Home Match Day Thread 31/01/2026 - MDT: Oxford United v Birmingham City

[Carpy]

 

[Front Post]

Cumming must do better. But how the referee allowed the free kick to be taken from a) off the touchline and b) closer to the penalty box, was really poor officiating. It fundamentally changed how the player could deliver the ball.

 

[Billyox]

We’ve questioned players, the manager, and even the fans, so it’s only fair to look at the analysts as well. Their role is to study the opposition in detail and identify patterns of play.
Yesterday, Birmingham followed the same build-up pattern repeatedly whenever Beadle was in possession. The ball was played out to the number 4, who then consistently fed the number 8. Our press targeted the number 4 and the full-back on that side, but in doing so left the number 8 free every single time. This allowed him to receive on the half-turn and drive forward unopposed.
The concern isn’t that Birmingham did something unexpected — it’s that they did the same thing over and over, and we never adjusted.

 

[uptheus]

Cumming must do better. But how the referee allowed the free kick to be taken from a) off the touchline and b) closer to the penalty box, was really poor officiating. It fundamentally changed how the player could deliver the ball.

And god knows why Spencer made a challenge like that when the ball was out of play!

 

[Sarge]

Cumming must do better. But how the referee allowed the free kick to be taken from a) off the touchline and b) closer to the penalty box, was really poor officiating. It fundamentally changed how the player could deliver the ball.

yet again

 

[Billyox]

Cumming must do better. But how the referee allowed the free kick to be taken from a) off the touchline and b) closer to the penalty box, was really poor officiating. It fundamentally changed how the player could deliver the ball.

Stupid of spencer needlessly giving away the free kick in the first place

 

[Oxford84]

That’s the spirit!

Well its true. Support before the game is one thing but once the game starts its what happens on the pitch that counts. Birmingham hardly made a sound until they went 2 nil up and could see they were going to win, the reason they were so quiet during the game was their play rarely produced anything exciting.

 

[SSO]

Re Harris, well I predicted this last week in the aftermath of Leicester. I just couldn’t get carried away by him scoring, Harris is Harris and we’ve seen him revert to type on so many occasions. I wanted him gone or loaned out last Sunday and this Sunday is no different - a day and a bit to put him out of his misery and get him a loan back to L1 and his comfort zone.

And I think I remember saying unfortunately the goal v Ipswich was enough to keep him in the squad.
Loan him out but don’t bring him back would be best all round. The only way this team stays up is without him (and 2 or 3 others) being anywhere near the match day squad.

 

[JOHN BOY]

Without stating the obvious we are desperate for a striker.

 

[Eaststanding]

If the right fans are at the game, the atmosphere is good.
If the players give the fans something to shout about, the atmosphere is good.
If both happen, it’s great.
If neither happen, it will be shite, like yesterday.
There were two missing from near me who always get the crowd going. Others tried to make some noise but you could feel the optimism of last Saturday being sucked out of the ground after their first goal. The players didn’t respond for the rest of the game, the fans stayed quiet.
Either go to the game and do something about it, or accept that sometimes it will be shite. f**k me there are far worst atmospheres in our league; Leicester last week anyone?

 

[Swaby39]

Stupid of spencer needlessly giving away the free kick in the first place

Agree, on all fronts it’s a goal we deserved to concede.

If Spencer checks over his shoulder before rushing in, he’d know that if the cross came in it wouldn’t have been a problem, and the chances of him getting a quality ball in were minute.

From there it’s old problems haunting us. Soft centred rubbish. Cumming is side on to the ball when it gets to him and for reasons unknown, flaps at it like the Ally Pally wasp. Not a lot MPH can do after that.

As for the ref, it’s exactly what we’ve come to expect. There’s a team of 4 officials on field and not one of them enforced that the kick be taken where the foul was - they would all have had a view of it. Pathetic.

