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Post by chippsy on Mar 15, 2017 9:53:39 GMT
Just like last season, we're running out of steam in mid March. Not a bad thing, but it does perhaps highlight that if we want to go full tilt at the cups, the squad has to be deeper than it has been the last 2 seasons. Or the cups like the Checkawasteoftime deprioritised That might be a whoosh, but are you serious? Only 2 deafeats last season from the end of February. If we take the same number of points from the last 10 games of this season as we did last season, then we'll be very close to a play off spot. There are a lot of comments on here about running out of steam, lack of squad depth and falling short. I guess it depends on which way you spin it but in all honesty how many people at the start of the season expected us to be having these sorts of discussions at this stage of the season? Early discussions were predominantly about losing all our goal threat with the loss of key players and quite frankly wondering if we were ever going to score enough goals to compete. MAPPs target was 50 points (safety).. Well we have 10 games to go and we are past that. So maybe, just maybe we have far from fallen short and have actually exceeded expectations with 10 games to go. Don't get me wrong, I would love to have been pushing for promo all the way and would love to go up now!! but for me at the start of the season that was all way out there in La La Land, it was all wishful thinking and fantasy. Bottom line was that I wanted us to survive, have an enjoyable season and avoid a nasty relegation dog fight. Well that's job done on all of the above for me so I'm happy, still enjoying the ride and we have a bonus trip to Wembley for another great day out, which for the life of me I fail to see why anyone who has traveled to the likes of Barrow on a cold Friday night would restrain themselves from going. Their choice, but for me I just don't get it.
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Post by horseman on Mar 15, 2017 10:15:01 GMT
oxford lose, out come the forks
if he made changes we would read comments on here of why the need to make changes.
The manager picks the team he believes is best to win against the opposition.
strange how quiet this place is after a win and we don't see questioning of the team selection, why wasn't x y z playing!
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Post by oldman159 on Mar 15, 2017 10:28:56 GMT
"No, I wasn't at the game last night Jerome but....."
I have been following the yellows since about 1990. I have, therfore, seen the absolute lows, before watching our steady climb back over the last 7 seasons. I have neen to most games this season, home and away, and at day one I said I would be happy with consolidation this time. And I am. Seen some really great play in the past two seasons despite some really poor officiating at times.The yellows are Often a real pleasure to watch. Thank you OUFC and keep on doing it.
Having said that, I'm still a tad disappointed with last nights result. Hey ho...
COYYs
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Post by sihath on Mar 15, 2017 13:10:02 GMT
That might be a whoosh, but are you serious? Only 2 deafeats last season from the end of February. If we take the same number of points from the last 10 games of this season as we did last season, then we'll be very close to a play off spot. Last season, our form suffered incredibly when Wembley was on the horizon - so from January onwards. We had some good results, but we fell away from winning the thing and I can still recall the panic from fans of we aren't going up. But it is what it is with the squad we have. MAPP confirmed he spent big on McAleny, but at the cost of other bodies in the squad. Playing 2 seasons of over 60 games with a small squad will stretch the squad to its limits and tiredness will set it eventually. I still don't think that's true. You've gone from Mid-March collapse to form suffering "incredibly" from January. We only lost 5 league games from Christmas to the end of the season. Are you sure you've not got us confused with Plymouth? And fans panicing? Well that's hardly an accurate barometer of how things are going is it?
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Post by oufcyellows on Mar 15, 2017 13:21:41 GMT
It was and still is more to do with being unable to beat teams at home than to do with Wembley . We lost to Northampton, Bristol and accy in the run in last season
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Post by Gary Baldi on Mar 15, 2017 13:37:11 GMT
Last season, our form suffered incredibly when Wembley was on the horizon - so from January onwards. We had some good results, but we fell away from winning the thing and I can still recall the panic from fans of we aren't going up. But it is what it is with the squad we have. MAPP confirmed he spent big on McAleny, but at the cost of other bodies in the squad. Playing 2 seasons of over 60 games with a small squad will stretch the squad to its limits and tiredness will set it eventually. I still don't think that's true. You've gone from Mid-March collapse to form suffering "incredibly" from January. We only lost 5 league games from Christmas to the end of the season. Are you sure you've not got us confused with Plymouth? And fans panicing? Well that's hardly an accurate barometer of how things are going is it? I know a Plymouth fan, and we aren't them. We ran out of steam in mid March. Some of the players looked tired (Roofe, for one, had a break) and injuries to players like Taylor, Skarz & Mullins cost us. The lack of squad depth hurt, along with Lunny's suspension. The away form kept the season alive. The home form was largely bad until Wembley - 2 wins against the teams that went who were dreadful. We played 20 games in 3 months.
