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Home Match Day Thread 21/01/25 - Championship: OUFC V Luton Town

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ECYellow said:
75 points would more or less guarantee a play off place. We need 40 points from 18 games - 2.25 a game (cheers @Chippy ). Just saying.

All joking aside, that was such an impressive win tonight. Digging it out when not at our best is a great sign for the club.

There is lots to improve on. We need to stop conceding soft free kicks that give opponents the chance to load our box. Meanwhile, I think we need to be a bit better at playing through the thirds, rather than looking for the diagonal more often than not.

Despite Leigh’s goal, I still think the full back areas are our weakest positions on the pitch, both defensively and offensively.

Helik, Brown, Brannagan and Vaulks were excellent. Meanwhile Placheta and Dembele were constant threats and occupied defenders repeatedly.

So much to be happy about, currently. I fully expect at least two more additions (not Longman) that are going to really challenge our existing best Xl and that can only improve us further.

I’ll be amazed if Luton go down if they retain their best players this window. While they were crap defensively, I think that can be shored up.
Offensively, I thought they were decent and pretty tricky. Definitely more potent that a number of teams in the league, including Preston, Millwall, Derby and Plymouth.
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Let's get to 50pts ,then another window, keep getting quality players in
 
Daviddidcotexile said:
I noticed on TV that Sam kicked the multi ball to delay the throw which was probably the main reason he was booked
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Yup, and then, having kicked the ball off it's stand, he deliberately walked in front of the Luton player about to take the throw in! Most amusing but not very sporting - oh dear, never mind!!
Nearly forgot, he then confused the ref because he didn't have a number visible on his kit. All the training gear and bib had covered everything!
 
tonyw said:
Does make you wonder - a lot of the players out there for them tonight were part of their promotion side two years ago (Clark, Bell, Adebayo, Doughty, Nakamba, Morris, Mpanzu, Woodrow) and some of those that weren't (e.g. McGuinness, Jones) were bought since for more money than we could afford.

And it's not like they had any amazing star players in 2022/23 that they've lost since - most of those that are no longer still with them are plying their trade lower down the pyramid (Campbell & Potts at Charlton, Horvath is the keeper at Cardiff)

Not the manager either, as they started this season with the same bloke that took them up!

Weird.

And that's 12 losses on the bounce for them away from home. The last time they got anything away from home was September 14th. Makes our away record look positively sparkling!!
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It's a form game, football. We couldn't buy a point but with mostly the same players and formation (with some tweaks) we've won 5 of the last 7.

Man City earlier this season; same thing!
 
TailsWeWin said:
One of the most ridiculous decisions I’ve seen for some time. Surprised there hasn’t been more noise about it.
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Yeah scandalous that he waved play on, taken out by two defenders and nowhere near the ball. You’d like to think these assessors take note of this sort incident and don’t just concentrate on the really contentious ones that have a bearing on the result. If they do then this prat isn’t refereeing a game on Saturday, he’ll have a day off.
 
tonyw said:
Also took a quick look at their Outlaws forum - the consensus seems to be if they don't win on Saturday (home to Millwall), they're down.

One of the chief reasons being that their February fixtures are Wednesday (A), Sunderland (A), Sheffield United (H), Watford (A).

With their away form, if they don't win at the weekend, they most likely won't hit 30 points before March.

So very sad......:ROFLMAO:
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I wouldn't rule them out just yet. Luton rely on their thuggish tactics to get goals and use their goalie for free kicks and push everyone in the box and a lot of shirt pulling
 
TobyDavis34 said:
It's a form game, football. We couldn't buy a point but with mostly the same players and formation (with some tweaks) we've won 5 of the last 7.

Man City earlier this season; same thing!
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And of course at the back of all our minds ,the same thing could happen to us again.
The sooner we reach the magical 51 points the better, we are going to lose at some stage and this league is full of surprises.
 
Manorlounger said:
Yup, and then, having kicked the ball off it's stand, he deliberately walked in front of the Luton player about to take the throw in! Most amusing but not very sporting - oh dear, never mind!!
Nearly forgot, he then confused the ref because he didn't have a number visible on his kit. All the training gear and bib had covered everything!
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Yet a Luton sub similarly interfered with play ( in more or less the same place) after Longywas booked , yet the ref did nothing( as in didn't book him or even speak to him), in the end the 4th official ( I think) 'escorted' that Luton sub back to the bench
 
Was such a weird (but great, in the end...) game.

All started with the 2001 Space Odyssey intro being loosely followed by the horn players, the light show and fireworks, us getting toasted in the first 10 minutes (Jordan Clark is a propper pain to play against), then the team playing 'Pick your own formation' for the equaliser, Kioso on the left, Helik at CF and it actually working, a Goal line decision for the first time, before we then tidied up a bit in the second half and Luton defended like toddlers.

Ref was poor, so much for letting the game flow. Defensively we were good, unable to find space in the middle for large parts of the game, but Shem and Dem were always a good outlet.

The GR steam train rolls on. Love it.
 
