Championship 23/08/2025: MDT: Birmingham City v OUFC

[Carpy]

 

[Victor1986]

But if we played with this team against Portsmouth and hull, would we have got something...I think so

Yes I agree we would have at least a point! GR is very "loyal" to players. It must have hurt him to drop the captain today but at least (at last!) he could see the problem. He also can surely see that Tyler is struggling - he must now be rested. He also likes Dembele but the lad just ties himself in knots with no end product. The real problem is that GR is not an " attack" minded coach and, if we stick with him, we need to get used to performances like the one today!

 

[tonyw]

Feel I'm repeating what I said in about a dozen games last season as well against the better teams......

.....but my God, there was a huge difference between the teams today in terms of quality under pressure. When Birmingham had the ball at the back and we got a good press on, it was 1-2-3 one touch passes in neat triangles for as long as it took and then they'd be away and into space. With us on the ball facing the press, most of the time we were lucky to get to three passes in before giving it away or someone having to hoof it to an isolated Lankshear working on his own against two top CBs.

I really don't enjoy watching these away games against good sides in the Championship (I guess it's more fun for you guys that get to go to the grounds) - we just can't match their quality. Sometimes the home advantage can nullify some of that, but not on the road. And I think the problem in 2025/26 seems to be that there are a lot more good sides - or at least fewer bad ones - than there were last season.

 

[OX14]

Feel I'm repeating what I said in about a dozen games last season as well against the better teams......

.....but my God, there was a huge difference between the teams today in terms of quality under pressure. When Birmingham had the ball at the back and we got a good press on, it was 1-2-3 one touch passes in neat triangles for as long as it took and then they'd be away and into space. With us on the ball facing the press, most of the time we were lucky to get to three passes in before giving it away or someone having to hoof it to an isolated Lankshear working on his own against two top CBs.

I really don't enjoy watching these away games against good sides in the Championship (I guess it's more fun for you guys that get to go to the grounds) - we just can't match their quality. Sometimes the home advantage can nullify some of that, but not on the road. And I think the problem in 2025/26 seems to be that there are a lot more good sides - or at least fewer bad ones - than there were last season.

All other sides have strengthened in attack and on the wing. Apart from Lankshear we are still relying on players who are league 1 standard to bring us the goals.

Obviously we have still got Prelec and Luke Harris to bring in but with playing Dembele and Goodrham on the wing at the same time we might as well just raise the white flag.

 

[Carpy]

All other sides have strengthened in attack and on the wing. Apart from Lankshear we are still relying on players who are league 1 standard to bring us the goals.

Obviously we have still got Prelec and Luke Harris to bring in but with playing Dembele and Goodrham on the wing at the same time we might as well just raise the white flag.

At least one winger was desperately needed, amazes me that this wasn't obvious.

 

[holdsteady]

Not really relevant but watching a bit of Leeds get slapped by Arsenal, the same Leeds who were dominating the championship alongside Burnley and it just reiterates the gulf that exists in quality between the tiers in English football. You see it when we play, if you don’t have good enough players tactics, effort etc will only get you so far.

 

[Vancouver Yellow]

I'll get pelters for saying this, but I don't care, someone's gotta say it. I think it's time to accept Goodrham is not what everyone thought he would be.

Even centrally, he's nowhere near good enough for the The Championship. We should've sold him when we had the chance.

If he wasn't "one of our own" there's now way he'd get away with being as poor as he has been for so long now. One decent game and a good goal against league two opposition doesn't cut it I'm afraid, it's just a clear indication of his level, and as I said a long time ago, he's a decent league one player, nothing more, and that's where he'll end up.

Sadly, so long as we have to keep watching "Rowettball" we'll be down there with him.

Yeah fully agree with you there. I do think we'll regret not cashing in on him this summer. We should've taken the chance when we had clubs offering bids.

Also think it's a shame we sold Rodrigues, given we haven't actually replaced him with anybody better. I do expect an attacking player to come through before the window closes, as based on the past three games we just can't continue to move up the pitch like we are currently - it's suicide!

 

[WarwickOx]

I'm sorry — actually I'm not, but what the f**k are some people expecting? Who else can we get who can get us better results with what we've got? He performed a minor miracle last season to keep us up and deserves our backing.

