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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 26, 2017 18:46:33 GMT
Surprised no one has mentioned that Payne and Mowatt have been given permission to play in the FA Cup. They have, in the 'FA Cup First Round draw' thread.
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 26, 2017 15:49:45 GMT
Burslem is a horrible place (one truly deserving of that terrace song!) - and getting there on a Friday night which means a trip up the M1, round Birmingham (probably paying the toll) and then up the M6 is not very appealing.
I'm still tempted though!
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 26, 2017 11:30:18 GMT
Oh the issues the modern football supporter faces... I remember the days of only knowing other scores at half time was when they were read out over the tannoy. That's still me. Or by asking those around me to do their best James Alexander Gordon impressions as they stare into their screens using up all the bandwidth.
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 26, 2017 9:25:48 GMT
Forewarned is forearmed IMO
If it proves to be baseless speculation, then we can all happily ignore this thread in future.
If it proves to be relevant, then at least we know what we might potentially be dealing with.
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 25, 2017 16:24:46 GMT
But in admitting you were wrong about Darryl, do u not trust him to bring on board someone suitable and trustworthy ? It’s a major decision, and especially if it’s investment rather than a full take over, why would he ? Personally I seem to remember saying that my stance at the time was 'skeptical optimism' - and we were still discussing the possibility of Water Eaton at the time, so there was certainly an opportunity for money and/or progress to be made, whether for the club or the owner (and certainly Kassam!). But all of that is water under the bridge really and no longer worth further raking over. Do I trust Eales? Yes, to a large extent I do. But I don't think he is perfect, I don't think he is infallible and I don't by any means think that he always tells the whole story. I also don't think he is very keen on investing more in the club. However, if we got to the Championship (and that isn't impossible) then his current investment has paid off - he may well need to get some more money into the club to realise that ambition. In his previous VC career, he may well have had to deal with and work with people who were slightly less pure than the driven slush and perhaps less than totally trustworthy.
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 25, 2017 15:25:55 GMT
Surely, whether Myles was right or wrong about Eales' motives (and many of us were at least skeptical at the time), looking into the past dealings - especially the football dealings - of a 'potential' investor is both interesting and sensible. In this case, I'd add 'alarming' to that.
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 23, 2017 15:20:15 GMT
Look canice booking is a easy booking as a referee he knows he is trying to delay the restart of play. That's the discussion though. He hadn't had any time to try and do anything. He just picked the ball up, had it for about 2 seconds and was then manhandled. As Paul says, if that is delaying play, then there will be multiple bookings for standing in front of the ball at free kicks, taking ages over a throw in, the gk moving the ball to the other side for a goal kick, run/walking when being subbed etc etc. It simply wasn't a booking - and I actually thought justice was done when our penalty was saved as I did not see how that could possibly have been deliberate. On the other hand he missed numerous other certain fouls - some times he indicated a 'coming together' and others he played advantage when there wasn't any. It wasn't particularly against us, he was quite poor for both teams. Not down to Darren Deadman standards though, so I guess we ought to be thankful for small mercies!
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 23, 2017 14:07:11 GMT
I agree with Sihath. He simply picked the ball from the back of the net and was set upon within a couple of moments by two Rotherham players trying to wrestle the ball off him - he hadn't had the ball long enough to be wasting any time. The rest of the Rotherham team were celebrating - they weren't standing waiting for the kick off! It was a ludicrous booking from yet another poor (inconsistent) referee - I thought he was going to book one of the Rotherham players.
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 23, 2017 7:45:28 GMT
540 fewer supporters are going to away games. Is that right? "This Season vs Last Season (after 13 games) Oxford away support 1,426 vs 886" Looks to me as if the away support is considerably up if the figures are the right way round?
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 22, 2017 16:54:42 GMT
Nothing legally wrong with tax avoidance. Not all 'tax avoidance' schemes turn out to be legal of course. And whether companies (and/or very wealthy individuals) should be able to make a lot of money from their activities in a country and then 'avoid' paying the tax that helps to maintain that country is as much a moral question as a legal one, I'd have though?
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 22, 2017 16:48:58 GMT
I stayed sat down. If the anthem was about the country rather than the monarch (and the words were more sensible) I would be more likely to stand. I don't particularly 'respect' the 'royal family'.
As Inoxwetrust says, GSTQ by Johnny and the boys would have got me up though!