The mighty Aldo said:
And of course at the back of all our minds ,the same thing could happen to us again.
The sooner we reach the magical 51 points the better, we are going to lose at some stage and this league is full of surprises.
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This is a good point and I think it’s worth noting the fixtures we’ve had under GR - no game is easy in the Championship but, on paper, it’s been a very kind run of games for him bar possibly Blackburn - and that was at home where we are reasonably strong. Among the previous seven were Leeds away, Sheffield United away, Watford away, in form QPR away along with Sheffield Wednesday and Middlesbrough at home. He’s done fantastically well but it will be interesting to see how he fares with some of the tougher fixtures ahead.
 
dickwalton1964 said:
This is a good point and I think it’s worth noting the fixtures we’ve had under GR - no game is easy in the Championship but, on paper, it’s been a very kind run of games for him bar possibly Blackburn - and that was at home where we are reasonably strong. Among the previous seven were Leeds away, Sheffield United away, Watford away, in form QPR away along with Sheffield Wednesday and Middlesbrough at home. He’s done fantastically well but it will be interesting to see how he fares with some of the tougher fixtures ahead.
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Well, you just said our home form is reasonably strong, as evidenced by our recent turnover of Blackburn.

It's all good, we'll get there :). Maybe 48 points?

Tonight I want to see both Sheff Wed and Plymouth draw at home, to put the icing on the cake this week.
 
Sarge said:
Yet a Luton sub similarly interfered with play ( in more or less the same place) after Longywas booked , yet the ref did nothing( as in didn't book him or even speak to him), in the end the 4th official ( I think) 'escorted' that Luton sub back to the bench
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Remember that, he was acting as ball boy but only for Luton. Looked very silly after being told off!
 
Village-Yellow said:
Well, you just said our home form is reasonably strong, as evidenced by our recent turnover of Blackburn.

It's all good, we'll get there :). Maybe 48 points?

Tonight I want to see both Sheff Wed and Plymouth draw at home, to put the icing on the cake this week.
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Pompey and Stoke draw. Forget Plymouth although the sooner they’re relegated that’s officially one place gone.
 
Teddydee1980 said:
Was such a weird (but great, in the end...) game.

All started with the 2001 Space Odyssey intro being loosely followed by the horn players, the light show and fireworks, us getting toasted in the first 10 minutes (Jordan Clark is a propper pain to play against), then the team playing 'Pick your own formation' for the equaliser, Kioso on the left, Helik at CF and it actually working, a Goal line decision for the first time, before we then tidied up a bit in the second half and Luton defended like toddlers.

Ref was poor, so much for letting the game flow. Defensively we were good, unable to find space in the middle for large parts of the game, but Shem and Dem were always a good outlet.

The GR steam train rolls on. Love it.
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In a pretty poor quality game Clark stood out. Best player on the pitch in my opinion, I was surprised and pleased to see him subbed.

I’m not a fan of VAR, however the goal line technology worked very efficiently for Luton’s second goal.

Ref bottled it on the Shemmy penalty. We’ve still not been awarded one all season.

From Luton’s point of view terrible defending in particular for Brown and Leigh’s goals, but as the great Barry Davies once said “quite frankly who cares”?

Phillips was very average, clearly once a decent player but it does look as if the pace of the game in the Championship is too much for him now.

In the end 3 points is what matters and I’m pleased to see the gap between us and the relegation spots increasing, the turnaround since Christmas is impressive.

Off the field, the exit from the East Stand carpark was chaotic, an accident waiting to happen.
 
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Funny old match.

Firstly though, best wishes to the chap in the East Stand who was taken ill just before the end.

We weren't very good - nowhere near the standard we set against Blackburn. Slower, less aggressive and more willing to fiddle about with the ball at the back. We also had a recurrence of 'lose-it-in-midfield'itis. Having said that, there were some good individual performances - it just didn't didn't really seem to gel as a team. Terrific resilience of course, and we found a way to win. That second goal of theirs looked nowhere near the goal line when Cunning saved it!

Luton were odd. At times they moved the ball about quite nicely. But their defence was awful and they looked fairly ineffective in our box as well (which may seem a strange thing to say, given that they scored twice - but they didn't make anything like the best of the positions they got themselves into). Their no 11 was laughably poor (is he about to move in the transfer window? He didn't seem particularly interested in the game or even where the ball was most of the time) and I was glad he was on the pitch as I think Morris would have been much more threatening.

The ref was another sub-standard one. I'd like to see our two penalty shouts again, his awarding of free kicks was pretty eccentric and inconsistent to say the least.

I'll take being 9 points clear of the relegation zone with ten teams worse off than we are!
 
dickwalton1964 said:
This is a good point and I think it’s worth noting the fixtures we’ve had under GR - no game is easy in the Championship but, on paper, it’s been a very kind run of games for him bar possibly Blackburn - and that was at home where we are reasonably strong. Among the previous seven were Leeds away, Sheffield United away, Watford away, in form QPR away along with Sheffield Wednesday and Middlesbrough at home. He’s done fantastically well but it will be interesting to see how he fares with some of the tougher fixtures ahead.
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Agree with your sentiment apart from QPR , who were not in form at the time, yes they’ve since gone on a good run but going into that game we’re in poor form, as they were that night.
 
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Sheik djibouti said:
If we had conceded the kind of goal Gregly scored last night, we would be collectively apoplectic at the worse than amateurish defending on display.

But it happened to Looton, so fuckem🙂
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He did well with it though since as he said in post match interview he lost the ball for a moment in the spotlight glare because it was so high and loopy plus keeping composure.
 
TailsWeWin said:
One of the most ridiculous decisions I’ve seen for some time. Surprised there hasn’t been more noise about it.
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We're little old Oxford, we're not going to get a penalty against these championship big boys.

This angle shows what a great finish Helik's goal was.

 
GR obvs trusted Phillips though instead of e.g. Sibley/El Mizouni without the choice of RR or Tyler despite his faults.
 
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