 

[Billyox]

Take it no one moaned when cam bran moved the ball vs Coventry

 

[Jster]

Interesting article by a Blues fan about the match. Surprisingly complimentary about our half time formation switch too.

Match Report: Oxford United 0-2 Blues

An own goal and Marvin Ducksch finish give Blues back-to-back wins on the road to keep their play-off hopes alive.

afootballblogbyryandeeney.substack.com

 

[PottersRightBoot]

Agree, on all fronts it’s a goal we deserved to concede.

If Spencer checks over his shoulder before rushing in, he’d know that if the cross came in it wouldn’t have been a problem, and the chances of him getting a quality ball in were minute.

From there it’s old problems haunting us. Soft centred rubbish. Cumming is side on to the ball when it gets to him and for reasons unknown, flaps at it like the Ally Pally wasp. Not a lot MPH can do after that.

As for the ref, it’s exactly what we’ve come to expect. There’s a team of 4 officials on field and not one of them enforced that the kick be taken where the foul was - they would all have had a view of it. Pathetic.

Well the free kick was taken from a fraudulent spot, agree that.

But stop having a pop at Cumming, , that was a wicked ball in. Their set pieces were top quality all game.

We actually defended ok yesterday, it’s the bringing out from the back that’s the problem. If you’re going to whack the ball up the field 50 yards for Sparky , policed by two defenders out of Robocop, you’ll get nowhere.

 

[maidenheadox]

Big Ron was in SSU on Saturday.

 

[Swaby39]

Well the free kick was taken from a fraudulent spot, agree that.

But stop having a pop at Cumming, , that was a wicked ball in. Their set pieces were top quality all game.

We actually defended ok yesterday, it’s the bringing out from the back that’s the problem. If you’re going to whack the ball up the field 50 yards for Sparky , policed by two defenders out of Robocop, you’ll get nowhere.

Does that mean every wicked ball in is a free pass for a keeper? You can’t tell me Cumming could do nothing about that goal. It’s a mistake, I’m not saying it’s the end of him.

Not sure we did defend particularly well if you are someone (like me) that thinks you defend from the front. It isn’t just about defending the box. I think Birmingham will have gone away in disbelief at how easy that was for them and I’m pointing the finger at the dugout for this one.

 

[Salaghaf]

Without stating the obvious we are desperate for a striker.

*anyone who can score a few goals.

 

[uptheus]

Well its true. Support before the game is one thing but once the game starts its what happens on the pitch that counts. Birmingham hardly made a sound until they went 2 nil up and could see they were going to win, the reason they were so quiet during the game was their play rarely produced anything exciting.

Not really, sometimes you need to get behind the team when they’re experiencing difficulties. In fact, I’d say this is when you need to support the team more.

Like Bloomfield said before yesterday’s game, everyone’s got to be pulling in the same direction and there’s going to be tough times/games, but that’s when we need the support more!!

 

[Berliner]

Take it no one moaned when cam bran moved the ball vs Coventry

Yeah, but there's a difference between a player moving the ball when nobody's looking and a referee actively spraying the foam in the wrong location, as seen in the screenshot above...

 

[The Mighty Aldo]

Without stating the obvious we are desperate for a striker.

We could have Haarland up front and he would struggle. We create no real chances, a few half chances in the first 15 mins but that was it until last five when Romeny had a snap shot.
What we lack are creative midfielders who can open up defences and I see no signs of us signing anyone like that.
Having said that we only have Lankshear as an out and out striker and he is still learning his trade. Prelec hasn’t impressed me that much and Harris is not up to it.
These two areas were not addressed in the summer and boy have we paid for it

 

[headingtonoldboy]

I don't know if this has been mentioned before and it's slightly off thread but I cannot see how Romeny gets in the team ahead of Krastev, who I always felt tried to make things happen, was always industrious and chased back defensively. I would have him in the squad ahead of Romeny.

 

[werthersoriginal]

I don't know if this has been mentioned before and it's slightly off thread but I cannot see how Romeny gets in the team ahead of Krastev, who I always felt tried to make things happen, was always industrious and chased back defensively. I would have him in the squad ahead of Romeny.