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 22, 2017 16:22:48 GMT
I think we are seriously missing both pace and width. The wide attacking midfielders (yesterday Henry and Mowett) have little pace and go past a man once in a blue moon. Add that to the fact that they both drift inside all the time and you have no width either. (When Hall is playing you get a bit of pace on one side, and Ribeiro is also capable of and willing to get forward). That's why we are trying to tip-toe through the middle of defenses so much. We play some lovely football at times, but at others seem intent on giving the ball away as quickly as we can! Sometimes in very bad areas where we are overplaying. So at the moment, I can only see our current position (just in or just out of the playoffs) at best come the end of the season. I understand what you mean but I have to question whether wingers are the answer with the current set up. The way the system is set up what is the point of wingers who cross the ball when there is never more than one forward in the box (usually covered by 2, 3 or even 4 defenders). The whole system seems to be to be a slow steady build up ending in an intricate passing movement in and around the box leading to an attempt at goal. It is supposed to a 4-4-1-1 system, but Payne plays so deep that in reality it is a 4-5-1 formation (with the occasional change to a 4-2-3-1 formation) with poor old Wes Thomas struggling on his own up front (it has to be said he does a more than reasonable job there). One of the reasons Clotet like Henry is that he suits this system well. That might well be the thinking I suppose. But it makes us fairly one dimensional. I'm not even saying out and out wingers. For example, some of our more threatening moments are on the break - but the team in general is so slow that we often look like streaming up the field, but then end up holding the ball in midfield because the players are (or seem to be) struggling to keep up. It also means that we are forever playing in front of opposition defenders rather than getting round the sides of them. Hall and GvK DO have some pace of course (although it's still fairly rare to see either of them take on a man and beat him out wide). I thought the idea of our 4-4-1-1 formation was that it allowed two of the middle four to augment the attack when we were on the front foot? Neither Mowatt nor Henry are quick enough to get there when we are playing at any pace. That's not necessarily a criticism of either of them - they are what they are - but IMO explains to some degree why we looked very narrow yesterday.
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 22, 2017 14:04:23 GMT
I must admit I though 'oh no' when the drum started up.
But..
It was used sensibly, was better than a bass drum, and did the keep the tempo for the singers. By the end of the game I'd stopped noticing it (but that might be because the football was so engrossing!). Well done for trying something different and I think you should keep the experiment going for a bit.
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 22, 2017 13:32:48 GMT
I think we are seriously missing both pace and width. The wide attacking midfielders (yesterday Henry and Mowett) have little pace and go past a man once in a blue moon. Add that to the fact that they both drift inside all the time and you have no width either. (When Hall is playing you get a bit of pace on one side, and Ribeiro is also capable of and willing to get forward). That's why we are trying to tip-toe through the middle of defenses so much.
We play some lovely football at times, but at others seem intent on giving the ball away as quickly as we can! Sometimes in very bad areas where we are overplaying.
So at the moment, I can only see our current position (just in or just out of the playoffs) at best come the end of the season.
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 20, 2017 13:04:52 GMT
That is good news. He has made a huge improvement to the team, and seems to be still improving himself.
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 19, 2017 20:33:16 GMT
They should be making it easier and quicker to get out of the car parks at the end by providing stewards to marshal the traffic, not using them before the game to point people at specific spaces!
I know people park in some odd ways in the East Stand car park, but there isn't really ever a problem in there (except in cases where people are using the disabled spaces improperly in which case they ought to be clamped).
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 18, 2017 9:22:56 GMT
I disagree to some extent with the hoof it principle.. at times when you are under such pressure its important to try and keep possession and play the ball around. When we did that we looked much better. I agree thoroughly, but there is a time and a place. Farting about with it on the edge of your own penalty area and across the back line when there are loads of opposition pressing you is a recipe for disaster IMO. I'm a great believer in remembering the fact that players at our level all have a mistake in them however comparatively good they are (e.g. Nelson last night) - I'd rather any cock-ups were made a lot further away from our goal! I think the answer (easy to say, difficult to do!) is to have more movement in the midfield and up front to give the defense an out ball - lots of time last night there was nobody available. (Actually, Thomas did make several very decent runs that were either ignored in favour of a 'safe' pass, or the pass was delayed to long.)
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 18, 2017 8:16:12 GMT
I agree with the general opinion that it was an entertaining match and probably a draw was a fair result in the end. A few things...
I thought Charlton's movement off the ball was much better than ours - sometimes we were so static that it was easy for them to ensure the person in possession had no real options.
I also thought they used the width better than we did. Mowett is not a wide player (and it showed) and Henry for all his virtues that are now becoming apparent, is not very quick.
If we are going to take corners and free kicks short, then there has to be more to the plan than just that! Like what to do with the ball next! Just passing it back to the taker - who has now been closed down completely - is ridiculous. Too many times we lost the ball doing this last night, and with our taller defenders up for free kicks it caused us no end of trouble. It is also quite predictable and other teams are now wise to it. Mix it up a bit!
Rolling/passing the ball out from Eastwood. Another area where greater thought needs to be put into it. If you have a man free, great. If that man is rapidly being closed down and his only option is going to pass it straight back to the gk - what is the point? You just introduce an extra element of risk.
Hesitant defense. I don't know what it was but our defense seemed to be standing on ceremony a bit last night. Apart from the calamitous goal we gave away, there were quite a few times when the situation was crying out for someone to take charge and just get rid of it. Instead, we tried to play too much football too close to our own goal.
Slow starts. We were second best by quite a length for the first 25 minutes. The same has been true in quite a few other matches. That translates into stats. In first halves we have scored 4 and conceded 6. In second halves we have scored 19 (!!) and conceded 9. Last night we were the better team in the second half.
