Home Match Day Thread 20/02/2024 L1: OUFC v Northampton Town

[Northstandboy]

Post Match Discussion

Interview - Des Buckingham

Interview - Will Goodwin

Interview - Jon Brady

Match Highlights

Match Report

Ref Watch

Fans View

 

[Foley]

Shocking defending cost us.
Brannagan, Murphy, Dale, Goodwin all did very well.
Not fluid, but we had done enough against a very average Northampton.
Then we gift them a second goal. Hugely frustrating.

Hope Cam is ok...

 

[yellow rose of Texas]

Well not with the current ‘manager’ no, but under an experienced manager like Manning they would at least have a good chance of making the play offs.

Please change your monicker its a complete embarrassment to the great man. You are an arsewipe

 

[dickwalton1964]

Well that was awful. What, on gods earth possesses a team, who have started brightly, got a goal on six minutes, then commence possibly the most tedious, negative, boring half hour of football I’ve ever witnessed at the Kassam ?

Everything pointed towards taking the game by the scruff of the neck and building an unassailable lead. Instead, we choose to play the game in our defensive third going absolutely nowhere. Fifteen passes across the back four and then launch it long - what the f*** is that about ?

You’ve got our best player, probably our most likely goal scorer, playing deeper than Brown and Negru. The only reason Cam is put there is to hit those long diagonals. What other reason is there for playing him so deep ? He’s hardly water carrier standard, where he just gives it to the more creative players - he is that creative spark but what can he do from there ?

Rubbish Buckingham. Absolutely f****** rubbish.

 

[MJB]

We played OK tonight. Admittedly against a poor Northampton team but we created chances and we were good for our lead, twice. The subs were decent again and great to see Dale and Goodwin combining well for the type of goal we rarely score these days.

Sadly, both of Northampton’s goals were completely self inflicted. Absolutely brainless and particularly the second when we should be managing games properly.

Long over hitting a pass, Negru failing to deal with a simple one like against Reading and gifting it to them. I’m not having that offside suggestion - Negru just needs to deal with it.

Very frustrating as we were generally good - puts more pressure on Saturday too.

 

[chromeyellow]

Think the group of players lack leaders among them.
Too many times this season we’ve dropped points when we should be seeing games out.

We aren’t streetwise enough.

It happened under Manning & it’s happening under Des.

Under Manning:

Port Vale at home. Point dropped in the 99th minute.
Blackpool at home. 2 points dropped in the 92nd minute.

Under Des:

Northampton away. Point dropped 97th minute.
Derby home. Point dropped 87th minute. Lost 3-2 from 2-0 up.
Northampton home. Point dropped 92nd minute.

Both the leaders- Moore and Brannagan -were off the pitch.

 

[Jakeyboy13]

Well not with the current ‘manager’ no, but under an experienced manager like Manning they would at least have a good chance of making the play offs.

I'm not so sure about that,the wheels were well on their way to coming off with Manning too.

 

[ECYellow]

2 more points dropped tonight. What is Des’s win % looking like now and how does it compare to what we will need to achieve 75/76 points?

I’d imagine we are currently a fair bit short of what is required.

Murphy was excellent. Superb intent for the goal and he showed glimpses of real class. It was a shame he was withdrawn when he was. I do wonder if the data driven analysis of when to make subs is hindering us a touch. Surely sometimes players can push through for a bit longer?

Brannagan had a good game, albeit from a deeper role which imo stifles him but with that starting Xl, he had to fill in.

Goodwin took his goal well and Dale did great to work the opening.

Negru I thought was poor compared to Saturday and RR once again flatters to deceive. How many tangible goal contributions has he had during Buckingham’s reign? He doesn’t seem to be having the same impact as he did under Manning.

Decent crowd against an unglamorous bunch of limited footballers. Shame we gifted them two goals.

 

[Upthecowboys]

Des got the starting 11 right and a couple of his subs made the 2nd goal. I think he can be criticised for a few things over the last few months but that draw is not on him.

Long was the only realistic player left who could play right back. He’s not a top 6 div 1 right back and that needs addressing in the summer as I don’t think Stevens is the answer either.

