I don’t buy that either. Players in the 46 game EFL are conditioned to go Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday for large swathes of the season. In that sequence you would never get three consecutive home league games - this was a unique situation.
Had we been playing Carlisle away on that second Saturday no one would have mentioned it, it would have just been another game in a typical EFL week. So instead of 3pm on a Saturday in, say, Carlisle we play at 8pm on the Friday in Oxford - about 11 waking hours difference (bed at 11, awake 8 hours later at 7). Compensate that with a 12-14 hour round trip coach journey and what’s the difference? If Carlisle is too extreme, let’s take somewhere around halfway as an example - Lincoln, you are talking only a few hours difference and nothing that’s going to massively impact your performance on a football field.
Yes, it was three games in that slightly shorter time frame but as I’ve said that’s off set by no travelling whatsoever, plenty of time to properly rest as well as being able to feed off the energy three packed home gates give you.
Just give us two draws, nothing more, nothing less. No one was asking for two more 5-0’s, two 0-0’s would have done. Des failed to navigate what was a very favourable position. Any manager you like would have bitten your hand off for a week like that and what was needed.