Reading that back, it sounds as if I thought we were poor. I don't think that at all, but they were certainly things I noticed. On the plus side, Thomas has gone a long way to improve my opinion of him as a player, the team looks better with people playing in their proper positions and we are a tough outfit to beat. If we can win on Saturday, then we will have had a hugely impressive few weeks (and I didn't think I'd be saying that after those three defeats).
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 17, 2017 10:57:03 GMT
Apparently, one of the player we lost over the summer was "Jonas Lundstrom" - that's a new one!
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 16, 2017 18:19:28 GMT
Lu'on v Pompey will be lively.
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 15, 2017 20:31:53 GMT
I bet we’ll get a bloody L1 team, away That is absolutely nailed on. Scunthorpe or Blackburn, I reckon. However, if we can somehow avoid that, I'd quite like an away trip to a 'minnow'. I really enjoyed the trips to Merstham and Braintree.
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 14, 2017 19:56:36 GMT
I think in his post match interview he said that Obika, Hall and Tiendalli are back in training and close to returning?
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 11, 2017 12:11:32 GMT
As a question - is there much communication with season ticket holders? Talking about club shops, encouraging bringing friends, pushing sponsors products / services? No. I'm a season ticket holder (and fairly regular away-tripper which they will also have a record of). This season I have had two emails from the club. One in early August trying to sell me Portsmouth tickets (of course I had a seat already) and one in mid-September trying to sell me an upgrade to a hospitality package for the Walsall game. Absolutely nothing else. I don't want to be bombarded with emails, but something vaguely informative, 'bring a friend' or 'kids for a quid' offers, injury news etc would be good. Letting me know when away tickets go on sale would be useful - I know it's not a direct profit to the club, but surely increased away support helps the team. The emails don't always have to be about selling to to me all the time, I'd like to get the feeling that the club sees us supporters as an integral part of the club rather than as walking wallets!
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 9, 2017 15:49:29 GMT
It's a difficult one, as it depends on the situation. I'm sure if someone waved a 1930s Nazi German flag, then they would quite rightly be condemned and hopefully ejected from the stadium. The Catalan flag as far as I'm concerned falls into the same bracket as the Cornish flag - I have no problem it being there. Yes, they've been in the news recently with their 'independence referendum', but the only violence was at the hand of the Spanish police thugs. Yes but there is trouble in the air regarding the Cornish flag too. Apparently the Devonian Yellows want to wave their flag but were warned off by officials who stated that it might cause trouble between rival factions, some of whom want Pasties served at half time and some want cream teas! And then you'd get the 'jam on top of the cream' or 'cream on top of the jam' factions as well. A nest of vipers, best left alone - it could split the fan base.
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 9, 2017 15:31:43 GMT
He got it wrong in his first post in the thread as well.
Or is there actually a pizza company called 'Domions'? I think if I had a Domions pizza, I would definitely have a Coka Cowla with it.
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 9, 2017 13:36:43 GMT
I have to agree that the ref was one of the better ones we have had recently and (despite his reputation) was happy to keep his cards in his pocket.
Generally nowadays, it seems that the wrestling and shirt pulling seems to go largely unpunished while a slightly mistimed tackle results in a yellow card and being hit on the hand by a rocket from three yards away is a handball!
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 8, 2017 11:40:15 GMT
Henry is much better on the right. It's the old 'square pegs' thing again.
I thought we were pretty good against a dismal Wimbledon team yesterday - although if they had a striker who could actually hit a barn door with a banjo it might have been a closer thing, as they did make a couple of half decent opportunities when it was just 1-0 to us.
Although we are scoring loads of goals again, I do still worry about getting through the whole season with the strikers we have. I suspect we might see other periods where we play with an entire 'false forward line'!
We still aren't the finished article IMO, but the last two matches (even the first half at Peterborough) have shown a marked improvement on the three before - Nelson back in his preferred place, a proper right back in Ribeiro, Ruffels doing the important solid stuff in midfield are the main reasons for that change (again IMO, of course!).
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 6, 2017 15:29:54 GMT
If it happened, could we look at moving to/expanding City's stadium? But what if we got to the Championship? We'd either have to remove the plastic pitch or move again?
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 6, 2017 13:07:29 GMT
Well I went to the pre-season game at Oxford City. I presume their pitch (being brand new) is representative of what they are like nowadays. If so, it played OK - but it did not look at all as if it played the same as a natural pitch. The bounce and run of the ball were different (judging from the sidelines of course). The odd black 'splash' of particles when the ball landed or a tackle was made looked very peculiar and, in the hot sun, the whole place smelled like burning tyres - that's just aesthetics though I guess.
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Oct 6, 2017 10:18:36 GMT
I believe we have a 1 year option on Rothwell, Nelson and Hall, so effectively have contracts with them till June 2019. How do these options work? Do both the club and player have to agree to the extension or is it a case that if the club want you you're automatically locked down for the further year? The latter. Unless you are a Prem player, then you can throw your toys out of the pram and do whatever you want!
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