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Post by tonto on Sept 17, 2016 16:47:01 GMT
Top man
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Post by yellowshark on Sept 17, 2016 16:53:41 GMT
That sounded all a bit close for comfort, but we survivedandhave broken our away points duck, so well done to all, especially Eastwood.
Onwards andupwards!
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Post by MJB on Sept 17, 2016 16:54:47 GMT
What a lovely interview with George Baldock. How nice!! What did he say? Presumably something about hating Oxford and we shall all be incredibly offended?
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Post by ttg17 on Sept 17, 2016 17:04:26 GMT
For my first game of the season, some observations:
Thought Taylor, Rothwell, our CBs and keeper were outstanding. Taylor does a brilliant job of bringing others into play, Rothwell looked very good on the ball and injected a lot of energy into our midfield, and until that last chance for them they didn't look like scoring, such was the quality of our back 3. Rock solid.
Thought Lundstram, Maguire and Johnson were fine but nothing special. Having heard everyone rave about Johnson and Maguire on this forum so far this season I was very excited to see them in action, but was underwhelmed.
Thought our fullbacks and Sercombe were subpar. We needed a quicker and more mobile player in behind Taylor (Crowley??) and I don't think Sercs did enough to justify selection in that role today. Not good enough on the ball. The fullbacks were uninspiring. We lack a lot of the width we had last year without at least one attacking defender, GB definitely showed us what we were missing.
All in all a bit disappointing. Didn't really create any clear chances and was expecting more after the comments on here about how good we we have been looking recently, against Scum and tthe second half of Rochdale especially. Still, as others have said, have broken our duck away from home and a clean sheet, so in the grand scheme of things a good result.
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Post by bigalan on Sept 17, 2016 17:08:04 GMT
Back home I. Oxford in less than an hour, that's a result if nothing else, good game and home match sponsors gave MOM to there keeper, we should have been more clinical and when we had the ball out wide we had at best one in the area, not enough.
Should have nicked it but hey it's a point so onwards we go.
Happy bunny now the wife has my dinner on the table.
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Post by uptheus on Sept 17, 2016 18:13:09 GMT
For my first game of the season, some observations: Thought Taylor, Rothwell, our CBs and keeper were outstanding. Taylor does a brilliant job of bringing others into play, Rothwell looked very good on the ball and injected a lot of energy into our midfield, and until that last chance for them they didn't look like scoring, such was the quality of our back 3. Rock solid. Thought Lundstram, Maguire and Johnson were fine but nothing special. Having heard everyone rave about Johnson and Maguire on this forum so far this season I was very excited to see them in action, but was underwhelmed. Thought our fullbacks and Sercombe were subpar. We needed a quicker and more mobile player in behind Taylor (Crowley??) and I don't think Sercs did enough to justify selection in that role today. Not good enough on the ball. The fullbacks were uninspiring. We lack a lot of the width we had last year without at least one attacking defender, GB definitely showed us what we were missing. All in all a bit disappointing. Didn't really create any clear chances and was expecting more after the comments on here about how good we we have been looking recently, against Scum and tthe second half of Rochdale especially. Still, as others have said, have broken our duck away from home and a clean sheet, so in the grand scheme of things a good result. I thought Taylor was poor today, but this wasn't helped with him being isolated up front on his own. He did a couple of okish things, but he's definitely not an out an out striker. Just doesn't do enough for me as a player who's supposed to get goals. The fullbacks do what it says on the tin and that's all we can expect. I actually thought Dunkley was poor today and looked very leggy. We'd be more balanced defensively if we had a left footed centre back. Rothwell was the best midfielder by far today. Wanted the ball and drove forward when he had his chances. Thought Maguire had a good game, but a shame he wasn't more influential in the final third. Johnson seemed off the pace today. Not sure if it was because he was put on the right which I guess happened as MApp felt he might be more effective having to beat Lewington rather than Baldock. I thought for the first 20mins we looked the better team, but then each team cancelled each other out. Just felt the system needed to change with another player supporting Taylor. Just feel Crowley might have had a impact in that game so would have been good to see him come on, that's before we p*ss him off. Wasn't a great game today which is a shame especially with the away support, and I would have probably taken a point before the match, but feel we could have got all 3 if we'd changed the system slightly.
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Post by manorlounger on Sept 17, 2016 18:52:38 GMT
Just got back after crawling around the sodding M25, disappointing result but fair given the chances on both sides. Something just not right up front, all too many times there was no impetus to get in the box. We had chances but just couldn't put them away. Why was Johnson starved of the ball? And some of the passing and ball control was just not good enough. No doubting the passion and effort and what support! Made the MK lot look pathetic. The greeting as the players came onto the pitch must have fired our boys up no end! Just a shame that we didn't see any goals, would have taken the roof off!
