would be the man to have a rest but can you swap him like for like with Sykes?. Either way it’s good to have lots of options now.
 
A good win today in tough conditions. Thought the team gave a lot of effort and kept trying. The Ref made some truly strange decisions, and their goal rather summed him up. Our CBs did well considering their forwards spent a lot of time tugging and pushing that Salisbury didn't seem to want to give until the end. Ref by numbers, rather than the game.

Whyte did what you want a sub to do, come on with lots of energy and really push them to defend. Sinclair did enough when it mattered and got in the right positions in the box. He's looks a lot more comfortable now he's played some games. Sykes has "it" and the assist showed what player he can become. A shrewd signing.

Hopefully some of the doom mongers will be more positive now we've won 2 on the trot. Some chap near me had, what I can only describe as, a massive temper tantrum befitting a toddler in the added time at the end of the game. It was quite hilarious to watch but rather needless - not sure why he lost the plot so badly.
 
yellowbow said:
I think a team halfway up the table who’ve thought they were safe are going to get dragged into trouble, and that’s dangerous as players can be complacent in those situations . It’s so tight.
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Walsall....
 
beyondthefourth said:
RadOx really didn't make it clear. There was no cheering in the stadium, and the commentators were just talking about how we should have got a free kick for 2/3 minutes.
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I never made it to the game as I cocked up on buses and trains. I was just as confused as I had the commentary on ifollow and Sky sports news on silent, the goals normally come up on sky about two minutes before the commentary but they were very late with this one maybe they were on ifollow as well.
 
Bradford look in complete disarray. Their captain took his armband off and threw it into their goal. Their fans on twitter are going into meltdown about it.
 
Settling down to a very welcome beer. Great result.

Before any praise can be put to the team, I think a caveat has to be made from the outset that Scunthorpe were really very bad. I feel like I’ve said this a lot this season, but they have to be the worst team I’ve seen at our place in this league yet. Utterly toothless, I thought Ojo would cause us problems after his bright opening but they proved to have absolutely nothing going forward. We matched them for poorness in the first half but turned it on after an hour.

I think starting Garbutt was something of a master stroke from KR. He made us very solid in that first hour and then Whyte came on when the game was opening up a bit and ran them ragged. I’m seeing a lot of people saying Whyte should have started but I think we need to keep it tight at the beginning of matches and then hit teams when they’re tired, as we did today.

I don’t know if I was influenced by the positive interviews from Long and Ruffels before the match but I thought they were outstanding. I’ve never been particularly impressed by Long butbhe was my MOTM today, I thought he was excellent. Changed my mind about him and must continue to start. Nelson and Dickie were also brilliant today, Dickie gets his head to absolutely everything. Rafa Marquez he ain’t and I’m not sure any of his long diagonals came off but what a defensive performance.

The most pleasing thing about Sykes and Sinclair’s performances for me were the visible respective growths in confidence each had after that first goal. Sykes started poorly but after that wonderful cross was popping up everywhere, winning 50:50s and going past people. Hopefully a sign of very exciting things to come. And Sinclair, doesn’t that just show what a goal can do for a striker. Brilliant movement and positioning for the second goal, but you could see his growth in self belief as soon as that first header went in, exemplified by his chasing a lost cause, winning the ball and then skinning his man towards the end. Tentative comparisons to Roofe’s first season were made on the radio (and, not to blow my own trumpet, but by me a little while ago on another thread) and it will be fascinating to see if he can use today as a springboard going forward.

Overall what pleased me about today (apart from the result and other results generally falling favourably for us) was the depth it showed our squad now has. Being able to bring Whyte off the bench changed the game, and, had we needed them, we also had Browne and Mackie. That’s SUCH a marked change from where we were even two months ago. We have the individual quality in our ranks that I don’t think other teams around us possess, and then thats why I think we won’t go down.

EDIT: on the depth point - losing Brannagan for two games, and having Sykes pop up in the manner he has, illustrates my point
 
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