I'm embarrassed by the amount of avoidant man-babies and their myopic castigations. f**k off and support Liverpool if it's flashy signings and wins you need to feel secure.

I need to take a break from this bullshit.

Probably see you tomorrow.

All of this^
I think some perspective is needed.

 

[maccydee]

The odds were always in favour of a Brum win, and that's what happened. I can see the logic in the Rowett tactics, but it's a really tough watch seeing us lose with such a whimper. Over the years I've become used to Oxford sides that gave it a real go when losing in the last 20 minutes of a game.

How many years?!

We have been a bigger club against those around us for quite a bit. Now we aren’t

 

[Vaulkswagon]

I don't really see what the issue is here. Im pretty sure if he was allowed to say it, GR's words after today would be 'give me 30 million to spend on attack and another 30 for the rest of the pitch and ill give you a team that can go toe to toe with Birmingham. Give me a couple of loans and a 1.7m midfielder and ill do my best to give us a chance to nick a point at the end , like we almost did! '

This is how oxford survive in the champ.. there's no point moaning about it. If we survive a few more seasons then we might gradually build a side that's a bit more fancy.

One thing I was thinking today, looking at their stadium packed to the rafters. After all this effort to get our new stadium, all the money and arguments and time... and even if we do get it built in 2 - 3 years, which is going to still be a mammoth effort.. even after all this, we'll still have a capacity over 10k less than brum!

Enjoy us being plucky oxford cos it's our only hope atm...

 

[brassmonkey]

Lost count of how many times goodrham lost a challenge, missed the ball/got out muscled. Think he needs to be dropped for someone with physical presence or pace

 

[EastStandKieran]

Another week another defeat

The rot has got to end somewhere and somehow

next Saturday is huge Coventry are bang in form scoring goals for fun hopefully that stops next week. We the fans need to turn up make the noise bring the atmosphere from the end of last season

It's three games in nobody has ever been relegated on August

We know our team is not quite as good as others but it doesn't mean we can't compete it doesn't mean we can't succeed

 

[Maurice Earp]

I’m not too down after today… definitely we need to be realistic and we are improving. On to Cov.

Some people on here are talking absolute . Grow up. Get behind the team, don't give each player grief.

 

[TailsWeWin]

Miles off it. I honestly don’t know where the next point is coming from..

Coventry

 

[bazzer9461]

All other sides have strengthened in attack and on the wing. Apart from Lankshear we are still relying on players who are league 1 standard to bring us the goals.

Obviously we have still got Prelec and Luke Harris to bring in but with playing Dembele and Goodrham on the wing at the same time we might as well just raise the white flag.

Tbf o thought Dembele looked pretty useful but as I said at the Fans Forum he has to pass a bit quicker but GR did say he likes greed

 

[The Mighty Aldo]

I'll get pelters for saying this, but I don't care, someone's gotta say it. I think it's time to accept Goodrham is not what everyone thought he would be.

Even centrally, he's nowhere near good enough for the The Championship. We should've sold him when we had the chance.

If he wasn't "one of our own" there's now way he'd get away with being as poor as he has been for so long now. One decent game and a good goal against league two opposition doesn't cut it I'm afraid, it's just a clear indication of his level, and as I said a long time ago, he's a decent league one player, nothing more, and that's where he'll end up.

Sadly, so long as we have to keep watching "Rowettball" we'll be down there with him.

I agree with this and I will go further and will definitely get pelters

Cameron Brannagan, I think he is still carrying an injury he is not the player he was at the start of last season.
He has to play because we have nobody else and he must know there is no player pushing him for his place.
We desperately need another body in this position.But he is not producing the goods.

Maybe when BDK gets up to speed it will release him to play further forward

Hard to say it but we need him back to his best and quickly

 

[RgYellows]

I have to be honest, I’m not too disheartened by that performance.

I thought we got overpowered at least 15+ times away from home last season. I did not see us get overpowered today, against a team that cost £40m+ who will absolutely be expecting to make the play offs this year. Even if a 1-0 win ultimately felt like the fairest result, I thought 1-1 would have been as deserved as 2-0. Going into St Andrews with 25,000+ home fans expecting a win, seeing how Birmingham matched a very strong Ipswich team for intensity, I feared much worse.

