Matches Relegation Run ins

[OX14]

Kip says we are down.
Phew. That gives us a chance!

Only if he f***s off to KFC during our games.

 

[greatunclekip]

Only if he f***s off to KFC during our games.

I was there today. And we were absolutely shite. Maybe KFC is the way forward.

 

[Scotchegg]

My prediction for the table come 5pm Saturday;

Oxford p45 pt 47 gd -10
Morecombe p45 pt 44 gd -30
MK Dons p45 pt 43 gd -24
Cambridge p44 pt 41 gd -29
Accrington p45 pt 39 gd -40
Forest Green p45 pt 27 gd -55

That will make us safe bearing a massive defeat to Accrington with Cambridge and Morecombe also winning their games by huge margins.

Maybe I'm being too generous by giving Oxford 2 wins, but even if we draw against Cheltenham and beat FGR, then we are still on 45 points with the outcome in our hands and a draw against Accrington on the last day could still be enough to keep us up.

No guarantees, but certainly not the inevitable relegation that some are predicting.

 

[oldabingdonian]

And we were absolutely shite.

No, we weren't. We were OK until they scored.

 

[oufc1991]

I'm just hoping wins are going to be like buses get the first on Tuesday then hopefully that will give us the confidence to get something on Saturday...lose on Tuesday then I think we will get relegated I wouldn't have confidence in this team going into the Accrington game needing to not lose especially if Accrington needed a win to survive

 

[BeechRoadBokelberg]

Is there a scenario where by we get to final day and MK are really in the relegation mix too, meaning that us and Accy just need a draw to both stay up?

We can just pass the ball around together like a training game!

 

[Scotchegg]

Is there a scenario where by we get to final day and MK are really in the relegation mix too, meaning that us and Accy just need a draw to both stay up?

We can just pass the ball around together like a training game!

I'm not sure that there is any sequence of results that would allow us and Accrington to guarantee survival by drawing from the outset. 2 wins and a draw would give Accy 45 points and a final day win would give MK 46 points.

 

[Common Villager]

My prediction for the table come 5pm Saturday;

Oxford p45 pt 47 gd -10
Morecombe p45 pt 44 gd -30
MK Dons p45 pt 43 gd -24
Cambridge p44 pt 41 gd -29
Accrington p45 pt 39 gd -40
Forest Green p45 pt 27 gd -55

That will make us safe bearing a massive defeat to Accrington with Cambridge and Morecombe also winning their games by huge margins.

Maybe I'm being too generous by giving Oxford 2 wins, but even if we draw against Cheltenham and beat FGR, then we are still on 45 points with the outcome in our hands and a draw against Accrington on the last day could still be enough to keep us up.

No guarantees, but certainly not the inevitable relegation that some are predicting.

Oh man, do I hope your optimism is not wildly misplaced for once.

I'm struggling to convince myself that we can win 2 of our next 3 when we've not won once in the last 17 (? - I've genuinely lost count).

 

[Grumpy Git]

I’m hoping Cheltenham, now they safe to just go thru the motions on Tuesday.
I’m sure as a club they’d rather have 1,209 paying customers from Oxford rather than 111 from Accrington or 83 from Morecombe as they’ve had this season.
I want their players thinking of their holidays and not over doing it.

 

[Davox]

The thing that I don’t get at all about Manning, is that apart from being more defensive initially, he’s used the same system which doesn’t suit the players. Once we had Anderson and Fleming both available he should have gone 5-3-2. IMO you just have to get Anderson in there and another forward to provide support to O’Donkor. 5-3-2 is a way of doing that. We haven’t got wingers who can play effectively with our full backs so it just leaves me scratching my head. Mannings come in and not done anything majorly different. He’s got a confused system cos one minute we press, next minute we sit. Players are trying to stay in rigid positions and not providing outlets. i.e. Brannagan staying deep which is not where he plays best. The noise is that he’s gone into more detailed work with the players but has it confused the players with too much detail? Every game, has been two different performance levels and players look confused about when to press and not all pushing up and pressing as a team. He just needs to give players licence to get forward now because if we don’t get goals we’re 100% down.

 

[Charles]

I find it incredible that we are on the verge of relegation yet two of our first team players are out on loan to a team that is above us in the league !! We must be a laughing stock , what a way to run a pro football club.

 

[Swaby39]

The thing that I don’t get at all about Manning, is that apart from being more defensive initially, he’s used the same system which doesn’t suit the players. Once we had Anderson and Fleming both available he should have gone 5-3-2. IMO you just have to get Anderson in there and another forward to provide support to O’Donkor. 5-3-2 is a way of doing that. We haven’t got wingers who can play effectively with our full backs so it just leaves me scratching my head. Mannings come in and not done anything majorly different. He’s got a confused system cos one minute we press, next minute we sit. Players are trying to stay in rigid positions and not providing outlets. i.e. Brannagan staying deep which is not where he plays best. The noise is that he’s gone into more detailed work with the players but has it confused the players with too much detail? Every game, has been two different performance levels and players look confused about when to press and not all pushing up and pressing as a team. He just needs to give players licence to get forward now because if we don’t get goals we’re 100% down.

