Away Match Day Thread +++ 5/5/2018 Blackburn Rovers v OUFC Match Day Thread +++

[uptheus]

On the subject of the gentleman who collapsed in the pub car park, I too am wondering if he's Ok!!!! Not a good thing to see, as someone near me said the police could have held a sheet or something up to give the man some dignity instead of just letting everyone see what was going on

I hope he managed to recover, but it didn’t look good. My thoughts are with him and his family.

 

[West Oxon U’s]

Left at 11.45am yesterday morning ; back in at 11.30pm last night but enjoyed the day
overall. The difference was that Rovers had more physicality especially in both boxes
and a bit more pace. Oxford suffered particularly when possession was given up in midfield
and Rovers broke. The game was marred by both poor officiating from Carl Boyeson
and the farcical , premature pitch invasion. Did not like seeing KR on the pitch involved in what looked like a nasty
altercation with a Blackburn idiot. He probably was trying to protect his players but got sucked into
an ugly scene.

Agree witth the earlier poster - left Ewood Park extremely irritated and annoyed but
then saw a Blackburn fan giving another fan CPR on the pavement , on the left just before
turning towards the M65 and then at the same time hearing Sir Alex had suffered a brain
haemorrhage - things were quickly put into perspective.

Ewood Park is a superb stadium and there was a great atmosphere in the warm sunshine.
Great support for the U’s too. A draw would have been fair. Wonderful penalty save from Easty.

 

[West Oxon U’s]

 

[Deleted member 462]

Sorry, but both Obika and Napa were poor again. Obika for the usual reasons and Napa getting pushed off the ball, and poor passing. He’s far too lightweight and small, cotton candy, powder puff.

I actually thought it was Napa’s best game I’ve seen him play even if he lacks a bit of strength, but having said that I that I felt he battled well against two burly defenders and the strength will come.

Disappointed that we didn’t see out the 2mins of injury time that was left to play, especially if we’d got an equaliser after their premature celebrations. Just don’t think we managed that whole episode well from a club perspective. Not sure why our players had come back into the pitch whilst their fans were still on it e.g. which may have avoided the altercations that ensued, and why we allowed/agreed to finish the game prematurely, but hey ho, let’s hope we have a better summer than last year in terms of player recruitment which shouldn’t be too hard, and an improved season e.g. at least play offs.

I think that was the agreement. Our players got to say thank you to our fans, safely before kicking the ball out to end the game officially.

It wasn’t us as a club that Handled it badly at all. The officials, stewards, police and their muppet fans that are responsible not Oufc

 

[Oufcad30]

I hope he managed to recover, but it didn’t look good. My thoughts are with him and his family.

My thoughts are with him too

 

[West Oxon U’s]

 

[Oufcad30]

To be fair they were probably concentrating on saving the man rather than holding up a sheet

This was when the paramedics were on site and were treating the gentleman though

 

[uptheus]

I think that was the agreement. Our players got to say thank you to our fans, safely before kicking the ball out to end the game officially.

It wasn’t us as a club that Handled it badly at all. The officials, stewards, police and their muppet fans that are responsible not Oufc

Just think our players and management should have stayed in the tunnel until the pitch was cleared, then played out the remaining couple of minutes if possible.

Yes, the policing/stewardship was poor, but I think it would have been hard for them to manage that situation effectively.

Just felt the player/Robinson incident could have been avoided, but understand why Robinson acted as he did.

 

[Deleted member 462]

I think that was the agreement. Our players got to say thank you to our fans, safely before kicking the ball out to end the game officially.

It wasn’t us as a club that Handled it badly at all. The officials, stewards, police and their muppet fans that are responsible not Oufc

Just think our players and management should have stayed in the tunnel until the pitch was cleared, then played out the remaining couple of minutes if possible.

Yes, the policing/stewardship was poor, but I think it would have been hard for them to manage that situation effectively.

Just felt the player/Robinson incident could have been avoided, but understand why Robinson acted as he did.

It was obviously agreed with safety officials, and match officials that it was what was going to happen. The majority of fans were off the pitch. All it needed was more stewards/ police doing their job and it would have been fine. Our players stayed a safe distance. All they had to do to “manage the situation” was put 10 stewards this side of our players to stop the two or 3 stragglers who were still on the pitch

 

[McXal]

Exactly my point. I thought the stewarding was extremely poor all afternoon - and it felt like they’d all got caught up in the euphoria of the day (for them).

BUT, having let the end of the game descend into farce, the least they could have done is sort a row of bodies to give our players and staff due care and protection. In a similar situation against Wycombe a couple of years ago I remember we had an entire side-by-side line of bodies to block off fans and enable their team and staff to applaud their travelling fans at the end of the season.