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Post by bigfella72 on Sept 17, 2016 19:00:31 GMT
Thought Taylor had a really good game! People seem to rate him in "not being a lone striker" if he's asked to play there that's not his fault, he won headers came deep, brought players in and even beat his man once! I agree he's not going to score shed loads but Johnson was awful second half! No urgency, no desire! Lazy IMO.
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Post by Toeby on Sept 17, 2016 19:00:47 GMT
I can understand why Johnson was switched to the right to have a go at Lewington, who is a bit of a plodder compared to Baldock but it didn't really work. I think he should've stayed on the left as he did manage to get down there a couple of times in the first half, which coincided with our best spell. It would've also helped to pin Baldock back which would've probably shifted us a bit further up the pitch. Taylor was isolated for long periods today.
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Post by lerekdilley on Sept 17, 2016 19:03:50 GMT
A decent game, but both teams lacking in the final third. A draw definitely a fair result. The whole back four, Eastwood and Rothwell were fantastic today.
What a fantastic stadium too. Would love us to have something like that.
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Post by foley on Sept 17, 2016 19:16:03 GMT
A decent game, but both teams lacking in the final third. A draw definitely a fair result. The whole back four, Eastwood and Rothwell were fantastic today. What a fantastic stadium too. Would love us to have something like that. I totally agree that it was a decent game but both teams were let down in the final third. I thought that Dunkley and Raglan as were excellent and Eastwood's save in the last minute saved a point. Taylor was good when he came on. Brought the other players into the game (great flick on to Sercombe when he had a very good chance in the second half). I think that he makes a difference as the one up front. His strength though is not his finishing or his pace? Regarding the stadium- yes good in many ways but far too big for a relatively small crowd with zero passion and history. I would imagine that against Rochdale it would be quieter than a library. Totally geared up for the Premiershit. Dozens of executive boxes, loads of daytrippers and away supporters. Plastic in the extreme. A million miles better than the Kassam in many ways but... plastic plastic plastic
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Post by oxfordfan on Sept 17, 2016 19:22:02 GMT
Please some of us need to get our heads out our arses!! Taylor good today are you kidding?! For god sake please tell me your being sarcastic he was absolute garbage, he won one header maybe for a target man that's not good enough, he had a few half chances and my God was his end product woeful. Best player on the pitch today was Sercs for me always looked a threat going forward we need to play two up top it's simple as that.
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Post by bigfella72 on Sept 17, 2016 19:26:33 GMT
Please some of us need to get our heads out our arses!! Taylor good today are you kidding?! For god sake please tell me your being sarcastic he was absolute garbage, he won one header maybe for a target man that's not good enough, he had a few half chances and my God was his end product woeful. Best player on the pitch today was Sercs for me always looked a threat going forward we need to play two up top it's simple as that. Youve turned into a f*cking joke mate! Taylor won about 10 headers/nod downs! Came deep at least half a dozen times to receive the ball and lay off!
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Post by foley on Sept 17, 2016 19:27:45 GMT
Please some of us need to get our heads out our arses!! Taylor good today are you kidding?! For god sake please tell me your being sarcastic he was absolute garbage, he won one header maybe for a target man that's not good enough, he had a few half chances and my God was his end product woeful. Best player on the pitch today was Sercs for me always looked a threat going forward we need to play two up top it's simple as that. Sorry? Because I reckon that Taylor had a decent game I 'have my head up my arse'? FFS No different opinions allowed on this forum (and I was not being sarcastic- just a different opinion from your clearly Strong view)
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Post by oxfordfan on Sept 17, 2016 19:32:37 GMT
He was terrible if your happy and content with him up top fine!!lack of goal threat was obvious, I do wonder if some of us are watching the same game at times but hey that's football I suppose..........
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Post by ioualways on Sept 17, 2016 19:36:49 GMT
What a lovely interview with George Baldock. How nice!! What did he say? Presumably something about hating Oxford and we shall all be incredibly offended? That's it exactly! How he couldn't stand our noisy fans, hated his time with us, etc. etc. I hadn't realized that he's supported Oxford as a kid. But it's not for that reason that he enjoyed his time with us so much. He was clearly moved by the support he had from both sets of fans. He did say he'd be lying if he'd wanted any more than a win for MKD, but apart from that he seemed pretty pleased with a draw. How rare it must be for a ex-loanie to be interviewed by the commentators for the rival team. He came across really well as a smart and articulate bloke (as does anyone, of course, who says he really likes Oxford United, its fans, and its management team).
