Away Match Day Thread 25/11/2023 L1: Cheltenham Town v OUFC

[Northstandboy]

Des has left behind melting Mumbai and starts his English managerial career at cold Cheltenham.

COYY!!!

 

[Joey]

But to me it looked offside! And if it was the player gained an advantage.

It wasn't offside, the guy who tried to flick it on missed it. Not great defending to basically concede from a goal kick.

 

[Wallop]

It wasn't offside, the guy who tried to flick it on missed it. Not great defending to basically concede from a goal kick.

And even if he had flicked it on, it was straight from a goal kick so he would have been onside.

 

[MustardYellow]

Haven't had time to read through the whole thread, buts just wanted to say that some of the berating of Harris in the stands yesterday was ott and unfair. Evidently he has become a bit of a scapegoat. There were other, more experienced players than him who weren't on it yesterday and yet escaped the same barrage of criticism. Get behind the lad ffs.

True, but I think the aimed criticism is more due to the fact he's been poor for a number of weeks now. Granted the service into him isn't always the best, but when the ball is in and around the box, or put into a dangerous area, he's nowhere to be found.

 

[Horse]

The frustration about the Lino flagging is that 9 times out of 10 the ref sees it out the corner of his eye (like the players did) and whistles.

 

[OX14]

And even if he had flicked it on, it was straight from a goal kick so he would have been onside.

No, if the guy did flick it on the receiving player in question would of been offside but because there was no flick he wasn't.

I could understand the players argument if the player who received the ball direct from the goal kick scored but he ended up controlling the ball , passing backwards to another Cheltenham player who then shot and scored.

It was just s**t defending that summed up our day .

 

[Wallop]

No, if the guy did flick it on the receiving player in question would of been offside but because there was no flick he wasn't.

I could understand the players argument if the player who received the ball direct from the goal kick scored but he ended up controlling the ball , passing backwards to another Cheltenham player who then shot and scored.

It was just s**t defending that summed up our day .

I meant the guy who did the flicking on could not be offside if he had made contact with the ball.

 

[TailsWeWin]

Interested to hear from the high number of players who voted for brown as motm. Big surprised.

We are 0-1 down against 10 men with almost zero attacking threat coming down our right.

The middle of the park is overloaded so cam and mcguane are getting very little joy.

Do you think Brown could have done more to overlap murphy to create more distraction, threat and variation ?

As it was Murphy did great but often received the ball just inside their half with back to goal and a swarm of players descending which left space in behind him. Brown seemed to remain static and was also , in my opinion , conservative.

I did appreciate his couple of forward forays into open space created by two defenders doubling up on murphy and latterly edwards

Brown played 90 minutes battling in a defence which was being overwhelmed.
Murphy came on 3/4 way through when the opposition were more tired and vulnerable
Not to decry his efforts, but it doesn’t compare

 

[Scrongo]

Who cares about this that & the other.
We were s**t & lost ..

 

[Golden Dr Otto]

Brown played 90 minutes battling in a defence which was being overwhelmed.
Murphy came on 3/4 way through when the opposition were more tired and vulnerable
Not to decry his efforts, but it doesn’t compare

Could you not reframe that though and say the defence conceded two goals against the bottom side in the division and consistently were beaten conceding multiple chances to a previously impotent opposition?

Not sure any of that defence walk away with credit

 

[bazzer9461]

No, if the guy did flick it on the receiving player in question would of been offside but because there was no flick he wasn't.

I could understand the players argument if the player who received the ball direct from the goal kick scored but he ended up controlling the ball , passing backwards to another Cheltenham player who then shot and scored.

It was just s**t defending that summed up our day .

And all this because Cheltenham went long every time and didn’t play tappy tappy football in their defence for and age.

 

[Common Villager]

True, but I think the aimed criticism is more due to the fact he's been poor for a number of weeks now. Granted the service into him isn't always the best, but when the ball is in and around the box, or put into a dangerous area, he's nowhere to be found.

Yes, but shouting 'you useless c**t, who's that to?' when he played a decent ball into the box and no one and made a run to get onto the end of it doesn't exactly constitute constructive criticism.

