Home Match Day Thread 30/04/2022 L1: OUFC v Doncaster

[MiddleBartonYellow]

Well people are saying it’s a successful season because we got more points than last time around - they got 4 more points than us, so by that argument they were more successful and therefore happier than us?

Probably not though

 

[Essexyellows]

Dead rubber becomes dead rubber in dead rubber shocker.

 

[LowerSouth]

Worst performance of the season ?

 

[MiddleBartonYellow]

Worst performance of the season ?

Probably was. We have been quite good at home this season, even in the games that we’ve lost.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

Worst performance of the season ?

Yes, I think so. Even in some matches where we have been poor in one half, we have been OK in the other. Yesterday was under par from start to finish.

 

[OX14]

Yes, I think so. Even in some matches where we have been poor in one half, we have been OK in the other. Yesterday was under par from start to finish.

Accrington or Lincoln away probably tops it. But yeh at home that's the poorest since Blackpool last year.

 

[dickwalton1964]

The manager said we were poor after the game, and anyone who was there and claims we weren't is clearly on the wind up. Maybe, given the situation, it wasn't unexpected and there are perhaps reasons why it wasn't very good - but to maintain that it was anything other than a very disappointing display is ridiculous.

On the wind up or clueless.

 

[bazzer9461]

Too bloody right - if he doesn't want to be here, we don't want him here!

That was said after the Wycombe game but others were saying different. It’s a shame as on his day he could be a useful player to have but now the ship has sailed he can go.

 

[tonyw]

I'll be honest, I'm a little surprised about all the criticisms from yesterday.

Yes, we were poor. Yes, a bunch of our best players never really got going, and some of our fringe players failed to impress. So Golding was the only positive to come out of it.

But really - what do you expect?
It was a meaningless game, after three whole seasons of games that counted. It's inevitable that your intensity is going to drop off when you're playing in a game that doesn't matter. And you're not going to be able to make/break a reputation based on one meaningless game when you've already had 45 important ones to show what you can (and can't) do.

For players like Cam & Matty T who have nothing to prove - I don't blame them for a second for going through the motions. It's psychologically a really tough thing to lift yourself for a professional sporting contest when you know it's going to have zero impact on your personal or collective goals.

For players like Seddon & McGuane who are trying to show that they have something to offer - well, unfortunately yesterday was just more confirmation of what we already knew from watching them play all season i.e. that they are players with some merits but also pretty obvious weaknesses.

It was what it was - a poor performance, but one that can be forgotten (other than the fact that Golding can clearly play) as soon as the final whistle blew.

 

[UTM]

I think l am right in saying, if had beat Morecambe, drawn with Rotherham and beaten Doncaster today, we would still be a point short.

 

[CaptainOx]

I think l am right in saying, if had beat Morecambe, drawn with Rotherham and beaten Doncaster today, we would still be a point short.

Correct.
8 points from the final 8 games was never going to be good enough.

 

[UTM]

I'll be honest, I'm a little surprised about all the criticisms from yesterday.

Yes, we were poor. Yes, a bunch of our best players never really got going, and some of our fringe players failed to impress. So Golding was the only positive to come out of it.

But really - what do you expect?
It was a meaningless game, after three whole seasons of games that counted. It's inevitable that your intensity is going to drop off when you're playing in a game that doesn't matter. And you're not going to be able to make/break a reputation based on one meaningless game when you've already had 45 important ones to show what you can (and can't) do.

For players like Cam & Matty T who have nothing to prove - I don't blame them for a second for going through the motions. It's psychologically a really tough thing to lift yourself for a professional sporting contest when you know it's going to have zero impact on your personal or collective goals.

For players like Seddon & McGuane who are trying to show that they have something to offer - well, unfortunately yesterday was just more confirmation of what we already knew from watching them play all season i.e. that they are players with some merits but also pretty obvious weaknesses.

It was what it was - a poor performance, but one that can be forgotten (other than the fact that Golding can clearly play) as soon as the final whistle blew.