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Post by Gary Baldi on Mar 15, 2017 13:38:48 GMT
Last season, our form suffered incredibly when Wembley was on the horizon - so from January onwards. We had some good results, but we fell away from winning the thing and I can still recall the panic from fans of we aren't going up. But it is what it is with the squad we have. MAPP confirmed he spent big on McAleny, but at the cost of other bodies in the squad. Playing 2 seasons of over 60 games with a small squad will stretch the squad to its limits and tiredness will set it eventually. Yes, but this is the strange thing. The area of the pitch where tiredness is most a factor is midfield. We have three reserve midfielders who are arguably not much less good than the two inhabitants. And when they have been used, they have done well, and the team has won. So why are we playing the same eleven every game? It doesn't make sense. Goalkeeper and centre backs benefit from constant match time, but it's well-established that midfielders need the odd break. If Ruffels, Rothwell and Sercs were injured then I'd agree with the 'small squad' prognosis, but they're not! Agree. I don't see why we'd give Ruffels a new deal and leave him on the bench. Last night would have been a good game to play him instead of Ledson perhaps. Or utilise Sercombe to give the oppositions something to think about in the middle.
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Post by sihath on Mar 15, 2017 13:48:59 GMT
I still don't think that's true. You've gone from Mid-March collapse to form suffering "incredibly" from January. We only lost 5 league games from Christmas to the end of the season. Are you sure you've not got us confused with Plymouth? And fans panicing? Well that's hardly an accurate barometer of how things are going is it? I know a Plymouth fan, and we aren't them. We ran out of steam in mid March. Some of the players looked tired (Roofe, for one, had a break) and injuries to players like Taylor, Skarz & Mullins cost us. The lack of squad depth hurt, along with Lunny's suspension. The away form kept the season alive. The home form was largely bad until Wembley - 2 wins against the teams that went who were dreadful. We played 20 games in 3 months. We only lost 4 of the last 20 league matches of the season. Still can't understand the point you're trying to make about last season. Peaked perfectly. If we'd ended up going up through the play-offs or missing out on promotion, I'd agree with you, but we went up automatically!
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Post by Gary Baldi on Mar 15, 2017 13:55:44 GMT
I know a Plymouth fan, and we aren't them. We ran out of steam in mid March. Some of the players looked tired (Roofe, for one, had a break) and injuries to players like Taylor, Skarz & Mullins cost us. The lack of squad depth hurt, along with Lunny's suspension. The away form kept the season alive. The home form was largely bad until Wembley - 2 wins against the teams that went who were dreadful. We played 20 games in 3 months. We only lost 4 of the last 20 league matches of the season. Still can't understand the point you're trying to make about last season. Peaked perfectly. If we'd ended up going up through the play-offs or missing out on promotion, I'd agree with you, but we went up automatically! On the last day of the season. The squad size was not big enough and especially at home, we suffered. MAPP has again gone for quality over quantity, which I can understand, until you get a run of Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday games on heavy pitches.
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Post by sihath on Mar 15, 2017 14:01:13 GMT
We only lost 4 of the last 20 league matches of the season. Still can't understand the point you're trying to make about last season. Peaked perfectly. If we'd ended up going up through the play-offs or missing out on promotion, I'd agree with you, but we went up automatically! On the last day of the season. The squad size was not big enough and especially at home, we suffered. MAPP has again gone for quality over quantity, which I can understand, until you get a run of Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday games on heavy pitches. The best time to go up I find. I remember reading Steve Redgraves autobiography and he was talking about training for the 1km races. They always trained over exactly 1km. Doesn't matter if you're finishing strongly if you don't cross the line first (or in the case of promotion 2nd/3rd) was their motto. We finished the season in the automatic promotion places. We went into 3rd place on 10th October 2015. We never dropped out of the top 3 for the rest of the season.