BDK is the biggest difference for me, able to play at a faster pace than Vaulks - he always knew what he would do with the ball before he got hold of it. If we start to phase in Currie and his long throw, then BDK is going to be a massive upgrade for us.

Through three games, Spencer also raises the floor on any of our RB options from last year, and offers something at RCB that is different (and no worse) than anything else we have.

Lankshear looks an upgrade on Harris and more suited to what we need than Dane Scarlett. And I love Mark Harris.

If Prelec offers more of the same and Davies can operate at the same level as Brown, I think we have done a good job of lifting the overall level of the team. We might be light on the wings, but a 5-3-2 with two 6’0+ target men hounding the defence from the start and BDK in the middle could have us looking more competitive than we ever did last year.

Hull and Portsmouth were worse performances and a waste of bigger opportunities. Think we will stay up but need some points soon to avoid getting in our own heads. Thought our fans were great.

 

[Grumpy Git]

We have Brown, Romney, L Harris and Prelec all to come in.

 

[Swaby39]

There were some positives today. Unquestionably, that is the shape that suits us and should be built on. We don’t have a 10 (somewhat unbelievably), and it gets some of our better footballers in the right areas, adds a further body at the back and should, with time, yield much more opportunity to get the ball in the box. I think I saw enough today to think that’s our pathway to points. Now comes the but.

The concerns remain as they were 10 months ago and I am just staggered that we haven’t gone quite heavy handed with our spending in that attacking third. BDK only reinforces that - what a good player he looks. Imagine if we’d got one or even two more of that standard in an advanced area. Instead, we are fumbling it about between L1 standard players. It’s so untidy, too dependent on individuals, that we’re just so easy to get the ball off when we go forward.

We don’t ever pause, come back and build some pressure. It’s forced, loose and just exactly what you don’t see at this level. That’s part Rowett, part the tools at his disposal, but mainly the latter.

I’m hyper critical of our window because we’ve skipped the part of our recruitment that would’ve turned us from a team that can claw its way to 50 points, to one that should sail to 60. It’s a huge missed opportunity and whatever has restricted that from happening will take us down on present evidence. We just haven’t pushed the envelope enough to keep pace with this juggernaut of a league - it does not take 10s of millions.

I am encouraged by today. It shows we can still keep games tight against the strongest of opposition. But it’s one thing to do that, and another to extract 50+ points out of it. I can’t see it.

A difficult conversation needs to be had somewhere to understand whether we really care about being in the championship next year. We have a week to fix it.

 

[Shosho]

If we had that performance following points vs Portsmouth and Hull then I suspect we would have a different view.

I think my largest concern is the general lack of intensity. The press is disjointed, teams just easily play around us and we don't ever fully finish the press. I thought BdK stood out for us on the ball and off it - he was our only player of real quality.

If we end up with just Allan Campbell going in the final week of the window, surely something has gone wrong? It has the feel of keeping him around as a backup if other things don't fall for us.

Everything feels a lethargic at the minute

 

[werthersoriginal]

Interesting if you read the Ox Mail interview Rowett is talking about closing down and keeping it tight, and we lost because we didn’t close down for a particular minute. You can’t go through a season desperately trying to stop the opposition scoring like that.

 

[Jster]

We were statistical anomalies under Rowett last season. Most sides posting our numbers go down. We need to do something different this time unless we want to rely on variance (luck) again.

 

[tonyw]

If we had that performance following points vs Portsmouth and Hull then I suspect we would have a different view.

If we had that performance against Portsmouth, I think we'd all be a lot more relaxed and we might have three points on the board.

Based on what I've seen so far - in our games, and others - Pompey are probably one of the weakest half dozen opponents we're going to face this season in what's looking like it's going to be a much harder league than last year, and we have to be beating the likes of them at home if we're going to stay up again. That was the performance that really put us in a hole.....not today's (or even at Hull)

 

[Londox]

I think it's possible we will go into October with only 2 or 3 points but even then I don't think we are totally doomed.

Those losses to Hull and Pompey were bad bad losses. Dropping points to sides who I think will be down there come the end of the season.

Losing to the likes of Brum and Cov is par for the course given the financial firepower of those clubs.