Well said and I’m equally confused by this. Our squad has screamed out 352/532 all season. It gets Fleming and Anderson involved who bring energy and enthusiasm and a decent level of experience to an otherwise lethargic and clumsy attack. Neither are terrible defensively. The insurance of another central defender will surely mean we can keep up the defensive improvement while also take the pressure off McGuane and Brannagan who could then effect the game more on the ball.

Manning seems to like Browne centrally so there’s nothing to be lost there - he could play just off Joseph or Smith. The only sacrifice he may be less willing to make is Josh Murphy - he clearly wants that to work so could he play behind Browne and Joseph? I’d opt for Bodin, personally.

It’s easy to be a passenger seat driver but it is made more confusing by the fact this system gave him his success at MK so he clearly knows that system and is actively avoiding it with us. It annoys me because some of our most dangerous players remain sidelined while we play out boring, turgid games for inadequate returns and he seems quite content with that. It’s not a pretty way to go down.

 

[Foley]

Four or five points could be enough......but then you're relying on a bunch of other teams ending the season badly. So I would be going into Cheltenham thinking that only a win will do; another draw doesn't move the needle any more.

The only thing that I would say about that Tony is that I reckon MK will probably get a maximum of 3 points from their last 2 games.
if that is right, then 2 draws and a win would take us above them.
i agree that we really need a win Tuesday to reduce the pressure hugely, but we definitely don't want to lose

 

[Essexyellows]

That Accrington "thing" is coming back to bite us isn`t it?

Jesus what a state of affairs.

 

[RyanioBirdio]

We’ve won seven games in the last six months. Five in the league and two in the FA Cup. Djavan Anderson started all seven of those games, mostly at right back in a four, I might add. Five at right back, one on the wing and one at RWB.

He got caught out in one game (Wycombe) despite playing the way he had been asked to play for the last couple of months, which had made the team markedly better in the process, and it was pinned solely on him so that the last manager could drop him. The bloke who kept telling us that Anderson couldn’t play right back to the point that he played the left back who he said wasn’t good enough to play left back at right back over him. He saw an opportunity to appease his own ego and he took it, at both the player’s and the team’s expense, but there’s a chance to change that now.

If he’s fit, I would have Anderson at right back on Tuesday in a heartbeat. We need to win a game and we haven’t managed to win even once without him for half of an entire year. Get him out there.

 

[tonyw]

The only thing that I would say about that Tony is that I reckon MK will probably get a maximum of 3 points from their last 2 games.
if that is right, then 2 draws and a win would take us above them.
i agree that we really need a win Tuesday to reduce the pressure hugely, but we definitely don't want to lose

If Barnsley don't beat Ipswich on Tuesday, then they're out of the running for the automatics; who knows what sort of side they'll then put out at MK at the weekend - they'll be 100% focused on getting ready for the playoffs, and likely to be resting anyone who's in need of it.

I would not want to be relying on them to beat MKD - and the only way to do that is to win.

If I was Manning, I would be treating Tuesday as a win at all costs game. Which doesn't mean going kamikaze right out of the gate - but it does mean attacking subs and pedal to the metal if we're level midway through the second half. No settling for a point in this one.

 

[Swaby39]

If Barnsley don't beat Ipswich on Tuesday, then they're out of the running for the automatics; who knows what sort of side they'll then put out at MK at the weekend - they'll be 100% focused on getting ready for the playoffs, and likely to be resting anyone who's in need of it.

I would not want to be relying on them to beat MKD - and the only way to do that is to win.

If I was Manning, I would be treating Tuesday as a win at all costs game. Which doesn't mean going kamikaze right out of the gate - but it does mean attacking subs and pedal to the metal if we're level midway through the second half. No settling for a point in this one.

Agree right to the last bit. I don’t see the point in leaving people who he thinks can win him a game on the bench. OK, don’t deploy them all at the cost of leaving ourselves open. But go and pick an aggressive side who can win the game from kick off. The bench won’t mean anything if we’re 2-0 down or 2-0 up - so go for the latter. Don’t wait for the opportunity, make it. He has no alternative if he doesn’t want to be caught and take his share of the blame.

 

[Foley]

If Barnsley don't beat Ipswich on Tuesday, then they're out of the running for the automatics; who knows what sort of side they'll then put out at MK at the weekend - they'll be 100% focused on getting ready for the playoffs, and likely to be resting anyone who's in need of it.

I would not want to be relying on them to beat MKD - and the only way to do that is to win.

If I was Manning, I would be treating Tuesday as a win at all costs game. Which doesn't mean going kamikaze right out of the gate - but it does mean attacking subs and pedal to the metal if we're level midway through the second half. No settling for a point in this one.

Oh I agree. But they could well lose at Burton.
I agree that we have to go for a win. Just we mustn't get beat and go down by a point.
Let's just hope we win- even if it is a total fluke

 

[Made-in-Jericho]

If we can't even scrabble a couple of wins from these last few games then we just have to accept we have not been good enough this year.
We should have enough about us to manage this and I sincerely hope we do pull something out of the hat but what an absolute horror show of a season. I cannot wait for it to be over and for the inquest to begin, with heads rolling.

 

[MC Yellow]

I wonder if our owners will be here to add some support