Yes spot on , need to look to next season. We scored the must goals in the league ( Wigan joint) , letting them in the other end is the issue. And as you said some players do have obvious weaknesses.

 

[uptheus]

He’s not injury prone in the sense of a player regularly being injured and be also being classed as a sick note

Not said he was, but that I reckon he will be going forward.

 

[uptheus]

I heard that we’ve retracted the contract for Sykes so if he doesn’t get another club he’s got nothing from us to fall back on, he must have really pissed robbo off.

Was criticised for wanting him out last week!

 

[Foley]

I'll be honest, I'm a little surprised about all the criticisms from yesterday.

Yes, we were poor. Yes, a bunch of our best players never really got going, and some of our fringe players failed to impress. So Golding was the only positive to come out of it.

But really - what do you expect?
It was a meaningless game, after three whole seasons of games that counted. It's inevitable that your intensity is going to drop off when you're playing in a game that doesn't matter. And you're not going to be able to make/break a reputation based on one meaningless game when you've already had 45 important ones to show what you can (and can't) do.

For players like Cam & Matty T who have nothing to prove - I don't blame them for a second for going through the motions. It's psychologically a really tough thing to lift yourself for a professional sporting contest when you know it's going to have zero impact on your personal or collective goals.

For players like Seddon & McGuane who are trying to show that they have something to offer - well, unfortunately yesterday was just more confirmation of what we already knew from watching them play all season i.e. that they are players with some merits but also pretty obvious weaknesses.

It was what it was - a poor performance, but one that can be forgotten (other than the fact that Golding can clearly play) as soon as the final whistle blew.

Spot on.

 

[Steve Gilbert]

The game was what you’d expect from a game that had nothing riding on it. Both teams were on the beach but I can’t blame them!
The atmosphere was flat too and barely any songs were sung in the East stand. Again to be expected because there isn’t much reason for fans to get excited about. so if fans can’t get excited for this type of game you can’t blame the players for not being fully at it either.

 

[Marked Ox]

I wouldn't say Doncaster were one of the worst teams in the league strange I know as they got relegated as alluded to up the page I think a couple more games and they might have stayed up
On yesterday performance as I mentioned on a couple if pages back some players were trying some were on the beach it was a dead rubber obviously would have been nice to see us win but it wouldn't change much

Doncaster were awful and are one of the worst teams in L1.

 

[holdsteady]

Pretty hard to argue against Doncaster being the second worst team in the league after they finished 23rd over 46 games.

 

[Jster]

Pretty hard to argue against Doncaster being the second worst team in the league after they finished 23rd over 46 games.

Actually their point against us raised them above Wimbledon to 22nd.

 

[werthersoriginal]

I think l am right in saying, if had beat Morecambe, drawn with Rotherham and beaten Doncaster today, we would still be a point short.

Yes we’d have needed to draw with Sunderland too

 

[Isle of Wight Yellow]

I think l am right in saying, if had beat Morecambe, drawn with Rotherham and beaten Doncaster today, we would still be a point short.

Yes, we were some way off in the end.

 

[Eaststanding]

Yes, we were some way off in the end.

Is 7 points ‘some way off’ in a season where 138 were available at the start of the season?
I guess it suits those with a ‘Robinson out’ agenda but although we just weren’t good enough at the end, I don’t feel like we fell that short.

 

[werthersoriginal]

Is 7 points ‘some way off’ in a season where 138 were available at the start of the season?
I guess it suits those with a ‘Robinson out’ agenda but although we just weren’t good enough at the end, I don’t feel like we fell that short.

We were competitive and generally really good until the crucial run-in,and fell more than two wins short. You could validly judge that a good effort or a disappointing one

 

[Trevor L]

I'm very old fashioned and would rather we didn't have playoffs and had 4 up 4 down across the divisions. That ship has sailed...

However, given there's only two auto promotion spots, that's what we should be targeting in my view. That means aiming at 90 points, looking at previous seasons' final tables.

