Fan's View Fan's View 22/23 - No.5 - Bristol Rovers away

[Paul B]

Fan's View 22/23 - No.5 - Bristol Rovers away

 

[OxfordYankee]

Depressingly accurate.

 

[Yello]

Another good write up, thanks.
Totally in agreement re Henry and Bodin, really dont think the two of them together in the same team out wide give us anywhere near enough. And also agree, as good as Henry has been for us, couldnt see the logic of two more years .

 

[Trevor L]

Thanks Paul.
Brown for Seddon makes sense to me on current form.
A fit Gorrin would let McGuane and Cam do their stuff further forward, I'd have thought.

 

[Paul B]

Thanks Paul.
Brown for Seddon makes sense to me on current form.
A fit Gorrin would let McGuane and Cam do their stuff further forward, I'd have thought.

Gorrin makes sense but only if fit.

 

[Paul Cannell]

You could say that of half our squad.

 

[werthersoriginal]

On a minor note can I point out that the young hipsters in OX4 now eschew beards for that mullet plus a little moustache

 

[Paul B]

On a minor note can I point out that the young hipsters in OX4 now eschew beards for that mullet plus a little moustache

Thank you. At my age I find it increasingly difficult to keep up with the latest trends.

 

[werthersoriginal]

Thank you. At my age I find it increasingly difficult to keep up with the latest trends.

I think Mr Bodin was rocking a pencil tache at one point last season, looked very cool.

 

[Victor1986]

Thanks Paul - worried already. Tuesday night will be interesting.

 

[wolvercoteyellow]

Thanks Paul. Very depressing. Well done for enduring the trip.

 

[MarkG]

I missed the game entirely due to the train strike. When the match tickets went on sale I stupidly assumed that meant the kick-off time had been set at 3pm so booked my trains accordingly, arriving a few hours before kick off and leaving a couple after. GWR would have charged me the privilege of £10 per advance ticket to change the trains I was booked on anyway, so would have been faced with taxi straight to the ground and then hanging around for hours after the match. Still waiting for my train ticket refund, though I did get match ticket refunded quickly so that was good.
Turns out there is another train strike this Saturday, with no trains from home to Reading, so that's probably going to be a miss unless I drive.
Oxford station closed at weekends for September so that's potential bus replacements.
And for Shrewsbury away, Avanti West Coast aren't even announcing a timetable or selling advance tickets for another few weeks due to uncertainty over drivers turning up.

 

[Paul B]

I missed the game entirely due to the train strike. When the match tickets went on sale I stupidly assumed that meant the kick-off time had been set at 3pm so booked my trains accordingly, arriving a few hours before kick off and leaving a couple after. GWR would have charged me the privilege of £10 per advance ticket to change the trains I was booked on anyway, so would have been faced with taxi straight to the ground and then hanging around for hours after the match. Still waiting for my train ticket refund, though I did get match ticket refunded quickly so that was good.
Turns out there is another train strike this Saturday, with no trains from home to Reading, so that's probably going to be a miss unless I drive.
Oxford station closed at weekends for September so that's potential bus replacements.
And for Shrewsbury away, Avanti West Coast aren't even announcing a timetable or selling advance tickets for another few weeks due to uncertainty over drivers turning up.

All in all not good for football fans. Not so bad for me living in Oxfordshire where there are usually a few of us who can travel together by car.
I admire fans who travel fair distances from outside the shire to almost every game.
Could be a long hard season for many reasons.

 

[NottsYellow]

Added time - it is about time there was extra added time for the ref's wasting time. They seem to take a lot of time faffing about when they award a free kick. Have a natter with a player, put that ****** spray down, then say wait until I blow my whistle etc, etc. On a drop ball they spend time telling the opposition players to move away etc
At a every corner, there is the usual kerfuffle, a bit of pushing, tugging, etc while waiting for the corner to be taken, then the ref stops the corner being taken and has another natter with the players (what does he say?!) one player pleads innocence, the other player says "not me mate". Each time there is 30 seconds wasted. Just take the ****** corner and as soon as the ball is in play award a free kick. If it is a "6 of one, half dozen of other" then give benefit to attacker, award a penalty, next time give the benefit to the defender, next time give a penalty, next time free kick to defender just keep alternating the decision for the 50:50s etc, etc. The defenders would soon stop fouling as 50% of the time a penalty is given. The ref could tell the teams before the game that he how he will treat such incidences at a corner.

