Home Match Day Thread 30/11/2024 - Championship: Oxford United vs Millwall

[Northstandboy]

Rate the players:

 

[Jster]

All I remember of Harris was a poor touch that gave away possession when we'd just strung some decent passes together. Nothing else much at all tbh. He seems off form - just hoping he regains it soon.

 

[curransleftboot]

We offered nothing going forward in the first half and much of the second (until subs were made).

It was no surprise that the continuous pressure on our goal would eventually result in a goal with no attacking options on the wings.

Vaulks off and El Mizouni on with Dale made a big difference – at last some sort of threat was now able to be mounted on the Millwall goal and had them concerned enough to start getting into a deep block and relying more on counter-attacks.

Phillips a waste of a place – no outlet at all (one exception 64th minute). Why didn’t Dale start with Phillips coming on late if he needs to regain confidence and stamina.

Plachetta – quick but too many flicks and tricks and failing to get past his man - clearly not up to speed yet.

Why didn’t DB start with TG and OD on the wings.

We very much miss Kioso’s aggression and speed in the tackle at right back

Goodrham again saves the day – won’t be surprised if he’s away in January.

Goodwin when he came on clearly demonstrates his ability as a target man to cause trouble and to feed others in the area – a perfect foil if they ever play two up top and he was certainly occupying and worrying Millwall defenders..

More championship quality ready players required in January.

 

[holdsteady]

All I remember of Harris was a poor touch that gave away possession when we'd just strung some decent passes together. Nothing else much at all tbh. He seems off form - just hoping he regains it soon.

He hustled and bustled, put a shift in just nothing came off. Not much actually came off for Dale in truth, he lost the ball a fair few times but he added impetus and tried to make things happen and is rightfully getting praise.

He seems to be the player people are turning on, we always have one, playing up front on your own is a thankless task especially for a struggling team who are a little bit out of there depth at times though, think we need to cut the players some slack and just get behind them, if we manage to stay up it will be by the tightest of margins so turning on any player is probably going to be self defeating, it will only make the already very hard task of staying up harder.

I don’t disagree with him getting a bit of a rest and see if we can get his performance levels up though, didn’t see the point of bringing him on Tuesday night, he already has enough minutes in his legs so no real gain from it.

Not saying you personally are digging him out by the way, but from hearing comments from around me yesterday I think people need to give him a bit of a break, he played a big part in our promotion and his early season form is the reason we are not in the relegation zone, so he has credit in the bank (not that getting behind our players in this very tough season should require that ).

Apologies for the long post.

 

[JC_Yellow]

I thought it was a pretty horrible performance yesterday. Although Millwall were not in any adventurous attacking-wise in the second-half, I'd have had no complaints at all if that had petered out to a 1-0 defeat.

I don't really agree with Des' assessment that we were poor in the first half but much better in the second, I don't think there was a huge improvement from us until Owen Dale came on, and the increase in possession was largely because Millwall were happy to sit back and let us have the ball.

That said, it's a potentially huge result for us. I'd have snapped your arm off for a point before the game and I'm even more happy with it after the fact considering how we played.

Big improvement needed ahead of a potentially season-defining double-header against Plymouth and QPR, though.

 

[Northernyellow]

I might be in a minority but I've always thought Goodwin was decent. I liked the fact that he came on yesterday, and pushed their centre halves around. He may not be particularly polished, but he's aggressive and causes problems. I hope we see more of him in the next few games.

 

[Oldman159]

Game of two halves again. One half slightly better than the other. (You decide) about 20 minutes of intense pressuring paid off. If only Tyler’s first, had gone in

A point is a point after all and this was a ‘good’ point, given the perceived difference in class. Thought we might nick it at the end but…..hey ho!

 

[BicesterU]

It’s open to interpretation I suppose but I saw a side that didn’t think we would make a dent in them and felt they could get out at 1-0 fairly comfortably. Can’t say I disagree with them if that was the case.

Bradshaw wasn’t as difficult to deal with as Coburn, but they had plenty of runners in midfield.