 

[Essexyellows]

Thoughts............ Cross Country trains are a bunch of knobs.
Parking in Beirutingham is challenging...... found a space, a bit like that in our defence, that was further away than expected.
Just made KO.
We done alright TBF, rather lacking in the final third and the best chance falls to Harris.............. about it.
Decent enough shape, some sharp passing and all against a team that have spent £10 million quid or more on bolstering a team that walked League 1.

Seen worse.

 

[tonyw]

I think it's possible we will go into October with only 2 or 3 points but even then I don't think we are totally doomed.

Those losses to Hull and Pompey were bad bad losses. Dropping points to sides who I think will be down there come the end of the season.

Losing to the likes of Brum and Cov is par for the course given the financial firepower of those clubs.

October is going to be one of the absolutely key months this season - QPR, Watford, Derby, Wrexham & Wednesday (albeit four of them away).

Feels like it's going to need to be a 10+ point month........

 

[holdsteady]

October is going to be one of the absolutely key months this season - QPR, Watford, Derby, Wrexham & Wednesday (albeit four of them away).

Feels like it's going to need to be a 10+ point month........

Some pressure if we go into those games on zero points, so however hard we need to at least go in with something.

 

[werthersoriginal]

We were statistical anomalies under Rowett last season. Most sides posting our numbers go down. We need to do something different this time unless we want to rely on variance (luck) again.

We had no one to chuck the ball in today, no wonder we couldn’t score

 

[christenedinjericho]

I'll get pelters for saying this, but I don't care, someone's gotta say it. I think it's time to accept Goodrham is not what everyone thought he would be.

Even centrally, he's nowhere near good enough for the The Championship. We should've sold him when we had the chance.

If he wasn't "one of our own" there's now way he'd get away with being as poor as he has been for so long now. One decent game and a good goal against league two opposition doesn't cut it I'm afraid, it's just a clear indication of his level, and as I said a long time ago, he's a decent league one player, nothing more, and that's where he'll end up.

Sadly, so long as we have to keep watching "Rowettball" we'll be down there with him.

But Tyler factually isn't one of our own. He was born in High Wycombe. But you are right he's sort of stealing a living atm.

35 minutes into the match we were ok. For the next 55 we were struggling to keep possession. However, the Harris miss was a brutal reminder that he really isn't the answer. Nevertheless, in hindsight would Lankshear of taken that chance as chances today were extremely limited?

Onto Wednesday and I'm not one for huge changes but I do believe we should make plenty this time around. Now, controversially if Owen Dale has/not moved out why not give the geezer a olive leaf and a chance play instead of Matt Phillips? After the Millwall at home game last season I thought Dale bought some real spirit when he entered the game that also demonstrated he had a lot of spunk for our badge. Surely, him playing on Wednesday and him playing well could see us keep him here as a squad player rather than signing this Campbell fellow who atm no one really knows any thing about. Remember, GR hasn't actually said he's a hindrance but only has said nice words about the fellow. And I'm not Owen's daddy.

Another super super big week ahead and we certainly owe Cov a defeat.

The Smacker by the way was very good and should only get better.

COYY'S.

 

[Davox]

Im trying to be positive about where we are and I do think we looked fitter and a bit sharper today but (and its a BIG but) Rowett bemoaned the goal we conceded today because we were pressing too high. Well, throughout the whole game we never pressed as a team or set any effective pressing trap so of course we’ll concede space and allow them to beat the half hearted press!. The players look completely uncoordinated and lost when it comes to winning the ball back. It’s unsurprising we’re conceding soft goals because the players are so knackered and then we’re chasing shadows second half.
Secondly, if Kyogo tucks away those two clear cut chances today and we lose 3-0 then suddenly it’s an awful result.
In my view, I have no idea what sort of team we are! We don’t really counter attack effectively because we lack pace. We don’t press effectively. We’re not a possession hungry team. I think if we’re going to improve, we need to play braver in possession and get in opponents faces higher up the pitch so we don’t invite pressure as if we do that we’ll 100% be in a relegation fight.
I think De Keersmaecker is quality though and we need to keep him fit. He doesn’t panic on the ball like a lot of players we have and if we can keep Mills, Shemmy and Dembele in the team, those lads will create good attacking moments and hopefully Prelec can be the striker we need.