OUFC @ Scunthorpe - weird, just weird!

[Yellow Hoods]

Really don't know what to make of it! Must admit, I thought at 3-0 up we were slightly flattered and as soon as they scored their first people around me were already feeling nervous. After the six minute debacle, and despite a few attacks of our own, nobody would have been surprised had Scunny got a winner.

So is it too crass and simplistic to suggest we looked good going forward but our creaky defence yet again under-performed? I only saw their goals in real time, so difficult to tell.

The official site makes much of 'six matches undefeated' but also acknowledges that a 3-0 lead should have meant three points, and it's difficult to feel too optimistic after that collapse.

Weird feeling. Six undefeated, three goals away from home, but feels like a defeat. Never a dull moment.

 

[Peterdev]

What is amazing is that we are still in the bottom four and two points adrift. Bristol Rovers somehow do what we should have managed.
We have no problem scoring but our defence is sometimes laughable.
Yet all of us would probably take a 3-3 before the game.
Positives must be Brannigan scoring. Nelson chips in too.
Dickie must be due a suspension soon and many fans see him as the weakest link.
Thank God god Eastwood as I’m sure without him we’d be bottom

 

[Concretebob]

What is amazing is that we are still in the bottom four and two points adrift. Bristol Rovers somehow do what we should have managed.
We have no problem scoring but our defence is sometimes laughable.
Yet all of us would probably take a 3-3 before the game.
Positives must be Brannigan scoring. Nelson chips in too.
Dickie must be due a suspension soon and many fans see him as the weakest link.
Thank God god Eastwood as I’m sure without him we’d be bottom

Until today our defence wasn't that laughable... Well in the last five matches. Didn't concede a goal in open play for five games straight.

Whatever happened in that six minutes today though, that is worrying. But the bigger picture still suggests we are improving.

Slightly rose tinted glasses but there are causes for optimism. I honestly couldn't see us drawing 3-3 away at Scunthorpe back on August.

 

[yellowbow]

I think it’s one of those situations where the dust needs to settle for a day or two before a fair reflection and perspective can be gained. On the face of it there seems to be a residual issue of confidence. The start to the season we made will have taken its mental toll on the players despite the recent results. However, a complete collapse like that after the first Scunny goal went in is hard to fathom. I still have a feeling that this could be a long hard season unfortunately.

 

[Mellowyellow]

Talk of turning the corner is premature after a second half defensive display like that. Bristol Rovers seem to be showing the way, but we sit still in the relegation zone. Speaking to a couple of people at the game, the worrying thing seemed to be that Plymouth came here and did a good job on Scunthorpe, a convincing job according to one of their stewards, we couldn’t, and we saw how poor Plymouth were, albeit they lost themselves today against Sunderland.
Same old excuses from robinson, in his interview post match. I’m still not convinced by robinson. Things may have improved but from a very low starting point. The longer we remain in the relegation zone, it seems to become the norm.

 

[greatunclekip]

Its surprising how positive some are after that capitulation.

Im actually increasing in anger looking at the league table and considering the points we threw away.

Pitiful.

 

[werthersoriginal]

Stop moaning, six games unbeaten and two easy home wins under our belt. We’re obviously not the finished article and strange things happen in football. Havent heard much from the ‘Robinson out’ brigade lately, never mind the inadequates who call him and various players the foulest names.

 

[The Hawk]

I’m Robinson in but that’s the biggest stinker of the season for me. No dressing it up

 

[daveoufc]

Very worrying capitulation but we didnt go on to lose like the mentally weak pep sides had a habit of doing. This group are made of tougher stuff I think/hope.

Think the turning point was when we were 2 nil down away at wimbledon and bottom and looking shaky we dug in a bit and got 1 back inatead of getting hammered then beat plymouth instead of going 4 points adrift and so on.
Maybe Robbo thought the defence and midfield was fixed and focused more on attacking play this week. Hopefully just a timely reminder that its not

 

[unification]

Until today our defence wasn't that laughable... Well in the last five matches. Didn't concede a goal in open play for five games straight.

Exactly. Our defence was a disaster at the start of the season but has looked far more settled in recent weeks. The one penalty conceded is testament to that. Scoring will remain a problem with this side with such slim pickings to choose from without a proper striker but we’ve at least learned to muddle through it with the change of formation.