Azeez had the freedom of the wing and I think if they’d just continued to feed him like the first half, we were there for the taking.

Agree our substitutions brought some life to us that proved critical in getting a point which is a positive we can take, but on another day (similar to Hull), the game would already be gone by then against decent opposition. See Shef Utd, see Boro, see Sunderland and so on. It’s not right to say ‘well yeah but their team is loads better’… we are where we are on merit, as are they, and the teams that stay up are the ones who can give those sides a game and get unlikely points even if not able to tiki-taka for them.

Yet to win away all season and we’re in dire form which doesn’t give me much hope for Plymouth who will rightly come at us for a win.

It’d be really easy to put a positive spin on the first half of this post, it’s almost like you’ve gone out of your way not to.

“We battled hard to stop them getting a decisive second goal, and our subs earned us a point.” See; not difficult.

Also, the ‘on another day against a much better side’ stuff is just utter nonsense. It wasn’t another day, and it wasn’t against another side. We’ve played those other sides recently, and had to take our medicine.

And pretending that being ‘where we are on merit’ somehow means we can magically compete with teams who have spent a significant amount of time in the premier league while we’ve been in League One just smacks of someone who is deliberately setting unrealistic standards so that they can then take cheap shots when we inevitably lose games or don’t perform well.

 

[uptheus]

I might be in a minority but I've always thought Goodwin was decent. I liked the fact that he came on yesterday, and pushed their centre halves around. He may not be particularly polished, but he's aggressive and causes problems. I hope we see more of him in the next few games.

Wouldn’t know, not really seen him play, and especially at this level.

Would be good to see him get a run of games!

 

[Wallop]

I might be in a minority but I've always thought Goodwin was decent. I liked the fact that he came on yesterday, and pushed their centre halves around. He may not be particularly polished, but he's aggressive and causes problems. I hope we see more of him in the next few games.

I haven't really seen enough of him to form a view but yesterday he offered something different and clearly worried their defence. Given we have to hoof it out on occasion due to the pressure, he's a decent option in terms of winning headers and retaining the ball.

 

[Marked Ox]

He hustled and bustled, put a shift in just nothing came off. Not much actually came off for Dale in truth, he lost the ball a fair few times but he added impetus and tried to make things happen and is rightfully getting praise.

He seems to be the player people are turning on, we always have one, playing up front on your own is a thankless task especially for a struggling team who are a little bit out of there depth at times though, think we need to cut the players some slack and just get behind them, if we manage to stay up it will be by the tightest of margins so turning on any player is probably going to be self defeating, it will only make the already very hard task of staying up harder.

I don’t disagree with him getting a bit of a rest and see if we can get his performance levels up though, didn’t see the point of bringing him on Tuesday night, he already has enough minutes in his legs so no real gain from it.

Not saying you personally are digging him out by the way, but from hearing comments from around me yesterday I think people need to give him a bit of a break, he played a big part in our promotion and his early season form is the reason we are not in the relegation zone, so he has credit in the bank (not that getting behind our players in this very tough season should require that ).

Apologies for the long post.

Harris held the ball up a couple of times and laid it off to get the wingers going. Held the ball up better than Scarlett but I'd fancy Scarlett to score a chance far more than Harris at the moment. Harris just needs the proverbial goal off his backside to get going.

 

[WRox]

Harris held the ball up a couple of times and laid it off to get the wingers going. Held the ball up better than Scarlett but I'd fancy Scarlett to score a chance far more than Harris at the moment. Harris just needs the proverbial goal off his backside to get going.

I’ve seen strikers lose confidence in front of goal, but with Harris, whether he’s scoring seems to impact his confidence with everything. A razor sharp Harris on form would have got Tanganga sent off yesterday. He fouled him when he was past him but seemed to take Harris a second or two to react and went down unconvincingly in stages.

August Mark Harris hits the deck there, wins a penalty against Boro, equalises against Watford… November Mark Harris has no impact. Sure it’s just a matter of time before it swings the other way and he hits form again.