He must surely be off. Romeny wasn’t bad on Saturday I thought, though I’ve never seen him on the left wing before.

 

[Emilio]

Doesn't help that some of our fans are entirely ignorant of football tactics and how the game works, yet expect our players to be able to play the opposition off the park.

Had some fool behind me who swore and moaned at the players throughout the match for:

• Passing the ball about instead of attacking
• Trying cross-field passes as opposed to passing to playing through the middle
• Trying to dribble it through them
• Trying long-balls / "hoofing" the ball forward
• Shooting from outside of the box
• Not shooting from outside of the box

Go on then mate, what should they do? Those are literally the only options. Do you really think the players just choose to pass the ball about for the sake of it? Or might it be that they are trying to find space and a team mate to pass the ball to, but that they're just not able to?

We're just not good enough at unlocking the opposition every game, especially if they are tactically astute and disciplined at keeping their shape. Doesn't mean you should call every player every swear word under the sun as opposed to encouraging them.

Swearing at players throughout?

Leaving the ground as soon as we concede a 2nd goal, with a third of the match still to go?

Do us all a favour and just stay at home. A 7,000 attendance with encouraging fans is better than a 11,500 attendance where a 40% of the fans are abusive and demonstratively discouraging.

 

[uptheus]

He must surely be off. Romeny wasn’t bad on Saturday I thought, though I’ve never seen him on the left wing before.

Romeny’s to lightweight. Probably great at keepy uppies, but lacks that killer finish ala Stoke away first game and others since.

 

[Yellowmania]

Birmingham working the neat little triangles at the back in possession was pretty impressive but we helped them by a bit of a shambles press at times.
There was no real consistency of numbers when we decided to press, a bit pointless if it’s not coordinated.

 

[Emilio]

Birmingham working the little triangles at the back in possession was pretty impressive but we helped them by a bit of a shambles press at times.
There was no real consistency of numbers when we decided to press, a bit pointless if it’s not coordinated.

Very true. We managed to disrupt their passing at the back at the start of the first half, with a high press from the front 3 (which saw us have our best chances), but by the 20th minute we couldn't maintain that intensity. And yes, it was the lack of coordination in the middle third that prevented us being at all constructive with our possession.

 

[Londox]

I think the novelty factor has worn off for some fans who came along for the ride last season. This is why we see ST’s not used, people going early.
We have a very passionate core group of supporters of maybe 6-7000 but over all Oxfordshire isn’t a hot bed of fanatical football fans who will turn up week in week out. They are people who like football as a sport and will go and watch their local team play a decent standard of football.

The hangers on are missing out because we were mostly much more fun to watch in league one.

 

[m]

Take it no one moaned when cam bran moved the ball vs Coventry

Exactly, I don't like it, but it's part of the game now.

 

[MarkG]

Yesterday was I believe the highest home crowd of the season, with 11509 total. Not the highest home attendance with 9994, as we published higher >10000 vs Saints and Pompey.
Only four games last season had higher crowds.

I did some unofficial dot counting pre-match and saw eight seats left, so assume this was a sell-out.

From my seat in the East Stand, the ground looked fuller than usual, with the only noticable empties being a few groups of front row seats in SSL and Family stand. I guess these are held back for some reason? A few gaps in the family stand, but not as many as usual.

 

[JayOx88]

A real shame. Yet again after a result that could mark a turning point, we turn in a diabolical performance.

A few of the players have a lot to answer to there. Brown may as well have played with his hands in his pockets today.

That said, I’m sat here in disbelief that we’ve just watched 90 minutes of the most blatant midfield overload you will see, and not only did we start with no answer to that, we continued it right to the end and at no point put an extra body in there to even it up. It’s one game, but the first where I am really pointing the finger at Bloomfield and Dodds for their ignorance. We’ve just allowed an opponent to dominate a game which is exactly why Rowett was sent packing. A system with wing backs despite no wing backs being available is arrogance of the highest order. Switching the wingers when they were highly effective in those roles at Leicester. A real management shocker.

