Fan's View Fan's View 20/21 - No.43 - Sunderland away

[Paul B]

Fan's view 20/21 - No.43 Sunderland away

 

[LowerSouth]

78 points.
Liking that

 

[Foley]

I was angry like you Paul.
A friend posted a link to Kettle the morning of the game with the comment 'oh no'. He seems to ve consistently bad regardless of which team it happens to benefit game to game.
I am.also with you on Hanson. Against a quality winger he did pretty well. Sure he was roasted once, but over the past couple of years Browne, Whyte and Barker have made many good L1 defenders look a little daft.

 

[Sarge]

cheers @Paul B .... summed it all up excellently in FV

 

[Oxford57]

Thanks for a well balanced report on what turned out to be a emotive game, for all the wrong reasons, as regards the ref , a waste of space is a apt description for me, as regards the alleged headbutt , if there was clear evidence that it happened the team should have stayed off the pitch, if teams can walk off due to racialist abuse , can the same not apply to physical assaults. The max power goal celebration, made himself look a idiot in my eyes, was he looking for some sort of a response from the oxford bench?

 

[Manorlounger]

Thanks Paul.
Had a chat with our Scum supporting postie this morning and he was just as surprised by the antics as we were. Also, the mere mention of Kettle's name brought condemnation. It's not just us, as is also evidenced by the petition to have Kettle removed from the list of referees currently doing the rounds.
Our Sunderland supporter who posts on here is convinced that nothing was untoward about taking a free kick with our player down as he was clearly feigning injury!

 

[NottsYellow]

Thanks Paul
It may be a minor issue but I don't get why we played in white shorts. To me yellow top with white shorts look odd.
Sunderland play in Red, white & black which is obviously different to our yellow & blue.
Is it the ref that dictates change of part of a kit if he thinks there is bit of a clash?

 

[Sarge]

Thanks Paul
It may be a minor issue but I don't get why we played in white shorts. To me yellow top with white shorts look odd.
Sunderland play in Red, white & black which is obviously different to our yellow & blue.
Is it the ref that dictates change of part of a kit if he thinks there is bit of a clash?

agree @NottsYellow , white shorts n socks with a yellow sirt really does look odd - havent the U's played once or twice in an all Yellow strip this season?

 

[Oxymoron]

Black and dark blue would be too close for a linesman assistant referee to easily distinguish when looking for, say, a tight offside decision...

 

[Paul B]

Thanks Paul.
Had a chat with our Scum supporting postie this morning and he was just as surprised by the antics as we were. Also, the mere mention of Kettle's name brought condemnation. It's not just us, as is also evidenced by the petition to have Kettle removed from the list of referees currently doing the rounds.
Our Sunderland supporter who posts on here is convinced that nothing was untoward about taking a free kick with our player down as he was clearly feigning injury!

I get that if that was all there was to it - but there's the matter of consistency and what does said Sunderland supporter think about the kick being taken from the wrong place?

 

[Manorlounger]

I get that if that was all there was to it - but there's the matter of consistency and what does said Sunderland supporter think about the kick being taken from the wrong place?

Absolutely and it is further galling, as you pointed out, how Kettle would spray for every free kick, count out 8, 9, 10 or however many paces he deemed fit at the time and spray again. On this occasion, no spray, no pacing and not even a blast on his whistle - the video shows it going to his mouth and coming away again as play had already re-started. Our Sunderland supporter has ignored that, he considers it a cleverly taken quick free kick. Brannagan, by the way, in his considered opinion, was faking injury to deny the kick being taken. I have given up arguing with him as it is not going to change his viewpoint. In case you missed it a still from the video showing Brannagan down as the kick is about to be taken:

 

[MackemHope]

Great summary of the game. I was impressed yesterday by Oxford, you certainly came to play and I would have accepted a draw at half time to be honest. Once the red card happened, I think it was almost inevitable we'd make it really difficult for Oxford, with so long still left to play.

On the key incidents of the game, I thought the sending off was harsh, but it was a brave call to make for Sykes to go in for it, when already on a yellow. If you play it back in slow motion getting to the ball was maybe 80-20 in favour of O'Nein getting there first, so it always ran the risk of your player making contact with our defender and not the ball. He took that risk, while on a yellow card with a trigger-happy referee. Plenty ref's would have just blown for a home free kick without the yellow card, but Kettle is not one to keep his cards in his pockets.