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Post by yellowsarmy on Mar 15, 2017 14:52:38 GMT
The "highlights" from last night are here www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7dmebuSTdgThe goals to conceed from both sides were pretty poor Don't know what marv was up to for the first goal or Chey for that matter. Also Eastwood could look at both goals and perhaps feel he could have done more Nelson too looked less than convincing. Also noted the midfield were not helping with lack of closing down of crosses into the box. I feel really sorry for Rothwell and Ruffels neither have let down the manager when called to play. Mapp complains about tired legs well I'm sorry he had 2 midfielders who have rested most of the season. Who proved their worth against Chesterfield, his decision to play tired players over fit rested ones so he must accept the responsibility not teflon shoulder it onto the players and chairman (lack of new signings). For me if I was Rothwell or Ruffels I would be looking for new clubs both decent players at this level but Mapp has shown them this season what he thinks of them. They don't need to do an COD and join a team they wont get game time on but for their careers playing regular football at the ages theyu are surely would be best for them. Also is anyone else frustrated by the lack of substitutions untill well into the second half, no real plan b we don't seem to be able to change the game from the management team? It's like we have one plan if that doesn't work then oh well perhaps it will work next game no need to change much this game.
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Post by Gary Baldi on Mar 15, 2017 22:04:19 GMT
On the last day of the season. The squad size was not big enough and especially at home, we suffered. MAPP has again gone for quality over quantity, which I can understand, until you get a run of Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday games on heavy pitches. The best time to go up I find. I remember reading Steve Redgraves autobiography and he was talking about training for the 1km races. They always trained over exactly 1km. Doesn't matter if you're finishing strongly if you don't cross the line first (or in the case of promotion 2nd/3rd) was their motto. We finished the season in the automatic promotion places. We went into 3rd place on 10th October 2015. We never dropped out of the top 3 for the rest of the season. Equally, Northampton remained pedal to the metal and could afford for an indifferent end to the season.
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Post by lambchop on Mar 17, 2017 14:26:30 GMT
On the last day of the season. The squad size was not big enough and especially at home, we suffered. MAPP has again gone for quality over quantity, which I can understand, until you get a run of Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday games on heavy pitches. The best time to go up I find. I remember reading Steve Redgraves autobiography and he was talking about training for the 1km races. They always trained over exactly 1km. Doesn't matter if you're finishing strongly if you don't cross the line first (or in the case of promotion 2nd/3rd) was their motto. We finished the season in the automatic promotion places. We went into 3rd place on 10th October 2015. We never dropped out of the top 3 for the rest of the season. How strange I was always taught that for a 3 minute round fight you train for 30. Are you sure he didn't mean that for race practice he trained over 1k? Seems to me he would be lacking in race fitness if he only trained 1k at a time!
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Post by sihath on Mar 17, 2017 14:40:30 GMT
The best time to go up I find. I remember reading Steve Redgraves autobiography and he was talking about training for the 1km races. They always trained over exactly 1km. Doesn't matter if you're finishing strongly if you don't cross the line first (or in the case of promotion 2nd/3rd) was their motto. We finished the season in the automatic promotion places. We went into 3rd place on 10th October 2015. We never dropped out of the top 3 for the rest of the season. How strange I was always taught that for a 3 minute round fight you train for 30. Are you sure he didn't mean that for race practice he trained over 1k? Seems to me he would be lacking in race fitness if he only trained 1k at a time! I may have mis-remembered, but the basic premise is that you don't prepare for a 200m race by doing 400m running. If someone crosses the line first but would run out of steam at 201m and someone else is still going like a train at 220m but finishes second, then who's got it right? Same with last season. We finished 2nd and got automatic promotion. Play-offs is a different matter as you've got 2 or 3 more games to play and momentum beyond the end of the race is more important.
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Post by lambchop on Mar 17, 2017 14:47:13 GMT
How strange I was always taught that for a 3 minute round fight you train for 30. Are you sure he didn't mean that for race practice he trained over 1k? Seems to me he would be lacking in race fitness if he only trained 1k at a time! I may have mis-remembered, but the basic premise is that you don't prepare for a 200m race by doing 400m running. If someone crosses the line first but would run out of steam at 201m and someone else is still going like a train at 220m but finishes second, then who's got it right? Same with last season. We finished 2nd and got automatic promotion. Play-offs is a different matter as you've got 2 or 3 more games to play and momentum beyond the end of the race is more important. [ I get it now, that makes more sense. Totally agree
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