I keep hearing this ‘what’s our style’? What does that actually mean? One of the positives with Des is that he’s not afraid to change things up, todays starting 11 being a good example. He seems flexible in his approach which is a good thing.

But regardless that was absolutely gutting, boy do we need 3 points on Saturday.

 

[Yellow There!]

I don’t think DesBall is actually so far from RobinsonBall. In essence it’s get the ball from the CBs wide to the wingers and put crosses in. No real midfield to speak of, but enough possession and crosses that some dodgy defending doesn’t matter so much.

We saw that today, buildup from the back, crosses into the box, if anyone could finish and not take shots from 35 yards we’d have scored 3 or 4. In our better moments you could see what we were trying to do and Des made decent tactical changes.

Stupid decision making cost us that and although recently he hasn’t covered himself in glory, I’m sure Des is just as fuming as the rest of us. 3 points when we host Orient now becomes even more important.

 

[JimSmith2]

Please change your monicker its a complete embarrassment to the great man. You are an arsewipe

Er, he wasn’t so great his second time round was he?

I am the truth teller on this forum. Someone has to be.

 

[ttg17]

This season man. It’s like getting blue balled for months on end. How the hell have we not won that.

Quite surprised seeing the comments saying the starting XI was vindicated. I thought the midfield three didn’t work at all. RR and BB did very little all game for me, neither really got in the game. Murphy on the right was a bright spot because he was a winger - that first half especially, the combination of Leigh and Bennett just didn’t do anything for me. Why was a left back picked over any one of our fit wingers? A couple months ago fair enough, but it’s inexplicable given we now have wingers available. I really don’t think having another winger on the left would have done us any harm. Was Leigh really a better option there than Dale, Goodrham or Burey?

To be fair to Des, the subs worked - MacEachran had the time to ping the ball about and Dale and Goodrham both caused problems (Dale’s contribution in particular I was really pleased with). The Goodwin goal was brilliant, and the Goodrham ball in that was just missed by both Leigh and Goodwin deserved a goal. The save made by their keeper when TG wriggled round their defender was also understatedly brilliant. But it’s still very frustrating that our best chances, against a side that was doing absolutely nothing, came from turning the ball over from a high press, rather than us playing through them. We created so, so little with the ball.

Long is getting pelters for the goal, and that back pass was mental, but Negru HAS to do better there, offside player or not. He also gave the ball away a few mins earlier in a manner very similar to the Reading goal. He’s not looked the same player he was at the beginning of the season, and you have to say it’s costing us.

Fair play to the Northampton fans. Turned up in numbers and made really good noise throughout. Their team also did what they came to do fairly well - stifle us and take half chances. But it’s still wildly frustrating that both their goals came from us literally gifting them the ball out of nothing.

Also worth noting I thought the ref had a good game. Didn’t have much to do but got the main calls right and carded appropriately. Not going to get worked up about the offside. Probably should have been called but we had about three more opportunities to deal with that situation, not an officiating issue at all.

I feel like we’re getting blueballed because I really feel this team is so nearly really, really good. We have little flashes of intricate passing, moments of individual quality and enough general defensive solidity to feel like we should be winning a lot more games than we are. I think I’m seeing enough to keep faith that things will ‘click’ over the next few games and we’ll hit form, make the playoffs and peak at just the right time to make a good fist of them. But it’s hard not to feel like, in the here and now, this group of players should be consistently performing a lot better than it is.

 

[dickwalton1964]

I don’t think DesBall is actually so far from RobinsonBall. In essence it’s get the ball from the CBs wide to the wingers and put crosses in. No real midfield to speak of, but enough possession and crosses that some dodgy defending doesn’t matter so much.

We saw that today, buildup from the back, crosses into the box, if anyone could finish and not take shots from 35 yards we’d have scored 3 or 4. In our better moments you could see what we were trying to do and Des made decent tactical changes.

Stupid decision making cost us that and although recently he hasn’t covered himself in glory, I’m sure Des is just as fuming as the rest of us. 3 points when we host Orient now becomes even more important.

Are you serious ? The football we see now does not, in the slightest, resemble what we saw under Robinson. KR lost the plot, professionally and privately, in the end but don’t insult the bloke any further by drawing comparison with this tripe we see from Des.