 

[Trevor L]

Refs that keep the game flowing while maintaining order are rare. It would be interesting to run a stopwatch to measure the minutes the ball is in play, and to compare different refs.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

Refs that keep the game flowing while maintaining order are rare. It would be interesting to run a stopwatch to measure the minutes the ball is in play, and to compare different refs.

I think that's why I am gradually coming around to the completely heretical idea of an 80 minute game with a clock that stops for injuries, substitutions, throw ins, goal kicks etc. That way the timekeeping is taken out of the on-field refs hands and he can concentrate on what's going on on the pitch - the clock should be visible to the players and supporters so there's no hint of spurious 'Fergie time' at the end. Once the ball goes dead and the clock has run down, that's it. Why 80 minutes? Because at the moment the ball is in play for only about 60 minutes (https://talksport.com/football/3159...emier-league-side-201718-season-171127263506/) - even if some time was lost out of the 80 minutes, we'd still get better value. I could be argued into making the players actually play for 90 minutes though!

 

[Carlislehotdog]

I think that's why I am gradually coming around to the completely heretical idea of an 80 minute game with a clock that stops for injuries, substitutions, throw ins, goal kicks etc. That way the timekeeping is taken out of the on-field refs hands and he can concentrate on what's going on on the pitch - the clock should be visible to the players and supporters so there's no hint of spurious 'Fergie time' at the end. Once the ball goes dead and the clock has run down, that's it. Why 80 minutes? Because at the moment the ball is in play for only about 60 minutes (https://talksport.com/football/3159...emier-league-side-201718-season-171127263506/) - even if some time was lost out of the 80 minutes, we'd still get better value. I could be argued into making the players actually play for 90 minutes though!

Surely that would make games go on forever? And you'd see people take far more opportunities for drinks breaks and tactical chats every time the ball went dead. Personally I'd file clock-stopping along with VAR as things that would in theory make the game fairer, but would probably in practice make it less fun to watch.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

Surely that would make games go on forever? And you'd see people take far more opportunities for drinks breaks and tactical chats every time the ball went dead. Personally I'd file clock-stopping along with VAR as things that would in theory make the game fairer, but would probably in practice make it less fun to watch.

I will happily admit that I haven't thought it through!

But even with the clock stopped you could have a maximum time allowed to take a throw/free kick etc before it was reversed. When you get ball boys not fetching the ball, stewards throwing it into the crowd, players shaping to to take a throw and then dropping it for his mate 20 yards away to wander over and take it instead, injury feigning, subs walking off at a pace a glacier could beat etc - there simply has to be something done about it.

 

[werthersoriginal]

I will happily admit that I haven't thought it through!

But even with the clock stopped you could have a maximum time allowed to take a throw/free kick etc before it was reversed. When you get ball boys not fetching the ball, stewards throwing it into the crowd, players shaping to to take a throw and then dropping it for his mate 20 yards away to wander over and take it instead, injury feigning, subs walking off at a pace a glacier could beat etc - there simply has to be something done about it.

Refs just need to be a lot tougher on this sort of thing, book the first guy who does it, complain to the manager at half time about ball boys, etc.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

Refs just need to be a lot tougher on this sort of thing, book the first guy who does it, complain to the manager at half time about ball boys, etc.

I completely agree - but the fact is that they simply don't do it. What happened to the 'respect' thing when only the captain was allowed to approach the ref? It just got dropped. The experiment when dissent at a free kick saw it moved forwards 10 yards? Not implemented. We all moan about refs (with justification a lot of the time) but I think they do have a difficult job: maybe it is time to actually have proper, professional, full-time referees? Then the game might be able to recruit some ex pro footballers into the job - they would certainly be more aware of what's going on than some of the current crop?