They uncharacteristicly let in three today. That in itself isn’t a great deal to worry about - the goals came in such quick succession that the team didn’t know what had hit them and I trust and hope that KR doesn’t let that happen again - but what was concerning was that Scunthorpe cottoned on to a method to attack us and we had no defensive answers.

Defending set pieces and preventing them in the first place (KR said that Brannigan apologised for giving away the free kicks and said he’d learn from it) is now key. Scunthorpe exposed a weakness and exploited it. We need to shore that up in our next two games and especially for the Gillingham game that is a massive opportunity to put some points on the board.

 

[werthersoriginal]

Not really understanding this debating lark, are you? Giving away a 3-0 lead is worthy of comment. Yes, we got a point, but we lost two from a position that should have been dominant. That's not moaning, it's reflecting fact and trying to establish why it happened.

Yeah of course we messed up. But some here seem overjoyed that they can start moaning again. Mind you, I wasn’t there, so I’m not quite feeling your level of pain!

 

[Shropshire U]

It's a result and a capitulation that kind of confirms that we are going to be in a relegation struggle for the whole of this season. The only positive to extract from that is that at one stage it was looking like we were going to be doomed well before the end of the season.
At least it now looks as if we are in with a chance of scrapping it out until the end.
The Carruthers news simply underlines the godawful summer recruitment. That's not bad luck, it's bad gambling judgement.

 

[Oufcrealist]

Yes, I agree confidence was obviously an issue. When we went 3-0 up Scunthorpe's keeper and defenders were getting narky with each other, yet we saw how their team responded even though they must have felt utterly deflated at that stage.

For us, 3-0 looked like game, set and match, yet when Scunthorpe scored their first our confidence evaporated. A second (then third, even fourth) always looked possible.

So Scunny's confidence rose in adversity, ours collapsed from a position of seeming triumph. Weird.

Agreed. As I said on the match thread we looked fragile as soon as we kicked off after the first goal. We could have lost quite easily, in the end we just clung on.
On the face of it a poor result considering we were 3 up in the hour and also that a very poor Plymouth side tonked them last week.

 

[PottersRightBoot]

Wasn’t there today Jerome But don’t get the negativity. We would have all generally settled for a point at the start of the game. It’s a tough old league- there are no easy fixtures.

10 points from last 6 games is play off form.

 

[Peterdev]

Despite Scunthorpe scoring three they must be less than happy with a home draw. If we had gone 0-3 down and scored three to equalise we would have been reasonably happy with final result

 

[Mellowyellow]

It's a result and a capitulation that kind of confirms that we are going to be in a relegation struggle for the whole of this season. The only positive to extract from that is that at one stage it was looking like we were going to be doomed well before the end of the season.
At least it now looks as if we are in with a chance of scrapping it out until the end.
The Carruthers news simply underlines the godawful summer recruitment. That's not bad luck, it's bad gambling judgement.

I fully agree that we are in with a chance of scrapping it out until the end. Is this though what tiger had in mind, when he gave robinson the budget he did?
The recruitment of Robinson’s players in the summer is perplexing, with Caruthers
Out for 6 to 12 weeks again, Holmes struggling to play the number of games, Mackie able to complete around 60 mins at full pace and Brown “managing” an injury.
Arguably the first three are some of our top earners, eating a large part of the budget. There is though the other side of the coin, did robinson get the budget he was initially promised?
Thohir(sp) is rumoured to nearly be on board, so maybe our Christmas comes in January. Something needs to happen, because those fans that were there today do not deserve the kind of capitulation we saw today.

 

[Discoland]

In fairness to Robinson with Carruthers latest injury, haven't most of the players who went to Ireland stayed fit?

 

[Mellowyellow]

In fairness to Robinson with Carruthers latest injury, haven't most of the players who went to Ireland stayed fit?[/QUOTE

But why take the risk bringing in so many players with a history of/current injuries. He knew Hall was always going to be suspect with his record before spending a penny

 

[Blox21]

If you rewind a month , we would of all gladly took the position we are in now ! The bigger picture looks slightly brighter !!

 

[ljs]

Wasn’t there today Jerome But don’t get the negativity. We would have all generally settled for a point at the start of the game. It’s a tough old league- there are no easy fixtures.