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Post by makv on Sept 17, 2016 19:47:56 GMT
I do wonder if some of us are watching the same game at times but hey that's football I suppose.......... Indeed. So far, from folk who were at the same game I've read: Dunkley was poor/great Taylor was OK/good/awful Maguire was off his game/pretty good Sercombe good/bad Eastwood was brilliant/brilliant It's always nice to keep it civil though. It's not as if we're arguing with Swine fans after all…
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Post by essexyellows on Sept 17, 2016 20:01:53 GMT
For my first game of the season, some observations: Thought Taylor, Rothwell, our CBs and keeper were outstanding. Taylor does a brilliant job of bringing others into play, Rothwell looked very good on the ball and injected a lot of energy into our midfield, and until that last chance for them they didn't look like scoring, such was the quality of our back 3. Rock solid. Thought Lundstram, Maguire and Johnson were fine but nothing special. Having heard everyone rave about Johnson and Maguire on this forum so far this season I was very excited to see them in action, but was underwhelmed. Thought our fullbacks and Sercombe were subpar. We needed a quicker and more mobile player in behind Taylor (Crowley??) and I don't think Sercs did enough to justify selection in that role today. Not good enough on the ball. The fullbacks were uninspiring. We lack a lot of the width we had last year without at least one attacking defender, GB definitely showed us what we were missing. All in all a bit disappointing. Didn't really create any clear chances and was expecting more after the comments on here about how good we we have been looking recently, against Scum and tthe second half of Rochdale especially. Still, as others have said, have broken our duck away from home and a clean sheet, so in the grand scheme of things a good result. This is spot on. Some of the lads were not firing at 100% and we were playing an ex-Championship team. Across the pitch they didn`t look much better than us and seemed to be limited to chip & run for Agard who,ironically, looked an almost perfect partner for Taylor! When their keeper gets MoM we`ve done OK. Point gained onwards & upwards. Nice touch from the fans clapping Baldock & him giving his shirt to a young Oxford fan. Nice day out only spoilt by the M1 North being shut....the junction before home!!
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Post by horse on Sept 17, 2016 20:03:15 GMT
How did they count the home attendance today? No way were there 8k home fans there today!
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Post by oufcyellows on Sept 17, 2016 20:08:21 GMT
Sounding like there was a lot of arguing and infighting over the old sit/stand ,sing don't sing or wanting to sit in ur own seat again
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Post by manorlounger on Sept 17, 2016 20:12:41 GMT
He was terrible if your happy and content with him up top fine!!lack of goal threat was obvious, I do wonder if some of us are watching the same game at times but hey that's football I suppose.......... Indeed. Which one were you watching?
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Post by bigfella72 on Sept 17, 2016 20:14:33 GMT
Sounding like there was a lot of arguing and infighting over the old sit/stand ,sing don't sing or wanting to sit in ur own seat again One guy did call the standers "selfish twats" in front of his children!
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Sept 17, 2016 20:28:00 GMT
Indeed. So far, from folk who were at the same game I've read: Dunkley was poor/great Taylor was OK/good/awful Maguire was off his game/pretty good Sercombe good/bad Eastwood was brilliant/brilliant Dunkley was generally excellent, but made a couple of very bad decisions. He is obviously not as comfortable on the left as he in on the right. Aerially he stopped a lot of stuff. Taylor did what Taylor does. Wins headers, shields the ball well, lays it off well. Two problems though. Firstly if he is up front on his own there is very often nobody to head it or lay it off to. Secondly, he is about as likely to score as Jake Wright was. Maguire wasn't as imperious as he was against Swindon, so I guess you could say he was off his game - but he was still pretty good! Sercombe was simply OK. Some stuff he did was great, other times he didn't pass the ball when he should have and got caught in possession. Eastwood WAS brilliant again. As for the game - two teams who have trouble scoring. One up front does NOT work for us. Never has, never will. If we persist we need Maguire to play as a proper number 10 (as was sagely remarked to me at the end of the game and I agree), but I think we really need two strikers up front really. I thought the stadium was horrible. Modern, yes. Initially impressive, yes. But the roof was too high to get any real noise going, is far too big for them (if their 8,000 didn't look like it, that might be because they were spread over the best part of 25,000 seats!) and it is all grey - the seats, the metalwork. And I didn't enjoy that upper tier very much - a decent view, but far too far from the pitch. Probably a decent point in what I though was a cagey match with few real chances. Baldock showed his class at the end of the game (as well as in it) - applauding both sets of supporters, giving a shirt to a kid and excellent radio interview all showed that. I hope he has a long and fruitful career, wherever he goes.