On that measure, we were 14 points short. Still not a huge gulf, but picking up a few away draws won't cut it. I hope to see more clean sheets and a clutch of gritty 1-0 wins next season to replace some of those frustrating one goal margin defeats.

 

[bicesterox]

Got to get out of this 8 points from 5 game block mentality, that's never going to be enough, need to aim for automatic promotion, and then if we fall a few points short we should still be in the play offs, and in with a chance

 

[Trevor L]

Yes, if you're going to go down this 5 game block route, I think you need to target 10 points or more, 9 as an occasional absolute minimum. W3 D1 L1 = 10 pts, W2 D3 = 9 pts, W3 L2 = 9 pts and so on. I recall Ian Atkins speaking of 8 pts for playoffs and 9 for auto but those numbers are not enough in L1 these days.

 

[Oufcrealist]

Yes, if you're going to go down this 5 game block route, I think you need to target 10 points or more, 9 as an occasional absolute minimum. W3 D1 L1 = 10 pts, W2 D3 = 9 pts, W3 L2 = 9 pts and so on. I recall Ian Atkins speaking of 8 pts for playoffs and 9 for auto but those numbers are not enough in L1 these days.

Yes Trevor. Make it simple and aim for 2 points per game. Hit that target and you're up!! Would take a bit of doing but Wigan did it this season.

 

[RgYellows]

Is 7 points ‘some way off’ in a season where 138 were available at the start of the season?

Yes.

It's far more meaningful to look at the points we got, rather than the points a perfect team could have got.

We got 76, meaning we needed 9.2% more to sneak into the playoffs on goal difference.

At 1.652 points per game, we could have played four games more than the teams around us and still not made the last play off spot.

Being nearly 10% better in football is a lot. Doncaster, Wimbledon and Gillingham all would have stayed up with a similar percentage improvement. Rotherham would have been champions. MK Dons, Sheffield Wednesday, Sunderland and even Wycombe would have all gone up automatically with 9% more points.

I don't know about the lack of a break, either. We didn't play a competitive match between 21 May and 7 August this year (generously describing the Blackpool game as competitive). Similarly from 13 July 2020 to 5 September 2020, and from 7 March 2020 to 3 July 2020.

Are we really saying that the three games we played more than anyone else 2 years ago are continuing to be relevant to us not getting promoted?

 

[OxfordYankee]

Yes.

It's far more meaningful to look at the points we got, rather than the points a perfect team could have got.

We got 76, meaning we needed 9.2% more to sneak into the playoffs on goal difference.

At 1.652 points per game, we could have played four games more than the teams around us and still not made the last play off spot.

Being nearly 10% better in football is a lot. Doncaster, Wimbledon and Gillingham all would have stayed up with a similar percentage improvement. Rotherham would have been champions. MK Dons, Sheffield Wednesday, Sunderland and even Wycombe would have all gone up automatically with 9% more points.

I don't know about the lack of a break, either. We didn't play a competitive match between 21 May and 7 August this year (generously describing the Blackpool game as competitive). Similarly from 13 July 2020 to 5 September 2020, and from 7 March 2020 to 3 July 2020.

Are we really saying that the three games we played more than anyone else 2 years ago are continuing to be relevant to us not getting promoted?

@RgYellows, there, putting their faith in actual facts. It simply won't wash around here.

 

[Isle of Wight Yellow]

Is 7 points ‘some way off’ in a season where 138 were available at the start of the season?
I guess it suits those with a ‘Robinson out’ agenda but although we just weren’t good enough at the end, I don’t feel like we fell that short.

If we’d had a genie come to us and give us three magical results changes:

1) That game against Morecambe where we absolutely battered them in awful weather and deserved a win? Granted!

2) A late goal against Sunderland to give us a draw? Done!

3) A win on the final day against Doncaster? Sorted

It still wouldn’t have been enough…

That’s what I meant by ‘some way off’, it’s not like if only one or two results had gone our way, even if a number had on that poor run at the end it wouldn’t have made any difference