On the head-butt incident in the tunnel - if that has happened, whoever it is (rumour is our goalkeeping coach) should be investigated and fired if found to be true. There's no room for that in the game, irrespective of any provocation.

On our second goal, I don't have an issue with the ref allowing the free kick to be taken early while your number 8 was "injured". The picture above shows Brannigan on the floor now clutching his thigh/hamstring. Seconds before he was on his feet complaining about the free kick to Kettle. There was clearly no head injury, and no reason to stop play from a player who was on his feet straight after the free kick was awarded, but now rolling over. Once he realized the play wasn't going to be called back for a delay, he returned to his feet to run back into the box. I'm sure Oxford have had multiple occasions of play acting and time-wasting against them in this league, Kettle made the right call in ignoring this in my opinion.

With regards to the location of the free kick, there's a solid argument that this should have been moved 1.5 yards closer to where the foul had taken place. It really shouldn't have made any difference however, as there wasn't an immediate goal scoring opportunity presented by the freekick location. In fact there were 7 Oxford players (not including Brannigan) who were in the penalty box facing the ball as the free kick was taken. Your defending in this incident was actually admirable - you really were fighting hard to keep the ball out of the net and (Brannigan aside) were all switched on putting bodies on the line, regardless of the quick free kick. Only an excellent finish was going to beat your defence, not the location that the kick was taken.

On Max Power's goal celebration, I find that cringeworthy, and also inciteful. I would hope he is fined for the potential provocation that this could have caused. He was also deeply disrespectful in his interview afterwards, describing your team as having a soft underbelly. Not what you would expect by a professional footballing captain.

Anyway - good luck for the rest of the season. I genuinely hope that you can get into the playoffs, you probably need to win almost all of your games at this point. But apply the same application as yesterday and you have a chance. If you do get there, I think we may meet you. I predict we'll finish just short in 3rd spot - this will make for a very tasty play off semi-final!!

 

[Paul B]

Great summary of the game. I was impressed yesterday by Oxford, you certainly came to play and I would have accepted a draw at half time to be honest. Once the red card happened, I think it was almost inevitable we'd make it really difficult for Oxford, with so long still left to play.

On the key incidents of the game, I thought the sending off was harsh, but it was a brave call to make for Sykes to go in for it, when already on a yellow. If you play it back in slow motion getting to the ball was maybe 80-20 in favour of O'Nein getting there first, so it always ran the risk of your player making contact with our defender and not the ball. He took that risk, while on a yellow card with a trigger-happy referee. Plenty ref's would have just blown for a home free kick without the yellow card, but Kettle is not one to keep his cards in his pockets.

On the head-butt incident in the tunnel - if that has happened, whoever it is (rumour is our goalkeeping coach) should be investigated and fired if found to be true. There's no room for that in the game, irrespective of any provocation.

On our second goal, I don't have an issue with the ref allowing the free kick to be taken early while your number 8 was "injured". The picture above shows Brannigan on the floor now clutching his thigh/hamstring. Seconds before he was on his feet complaining about the free kick to Kettle. There was clearly no head injury, and no reason to stop play from a player who was on his feet straight after the free kick was awarded, but now rolling over. Once he realized the play wasn't going to be called back for a delay, he returned to his feet to run back into the box. I'm sure Oxford have had multiple occasions of play acting and time-wasting against them in this league, Kettle made the right call in ignoring this in my opinion.

With regards to the location of the free kick, there's a solid argument that this should have been moved 1.5 yards closer to where the foul had taken place. It really shouldn't have made any difference however, as there wasn't an immediate goal scoring opportunity presented by the freekick location. In fact there were 7 Oxford players (not including Brannigan) who were in the penalty box facing the ball as the free kick was taken. Your defending in this incident was actually admirable - you really were fighting hard to keep the ball out of the net and (Brannigan aside) were all switched on putting bodies on the line, regardless of the quick free kick. Only an excellent finish was going to beat your defence, not the location that the kick was taken.

On Max Power's goal celebration, I find that cringeworthy, and also inciteful. I would hope he is fined for the potential provocation that this could have caused. He was also deeply disrespectful in his interview afterwards, describing your team as having a soft underbelly. Not what you would expect by a professional footballing captain.

Anyway - good luck for the rest of the season. I genuinely hope that you can get into the playoffs, you probably need to win almost all of your games at this point. But apply the same application as yesterday and you have a chance. If you do get there, I think we may meet you. I predict we'll finish just short in 3rd spot - this will make for a very tasty play off semi-final!!