 

[MiddleBartonYellow]

Struggling against an over physical team, how many times do we say it. Not all teams play the beautiful game and are all open. A really good team can cope with both.

 

[MustardYellow]

Yes, but shouting 'you useless c**t, who's that to?' when he played a decent ball into the box and no one and made a run to get onto the end of it doesn't exactly constitute constructive criticism.

I think I know what you're referring to and yes the reaction to that was extreme, but he hasn't helped himself the last few weeks

 

[Lost Marbles]

Struggling against an over physical team, how many times do we say it. Not all teams play the beautiful game and are all open. A really good team can cope with both.

But we have coped with both. Stevenage and Orient being the best examples of winning the battle first and then playing our game. Who is this "really good team" that can cope with both? Even Bolton have lost to Carlisle, Reading and Wigan this season. Teams are overly physical in order to level the playing field against opponents they can't compete with talent wise. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't but they wouldn't do it if it didn't give them a better chance of competing over the entire season.

I think after the Cambridge result and performance, Manning did a far better job than Karl ever did of getting the players to understand that they have to scrap / do the basics first and foremost.

The best case scenario is that this weekend's game has a similar effect on Des and we win the next two (incredibly tough) league games. Even a couple of draws would give me belief that we'll still be in the race for automatics at Christmas, given the easier run of games until then.

Lose them both and we'll need to see something immediately from the manager - waiting until January to buy our way out of a slide down the table would be too late and would destroy all my belief in Des.

We usually had a bad start under Karl and a great finish to the season - I really hope this isn't the other way round. It would be a shame because it's been the most enjoyable season for ages, especially for someone like me who mainly goes to away games.

 

[OX14]

And all this because Cheltenham went long every time and didn’t play tappy tappy football in their defence for and age.

They played to their strengths but we had no answer to it, could of done with a proper defensive midfielder to mop up all the second balls from knock downs falling between our defensive 4 and brannagan/mcguane but like the missing striker we didn't sign one in the summer!

Their first goal came from a knock down to outside the penalty area where we failed to close down Street who shot through the crowd into the goal.

That was the poorest display this season by a mile and could of quite easily been 3-0 down in the first half.

 

[werthersoriginal]

They played to their strengths but we had no answer to it, could of done with a proper defensive midfielder to mop up all the second balls from knock downs falling between our defensive 4 and brannagan/mcguane but like the missing striker we didn't sign one in the summer!

Their first goal came from a knock down to outside the penalty area where we failed to close down Street who shot through the crowd into the goal.

That was the poorest display this season by a mile and could of quite easily been 3-0 down in the first half.

We don't play with a defensive midfielder, Des may adopt that style but he's said he won't make big changes.

 

[OX14]

We don't play with a defensive midfielder, Des may adopt that style but he's said he won't make big changes.

But we need to adapt to these physical sides we face. Cambridge, Stevenage, Port Vale all caused us problems with long balls and playing for the second ball.

 

[neyo]

That was the poorest display this season by a mile and could of quite easily been 3-0 down in the first half.

I didn't get to see the match, but as our first glimpse of #desiBall, i'm worried...

 

[bazzer9461]

We don't play with a defensive midfielder, Des may adopt that style but he's said he won't make big changes.

As long as he brings in a least one striker if not 2

 

[yellowbow]

Just watched Buckingham’s post match interview with Chris Williams, and also his pre match interview for the Bolton game. I’m now feeling a lot happier than I was, people have said that he smiled a lot after the Cheltenham game and didn’t seem too bothered, I would have to disagree. There seemed to me to be an underlying steeliness to what he said and I get the impression that the players have been made very aware of the importance of discipline. Yes he did smile from time to time but I feel that he was pretty pissed off with it all.

Again, with the pre match interview for tomorrow I get the feeling he’s very determined to get things right.

For obvious reasons he chose a ‘soft’ introduction, and hasnt come wading in, trying to change everything overnight. This, along with the fact that he’s come in on his own, without his own team to back him up, has given the impression that he might not be showing the authority necessary to some - I have to admit, me included. But I feel reassured that when necessary he will have the strength of character to get tough when it’s needed, and make everyone very aware who the boss is.