Our players and staff, rightly, wanted to applaud the fans (and be applauded in turn for their efforts). They shouldn’t have had to risk their safety to do so. In hindsight I agree they probably should have just stayed in the changing rooms...but in all fairness they didn’t know what was going on, and for all they knew that was the only chance they’d get to come over to us.

Joke scenes. Idiot fans. But having had a night to sleep on it, ultimately a rather meaningless but fun afternoon to end the season in a cracking stadium and atmosphere. After struggling in the depths of the conference, as a club it was so pleasing to be back on that kind of stage...and a tease of what could be a weekly occurrence if we could somehow push on again into the Championship...

 

[uptheus]

Exactly my point. I thought the stewarding was extremely poor all afternoon - and it felt like they’d all got caught up in the euphoria of the day (for them).

BUT, having let the end of the game descend into farce, the least they could have done is sort a row of bodies to give our players and staff due care and protection. In a similar situation against Wycombe a couple of years ago I remember we had an entire side-by-side line of bodies to block off fans and enable their team and staff to applaud their travelling fans at the end of the season.

Our players and staff, rightly, wanted to applaud the fans (and be applauded in turn for their efforts). They shouldn’t have had to risk their safety to do so. In hindsight I agree they probably should have just stayed in the changing rooms...but in all fairness they didn’t know what was going on, and for all they knew that was the only chance they’d get to come over to us.

Joke scenes. Idiot fans. But having had a night to sleep on it, ultimately a rather meaningless but fun afternoon to end the season in a cracking stadium and atmosphere. After struggling in the depths of the conference, as a club it was so pleasing to be back on that kind of stage...and a tease of what could be a weekly occurrence if we could somehow push on again into the Championship...

But the game hadn’t officially ended at that point, so play out the last few minutes, let their fans run on the pitch like some of ours did against Wycombe, then let our players etc walk done to our fans to applaud them etc.

 

[uptheus]

It was obviously agreed with safety officials, and match officials that it was what was going to happen. The majority of fans were off the pitch. All it needed was more stewards/ police doing their job and it would have been fine. Our players stayed a safe distance. All they had to do to “manage the situation” was put 10 stewards this side of our players to stop the two or 3 stragglers who were still on the pitch

I think it was Oxford that instigated that finish, not safety officials.

You could see that when the players returned to the pitch that Rovers were willing to start playing again, but the Oxford management/players basically garnered that ending which I can sort of understand.

Anyway, it’s finished now so it’s not going to change the situation!

Just thought it would have been great if we had scored an equaliser in those minutes that weren’t played!

 

[Corporate_Clive]

Afternoon all. A win would be nice. As long as we give a good account of ourselves don’t really care. Major rebuild in the summer so a chance to have a free hit at Blackburn.

I dont agree with "major" rebuild.

 

[McXal]

Did they know they had that option though? It didn’t seem like they were getting an awful lot of communication from the officials until they got back into the middle.

All speculation, and let’s be real, an embarrassing situation for another club that isn’t our own. Robinson possibly should’ve know better (especially after he admonished Mowatt for not showing restraint in a similar situation after missing a penalty at Portsmouth!) but never mind.

Would’ve been a massively different conversation if we needed a point to stay up though!!

 

[uptheus]

Did they know they had that option though? It didn’t seem like they were getting an awful lot of communication from the officials until they got back into the middle.

All speculation, and let’s be real, an embarrassing situation for another club that isn’t our own. Robinson possibly should’ve know better (especially after he admonished Mowatt for not showing restraint in a similar situation after missing a penalty at Portsmouth!) but never mind.

Would’ve been a massively different conversation if we needed a point to stay up though!!

Agree.

Having just read your message I had forgotten about Mowatt!

Hope he’s another that’s shipped out and never to return!

 

[Corporate_Clive]

put a youngster on for obika

Now.Now. JOB had a really good game.

 

[uptheus]

Now.Now. JOB had a really good game.

You do worry me about your ability to recognise good players.

 

[Corporate_Clive]

Not a bad performance we had Blackburn worried. Our strike force is woeful though. How obika can pass as a professional footballer is beyond me.

?

 

[Corporate_Clive]

Yes Napa is currently lightweight like a lot of young players when they start. Physicality and physique is part of their development as demonstrated by the development of COD who was knocked off the ball easily in his 1st season, by his last season he was knocking defenders off the ball. Unfortunately, players of Napa's age being physically ready like Rooney are the exception rather than the rule.

FFS Napa was playing @ North Leigh this time last year. Give the lad a chance.

 

[Corporate_Clive]

Let’s face it, without Jack Payne in on loan we’d have probably had to win this game to stay up. He was a class above and got us at least 8 assists I believe with a few goals, arguably was a key player in winning us several points.

Without Payne we would of been relegated. End of.