Always like a sensible view from the other side. I would however say that the free-kick was taken more than 1.5 yards from the incident (although would have to check again to be sure). That being the case I'd argue defenders may not have been fully ready to defend as they would expect the kick to be taken much closer to where the foul took place. But the result won't change - we each move on to our next games.

 

[MackemHope]

Always like a sensible view from the other side. I would however say that the free-kick was taken more than 1.5 yards from the incident (although would have to check again to be sure). That being the case I'd argue defenders may not have been fully ready to defend as they would expect the kick to be taken much closer to where the foul took place. But the result won't change - we each move on to our next games.

On reflection I think that you are right on it being more than 1.5 yards. If you look at the stills below, the first is the freekick location, the second Max Power moves the ball towards where Brannigan is, but that is not where our player was fouled (which seems to be about a yard closer to the goal). The third is where we took the free kick from, at the same time as Brannigan had been shot by a sniper.

Note from the third picture that Kettle is watching exactly where the free kick was being taken from, and seems to have his back to the now maimed Brannigan. With the exception of Brannigan and whoever the player is close by him, I think all of your defenders are switched on and positionally prepared for this free kick mind. Like I said before, taking the free kick in a slightly different position really (in my opinion of course) didn't make any difference in the outcome of the goal, we weren't going to score through that wall of defenders without a great finish, which is what Mcgeady provided. I'd be annoyed as an Oxford fan about where the kick was taken from, but it wasn't stealing extra yards, it was to maintain momentum and not have a player feigning injury break that up. If Brannigan hadn't been rolling around, he may have stopped the Mcgeady strike instead of running back towards goal just before the shot came in.

 

[Banbury2018]

Always like a sensible view from the other side. I would however say that the free-kick was taken more than 1.5 yards from the incident (although would have to check again to be sure). That being the case I'd argue defenders may not have been fully ready to defend as they would expect the kick to be taken much closer to where the foul took place. But the result won't change - we each move on to our next games.

5/6 yards I would say bearing in mind the Sunderland player fouled! is 2 yards closer to the goal than Cam.

 

[bazzer9461]

As soon as I saw the photo of that person I skipped straight to this section and to say I never want to see that waste of space that stands in the middle.

 

[Paul B]

On reflection I think that you are right on it being more than 1.5 yards. If you look at the stills below, the first is the freekick location, the second Max Power moves the ball towards where Brannigan is, but that is not where our player was fouled (which seems to be about a yard closer to the goal). The third is where we took the free kick from, at the same time as Brannigan had been shot by a sniper.

Note from the third picture that Kettle is watching exactly where the free kick was being taken from, and seems to have his back to the now maimed Brannigan. With the exception of Brannigan and whoever the player is close by him, I think all of your defenders are switched on and positionally prepared for this free kick mind. Like I said before, taking the free kick in a slightly different position really (in my opinion of course) didn't make any difference in the outcome of the goal, we weren't going to score through that wall of defenders without a great finish, which is what Mcgeady provided. I'd be annoyed as an Oxford fan about where the kick was taken from, but it wasn't stealing extra yards, it was to maintain momentum and not have a player feigning injury break that up. If Brannigan hadn't been rolling around, he may have stopped the Mcgeady strike instead of running back towards goal just before the shot came in.

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Law 13 does however state - "All free kicks are taken from the place where the offence occurred,...."

 

[Paul B]

Absolutely irrelevant of course but having played it through in slow motion I think there's a small case for the goal being given off-side. Wyke marginally off when the shot is played and the ball travels very close to him on its way into the goal and will have affected Steven's line of sight.

 

[MackemHope]

Law 13 does however state - "All free kicks are taken from the place where the offence occurred,...."

Very true. It happens of course in every single game, from both sides, and is rarely clamped down by referees; often a ref would be criticized for being pedantic if they enforced that every free kick takes place at the exact spot of the incident. Same with throw-ins. Would be interesting to see if VAR would have ruled out the goal yesterday for the reason above. I still don't think that taking the free kick closer to goal makes any difference in this passage of play. Choosing not to stop play for the offender's injury was more of a talking point for me, and I think the ref gets that absolutely correct. That's football though - if it was our player who was injured and play was allowed to carry on, we'd be annoyed too. Onwards and upwards for both teams though.

 

[PottersRightBoot]

Fan's view 20/21 - No.43 Sunderland away

Good review. We showed a lot of fight and quality.

However we, are not going to get into the playoffs . We’re not going to win 6 or 7 of the last 8. Too much to do.