BDK’s critics are probably having a moment to reflect. No words for how much we missed him and Currie today.

Problems everywhere in that performance and, as if we needed one, a firm reminder that we are bang up against it. Weirdly though, games like Tuesday seem to suit us, so who knows.

Bad, bad day.

I completely agree with this. After a bright start, Birmingham got to grips with our press and it was as clear as day that McDonnell and Brannagan were right up against it.

There were two reasons the gameplan worked at Leicester:

1- their CBs were pretty limited on the ball and had no intention of carrying it.

2 - they only had a midfield two and we were matched up against them.

Once it became obvious the Brum Terminator twins were actually pretty comfortable on the ball and could move it crisply and quickly, we should have adjusted immediately. Instead, they just played around us and their midfield had started to dominate even before their goal. Once we went behind the life was just sucked out of us.

It was then encouraging to see Konak ready to come on at half-time, replaced with instant frustration when it became apparent that it was like-for-like. If McDonnell was feeling something, then it should have been Vaulks AND Konak coming on. We should have gone 3 in midfield against their 3, sat back a bit more and looked to get at them on the counter.

I obviously expect to lose games at this level, but if we do I also expect no stone to be left unturned in trying to squeeze out every point we can and want to see a plan B if plan A isn't working. I also want to see complete ruthlessness if the changes need to be made, I don't care if it's the 30th minute. If we had made those tactical tweaks and still come away from the game well beaten, I'd then be happy to say Bloomfield had done all he could, we were just outplayed by a better team and we've got to shake it off and move on. But we didn't, and it was a big error on Bloomfield's part.

I still think we're completely capable of getting out of it and still have faith that we we have it in us to be at least above Blackburn and West Brom come the end of the season, particularly considering that there's likely to be activity tomorrow. But it's going to need us to adapt much more quickly when a gameplan gets thrown off early doors and be much less passive when the signs are clearly there - I hope Bloomfield has learned a massive lesson after this defeat.

 

[Billyox]

I completely agree with this. After a bright start, Birmingham got to grips with our press and it was as clear as day that McDonnell and Brannagan were right up against it.

There were two reasons the gameplan worked at Leicester:

1- their CBs were pretty limited on the ball and had no intention of carrying it.

2 - they only had a midfield two and we were matched up against them.

Once it became obvious the Brum Terminator twins were actually pretty comfortable on the ball and could move it crisply and quickly, we should have adjusted immediately. Instead, they just played around us and their midfield had started to dominate even before their goal. Once we went behind the life was just sucked out of us.

It was then encouraging to see Konak ready to come on at half-time, replaced with instant frustration when it became apparent that it was like-for-like. If McDonnell was feeling something, then it should have been Vaulks AND Konak coming on. We should have gone 3 in midfield against their 3, sat back a bit more and looked to get at them on the counter.

I obviously expect to lose games at this level, but if we do I also expect no stone to be left unturned in trying to squeeze out every point we can and want to see a plan B if plan A isn't working. I also want to see complete ruthlessness if the changes need to be made, I don't care if it's the 30th minute. If we had made those tactical tweaks and still come away from the game well beaten, I'd then be happy to say Bloomfield had done all he could, we were just outplayed by a better team and we've got to shake it off and move on. But we didn't, and it was a big error on Bloomfield's part.

I still think we're completely capable of getting out of it and still have faith that we we have it in us to be at least above Blackburn and West Brom come the end of the season, particularly considering that there's likely to be activity tomorrow. But it's going to need us to adapt much more quickly when a gameplan gets thrown off early doors and be much less passive when the signs are clearly there - I hope Bloomfield has learned a massive lesson after this defeat.

Don't know how many times ive said it this season but we cant play with 2 in midfield we just get over run