10 points from last 6 games is play off form.

Surely the negativity is very easy to understand? We were 3-0 up in a game and didn't win it. I would have thought any supporter of any club would be quite pissed off with that fact.

 

[Scotchegg]

If you rewind a month , we would of all gladly took the position we are in now ! The bigger picture looks slightly brighter !!

We've picked up 10 points from our last 6 games conceding a penalty and the 3 today in a mad 6 minutes. By any standard, that's a decent run. By our previous standards, it's a huge step forward.

Of course it feels like a missed opportunity today, but to use this result to reignite previous moans is bizarre. Had we drawn 0-0 or 1-1 we would have accepted it as a fair result. The 3 goals flattered both sides and only create the illusion that we were bossing the game for the first hour or that we were destroyed for the last 30 minutes. The reality is that it was a fairly even contest and a point we wouldn't have got a month ago.

 

[gingerox]

Positives:
First two goals were really well worked, and none of the three were speculative strikes like we've been seeing
Did well to defend the point after conceding the third considering their momentum
Unbeaten run endures

Negatives:
Didn't win despite being 0-3 up. Obviously
Poor game management, especially after conceding 1st+2nd. Should have slowed it right down for 5mins
Worse than dropping two points is the impact this could have mentally, a win + out of relegation zone would have made a big difference heading into the league break. Also won't help defending leads in future if this sticks in the lads' minds

 

[brassmonkey]

What is amazing is that we are still in the bottom four and two points adrift. Bristol Rovers somehow do what we should have managed.
We have no problem scoring but our defence is sometimes laughable.
Yet all of us would probably take a 3-3 before the game.
Positives must be Brannigan scoring. Nelson chips in too.
Dickie must be due a suspension soon and many fans see him as the weakest link.
Thank God god Eastwood as I’m sure without him we’d be bottom

What you on about? Dickie wasn't at fault for any of the goals. If anything Eastwood should have done better and we shouldn't be conceding stupid free kicks around the penalty area.

 

[Peterdev]

When we were 3-0 or 3-1 up we should have taken off forwards and put on defenders and kept the ball in possession for fifteen minute or so.
Hopefully two cup games will provide a welcome distraction

 

[yellowbow]

I fully agree that we are in with a chance of scrapping it out until the end. Is this though what tiger had in mind, when he gave robinson the budget he did?
The recruitment of Robinson’s players in the summer is perplexing, with Caruthers
Out for 6 to 12 weeks again, Holmes struggling to play the number of games, Mackie able to complete around 60 mins at full pace and Brown “managing” an injury.
Arguably the first three are some of our top earners, eating a large part of the budget. There is though the other side of the coin, did robinson get the budget he was initially promised?
Thohir(sp) is rumoured to nearly be on board, so maybe our Christmas comes in January. Something needs to happen, because those fans that were there today do not deserve the kind of capitulation we saw today.

Have you heard an update on this? Because I’m starting to have real doubts this is ever going to happen now. We were told two or three weeks ago that there was a minor paperwork hitch but that it was imminent, since then it’s all gone very quiet.

 

[Whingit]

Think Jerome said the situation has changed because it's himself and not one of his associates now so the paperwork needs to start again or something.

 

[yellowbow]

Think Jerome said the situation has changed because it's himself and not one of his associates now so the paperwork needs to start again or something.

Hmmm.. we’ll see I guess..

 

[brassmonkey]

We were cruising at 3-0. They then scored a luckyish 1st goal from a free kick. Ball went through about 4 players. 2nd goal was a sweet free kick. Not much we can do about that. Then we panicked and typically ball fell perfectly for someone to lash home. Just one of those crazy football things. I don't think it was bad defending just we were a bit unlucky.

 

[OUFCwaffle]

Honestly can't see this happening again, our defence is experienced enough to be able to learn from these kind of errors. They'll be working hard on it in the week no doubt, keep your heads up people.

 

[Deleted member 222]

If it happens again then we have an issue. Right now though it’s just one of those freak results that luckily don’t happen very often, although I’ve seen it a fair few times over the years with oxford!

I thought we were excellent for most of the game, just individual errors cost us at silly times.

On a side note, to the group of lads trying to get the atmosphere going in the first half, shouting sing up you c***s at your own fans isn’t likely going to work.