 

[MadridYellow]

Have to start by saying bar tonight I’ve not had a chance to watch many full games since Des took over so correct me if I’m wrong. But in a lot of his interviews he doesn’t come across as particularly confident or inspiring. Feels like his lack of experience in the EFL means he doesn’t have that confidence in himself and is making him manage us nervously and I think that’s coming across in his players on the pitch. I’m sure he’s an estute manager but doesn’t seem like we have any real leadership from the side lines, which is why so often we look we don’t know what’s going on or worse sh*tting it when we’re up and leading to disasters like tonight. Really think an experienced head next to Des might settle the team down and help the players (and Des himself) trust the process abit more.

 

[Northstandboy]

Des and Goodwins interview from X is up

 

[Followtheox1]

2 more points dropped tonight. What is Des’s win % looking like now and how does it compare to what we will need to achieve 75/76 points?

I’d imagine we are currently a fair bit short of what is required.

Murphy was excellent. Superb intent for the goal and he showed glimpses of real class. It was a shame he was withdrawn when he was. I do wonder if the data driven analysis of when to make subs is hindering us a touch. Surely sometimes players can push through for a bit longer?

Brannagan had a good game, albeit from a deeper role which imo stifles him but with that starting Xl, he had to fill in.

Goodwin took his goal well and Dale did great to work the opening.

Negru I thought was poor compared to Saturday and RR once again flatters to deceive. How many tangible goal contributions has he had during Buckingham’s reign? He doesn’t seem to be having the same impact as he did under Manning.

Decent crowd against an unglamorous bunch of limited footballers. Shame we gifted them two goals.

Murphy was withdrawn for Dale. Dale was excellent and set up the goal.

 

[Oxford84]

Wow. A draw against a very, very limited Northampton side, after being ahead twice, with both goals conceded coming from individual errors. It’s simply not good enough.

Northampton were absolute s**t, the worst team weve played this season by far.They basically sat there and asked to be thrashed.

 

[dickwalton1964]

Des got the starting 11 right and a couple of his subs made the 2nd goal. I think he can be criticised for a few things over the last few months but that draw is not on him.

Long was the only realistic player left who could play right back. He’s not a top 6 div 1 right back and that needs addressing in the summer as I don’t think Stevens is the answer either.

I keep hearing this ‘what’s our style’? What does that actually mean? One of the positives with Des is that he’s not afraid to change things up, todays starting 11 being a good example. He seems flexible in his approach which is a good thing.

But regardless that was absolutely gutting, boy do we need 3 points on Saturday.

The starting eleven was all wrong - that was the worst 45 minutes in years. Bennett had a shocker and Leigh was dreadful up front. Look at the second half when Bennett went off and Leigh reverted to left back for confirmation of that.

Brannagan was too deep and with one objective - hit long diagonals. That completely bypassed RR who was just a passenger. High balls in to Harris, for what ? Why didn’t Goodwin start ? Surely he’s fit now and surely Harris needed a rest. I thought DB said as much when we signed Goodwin.

 

[Mojofilter]

Stevens and Moore and we would've won that

 

[uptheus]

We should have signed a right back and centre back in January apparently, because there was plenty of time to add to our six other signings

I don’t think it was intention, as ai think he mainly went into the radio to say we should get rid of Des, but Jerome asked him what he would have done to replace Long and he said we should have done something in the transfer window.

The thing is, I think Des would still play Long at times even if we did have other options. Not saying if that’s right or wrong , just saying.

 

[Followtheox1]

The starting eleven was all wrong - that was the worst 45 minutes in years. Bennett had a shocker and Leigh was dreadful up front. Look at the second half when Bennett went off and Leigh reverted to left back for confirmation of that.

Brannagan was too deep and with one objective - hit long diagonals. That completely bypassed RR who was just a passenger. High balls in to Harris, for what ? Why didn’t Goodwin start ? Surely he’s fit now and surely Harris needed a rest. I thought DB said as much when we signed Goodwin.

No it wasn't the worst in years. It was slow and ponderous at times but we got behind them five times in the first half, the final ball wasn't there.