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Post by harrycarry on Sept 17, 2016 20:32:31 GMT
How did they count the home attendance today? No way were there 8k home fans there today! Think they've slid over 8k season tickets which automatically count as attendance.
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Post by johnf on Sept 17, 2016 20:33:57 GMT
I think that's a very good point today,another clean sheet and broke our duck away from home.
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Post by harrycarry on Sept 17, 2016 20:36:00 GMT
Atmosphere was rubbish, apart from that the stadium was fantastic and wish we had one like it. Think we should have been in the lower tier. Also it looked like the wall at the front of the upper tier was too low, could there be a risk of someone toppling over the edge in a goal bundle?
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Post by manorlounger on Sept 17, 2016 20:36:35 GMT
Sounding like there was a lot of arguing and infighting over the old sit/stand ,sing don't sing or wanting to sit in ur own seat again Stewards were being very insistent on folk sitting in their allocated seat. This will always be an issue when tickets are sold with no fore knowledge of where you will end up. We got seats right up at the top of the upper tier, oxygen and binoculars needed!! Very nice seats though, padded with sufficient leg room. It is a fact though that many going to games are of an age whereby sitting is preferable (myself included) and it should be possible to buy seats segregated from those who are happier to stand. Today should not have been an issue as the away allocation is huge, no reason why folks should have been prevented from moving to other seats. This would have allowed all the singers to congregate together. ( a lot appeared to have managed to evade the stewards control!)
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Post by oufcyellows on Sept 17, 2016 20:43:39 GMT
There seems to be a general opinion that those who refuse to stand or sit are in the wrong. And ruining it for those that what to, without being able to really see that they have the exact same view the other way. Same with abusing those that leave early, you pay the money u take ur choice and can do what the hell u like as far as I can see. It is going to put people off going, especially those with kids. Like u say it needs people in different areas so everyone is happy, the club could help sort it at little by asking if u want singing/standing or prefer to stay seated, then sell ticket to suit, standing from the back down, and sitting from the back up. Shame really as everyone is there for the same reason to support the club.
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Post by chippsy on Sept 17, 2016 20:56:24 GMT
Please some of us need to get our heads out our arses!! Taylor good today are you kidding?! For god sake please tell me your being sarcastic he was absolute garbage, he won one header maybe for a target man that's not good enough, he had a few half chances and my God was his end product woeful. Best player on the pitch today was Sercs for me always looked a threat going forward we need to play two up top it's simple as that. Thought Taylor had a good second half... Lots of good link up play and lay offs, held the ball up well on numerous occasions. Also put a great flick to Sercs who then forced a good save from the keeper. Not sure what you were watching, maybe that was when u had your head up your arse. Thought Sercs worked hard today though. Seems to be getting more involved and influential in the past few games. Thought Rothwell looked good again. Our defence was solid for the most part and Eastwood was perfect once agin.. My MOTM. Maggie seemed less effective but still had a reasonable game. Baldock cancelled out Marvin. That was an interesting battle to watch until the switch. All in all I came away feeling reasonably entertained for a nil nil and felt it was a very fair result. We seemed to give the ball away at vital moments and so were less effective in the final 3rd but still created enough chances to score. Felt the whole team were around a 7 and considering we were playing an ex championship team, we have come a long way but with still much to do. A season of consolidation for me. Lovely stadium.... But wasted on them. 12k crowd was lost in there.
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Post by Denissmithswig on Sept 17, 2016 20:58:21 GMT
I wasn't there today but from reading the posts the same things are cropping up...
Eastwood: Excellent signing by MApp and will only get better as he is still young for a keeper.
Dunkley: He is excellent at getting blocks in, winning his headers but playing out from the back is not his strength. Seems to give the ball away too many times that puts us under pressure. If he improves on that then he will be a superb centre back but at the moment he is still very much a raw talent.
Marvin: Clearly a class player but I feel he hasn't hit top gear yet and the players around him are still getting used to the way he plays.
Sercombe: Hasn't hit the form of last season but I think that will come once he adjusts to the level we are now at.
Maguire: He will always split opinions during games as he is someone who doesn't look like he is bothered but he then pops up with some magic. I would of probably said MApp maybe should of put him down the middle and put either Roberts or MacDonald out side rather than Taylor which might suit our style of play better.
Taylor: If you like old fashioned big centre forwards who can win flick ons then he will please the eye but for me he doesn't fit into how we play. He is a striker who would be good when playing 2 up top but as a lone striker then I think he struggles. League 2 level he would be/was excellent but at league 1 and in our team I just don't think it suits him.
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