 

[bicesterox]

I thought it was a pretty horrible performance yesterday. Although Millwall were not in any adventurous attacking-wise in the second-half, I'd have had no complaints at all if that had petered out to a 1-0 defeat.

I don't really agree with Des' assessment that we were poor in the first half but much better in the second, I don't think there was a huge improvement from us until Owen Dale came on, and the increase in possession was largely because Millwall were happy to sit back and let us have the ball.

That said, it's a potentially huge result for us. I'd have snapped your arm off for a point before the game and I'm even more happy with it after the fact considering how we played.

Big improvement needed ahead of a potentially season-defining double-header against Plymouth and QPR, though.

I'd have had loads of complaints if it had petered out to a 1 nil defeat.

We cannot afford to be as poor as we have been since Derby

 

[Northstandboy]

Working for me now

I think @Carpy went to bed at FT and woke up after my 7am post this morning

 

[Carpy]

I think @Carpy went to bed at FT and woke up after my 7am post this morning

Technical support was having some time off post-match

 

[Osei Yaw]

I might be in a minority but I've always thought Goodwin was decent. I liked the fact that he came on yesterday, and pushed their centre halves around. He may not be particularly polished, but he's aggressive and causes problems. I hope we see more of him in the next few games.

I think there is a very fair case for Scarlett being a starter, regardless of which formation we play. He's our best finisher without a doubt, and with chances at a premium we've got to hope one drops to him between the posts. But at this moment in time perhaps Goodwin should be the next in line.

Harris can hold the ball up, but is often overdoing it at the moment and trying to roll a player when he could just keep it simple. I think Goodwin just knows his job is a more basic one - get up against centre backs, move them about a bit, get the ball to stick and draw a foul or lay it off. It's no thrills but he's got the physicality to do it and it's the exact type of striker that he is. Whereas really, Sparky probably needs a flying winger on one side to give him a bit more space to work in.

 

[Marked Ox]

I’ve seen strikers lose confidence in front of goal, but with Harris, whether he’s scoring seems to impact his confidence with everything. A razor sharp Harris on form would have got Tanganga sent off yesterday. He fouled him when he was past him but seemed to take Harris a second or two to react and went down unconvincingly in stages.

August Mark Harris hits the deck there, wins a penalty against Boro, equalises against Watford… November Mark Harris has no impact. Sure it’s just a matter of time before it swings the other way and he hits form again.

I don't think any of our strikers can be fouled based on the games this season so far, definitely not Sparky.

What is this penalty thing you talk of? I don't think I've seen us have one.

 

[dickwalton1964]

I might be in a minority but I've always thought Goodwin was decent. I liked the fact that he came on yesterday, and pushed their centre halves around. He may not be particularly polished, but he's aggressive and causes problems. I hope we see more of him in the next few games.

That must have been when you’ve seen him for a Cheltenham because it’s impossible to have judged him during the limited playing time here. Out of all the 18 L1 teams I’ve seen this season our front line is the most predictable by a country mile. Other teams look to be cottoning on to Scarlett and keeping him a bit quieter and Harris is the most predictable of all, just backing in all the time and looking for a foul. Whether it’s going longer looking for Goodwin or signing a striker with pace, who can front defenders up, we need something different. Goodwin is worth a go, let’s see what he’s got.

 

[forevayella]

We have been smashed in the last two games conceding 9 goals so it was really important to stop the rot. We have played better and got nothing this season so a point isn’t the end of the world.

I thought the defence were excellent (especially Moore and Brown) and Goodwin caused issues when he came on so would like to see more of him. Phillips was hopeless and at fault for the goal. Hope CM gets back to form soon, sure he will

 

[chromeyellow]

We have been smashed in the last two games conceding 9 goals so it was really important to stop the rot. We have played better and got nothing this season so a point isn’t the end of the world.

I thought the defence were excellent (especially Moore and Brown) and Goodwin caused iss ues when he came on so would like to see more of him. Phillips was hopeless and at fault for the goal. Hope CM gets back to form soon, sure he will

Who is CM?

 

[Made-in-Jericho]

Who is CM?

Central Midfielder Cam Bran… obvs!