Hello all -
My first post of the new season for one reason or another. As the season started there was some debate over the future of the manager. Three league victories seemed to silence the doubters, then a couple of bad defeats have brought our concerns back to the front of our minds. Remember we didn't manage a win in the last seven games of last season...
So today's match at Burton felt important. A win would steady the ship, a loss would mean three wins, three losses. And with Wilder seemingly casting about for other employment opportunities, there had to be some doubt about his commitment to the cause.
Now, normally, a trip to Burton is fairly easy for me. A quick trip up the M1 and Bob's your uncle. Or perhaps he isn't. In this case he wasn't my uncle either since I had to take my son to university today. In Bangor, North Wales. (Luckily not the Bangor in Northern Ireland or the one in Maine - that would have made it very difficult). So we got up at stupid o'clock, put all his stuff in the jalopy and set off to North Wales. Should I worry that he seems to have many more musical instruments than textbooks? Anyway, we got there in good time, I slung his stuff into his new accommodation, got back in the car and headed back south to Burton. And got there with half an hour to spare. A quick bit of parking up in the industrial estate behind the MacDonalds (yes, of course I was shopping in Screwfix for three hours, officer) and a trot up the road to the ground. Well I say a trot up the ground, more like a show shuffle as my chest is knackered at the moment. A visit to the docs has furnished me with steroids, an inhaler and some antibiotics (£22.50 please - I can't afford to be ill really!). Having read the contraindications on the steroids, I'd decided to dispense with them this morning. Apparently the side effects can include an urge to top yourself, getting irritable, heart attacks and seeing hallucinations! Think I'll stick with the wheezy chest thanks all the same!
As a contrast to the ridiculous price of being ill, a terrace ticket at Burton was only £14. Not bad. As those who have been to the Pirelli Stadium (is it still called that?) before will know, it is a neat, small ground, and is kept in generally decent repair with the away fans being housed in one stand behind the goal with a few seats to the right being allocated to those who prefer to sit. As I waited for the match to start, I admired the Burton banners in the 'Don Arnott - King of Caravans' stand. Roughly one banner per paying customer at the start, but it filled up (a bit) before kickoff.
Our team. Hmm. Clarke in goal, then along the back Capaldi, Wright, Raynes, Boeteng and Batt. That left Chapman and Heslop in midfield (JFC being ill) and Potter, Smalley and Rigg up front. I have to admit that I'm not entirely sure what the formation was supposed to be. But then I'm in good company because it became obvious fairly quickly that the team didn't either. Was Batt supposed to be playing in midfield? Was is a back three with Capaldi and Batt providing width? With only two in midfield? The right back position was a buggers muddle. Sometimes Batt was there, sometimes he wasn't. Whatever - Smalley was on his own up front. That is a BAD IDEA. Not because he's awful - he isn't. But the things he is good at (headed flick on's, getting the ball and laying it off for example) require there to be someone up there with him. There wasn't.
The first 15-20 minutes were even (ish). We never looked like scoring, although we had quite a lot of the ball. If you've seen us this season (in both wins and losses) you'll know that involves quite a lot of passing the ball side to side and backwards while the other team wait for one of two inevitable outcomes. Outcome 1 - we hoof the ball long, usually diagonal. Outcome 2 - we pass ourselves to death and eventually cock up a simple 5 yard pass, leading to panic. And it's all done so sloowwwwlllyyy. The idea of a quick counterattack is entirely alien to the team. We get the ball, race to the half way line, then turn back and pass the ball backwards. By the time we have any support, the opposition are back in numbers. That isn't 'good passing football' in my book. It's arsing about with the ball. Next time you see us do it - watch carefully. Eventually, nine times out of ten, the ball ends up with the same player who started the move, in the same place on the pitch. Except now there are ten players between him and the goal. Earlier in the season, we were doing much the same - except we were doing it faster, people were moving off the ball creating a bit of space. But that has all evaporated. It's done at walking pace. The movement off the ball is non existent. Which is a bit of a bugger because all the teams in the league have now sussed us out. Last season it took about 35 games for them to do it, this time it's taken three. Oops.
So for all opposition managers, here's the tactics. Let us have the ball in front of you, you'll get it back. Attack down our right. Batt is often AWOL and even if he isn't, just run past him - he won't tackle. Or cut inside - he falls for it every time. There will be no midfielder covering for him. We won't shoot from outside the box, so you don't have to close down our midfielders as they come forward. Just pop a couple of defenders on the lone striker and you'll be fine.
There. I'm no football manager and I can see it. Every single Oxford fan can see it. But apparently its too difficult to do anything about it.
You know that thing about not shooting from outside the box? Exeter scored that way last weekend. And blow me down, Burton just went and did the same thing! Who'd credit it? To be fair Zola hit it very well and it probably took a touch off Jake Wright who was just not quite close enough. Anyway, the worryingly out-of-touch (or maybe just out-of-luck?) Clarke watched it sail into the net. 20 minutes or so and one down. Not that we hadn't had a warning. Burton had hit the bar a few minutes earlier after a blocked free kick. Now another worrying thing is the lack of backbone shown by most of the team. It didn't look for an instant as if we were going to go up the other end and out things right. Potter looked industrious although I'm sure his dad is a crab - he spent much of the time going sideways. At least he looked lively though, and had the bollocks to have a shot. Wide though. But the Oxford midfield had fallen to pieces completely. Simple passes were missed, the ball was lumped up to Smalley, tackles avoided, high balls not jumped for. The main culprit here was Heslop. He is slow, immobile and unaware of what is happening around him. As in a two man midfield, that is not a good thing. Now they knew that they could have a pop from distance without being closed down, Burton took complete control. And just before half time, they scored again. The lack of closing down was to blame again. The Burton strikers were allowed shot after shot, with Wright blocking bravely, but nobody trying to actually clear the ball. Eventually on the stroke of half time it was 2-0. Another good strike, but dear God what were you doing Raynes? Why weren't you in the way, or blocking the shot, or tackling the man or something. NOT watching the ball go into the net off the bar and then shrugging your shoulders and waving your arms at the hapless Clarke.
Half time. Meanwhile, what had Mr Wilder been going in the technical area? Rearranging the team, changing the shape, inspiring the troops, making a substitution to give the opposition something the think about? Nope. Mostly sitting down in the dugout. Brilliant. During probably the poorest half we'd played all season, he'd followed the example of many of his team and gone missing.
Second half. The usual panic (but too-slow-in-reacting panic) reaction. Take off a defender and a midfielder/striker (Boeteng and the totally anonymous Rigg) and put on two forwards JPP and Tommy Craddock. So now it was 4-2-4 (I think). That wasn't going to get hold of the midfield. To be fair, JPP especially did make some difference - much as he had against Exeter. Why he hadn't started I don't know. But although there was more energy (you've got to do more than just shout at half time Chris!) it was still totally ineffective. If we had scored in that first five minutes of the half things might have worked out differently - but realistically, when was the last time we came back from a two goal deficit?
It was all rendered moot anyway, when a free kick after 65 minutes (very like the one Plymouth scored) seemed to evade the wall and the flapping keeper to make it 3-0. Not content with that we then gave up marking altogether to gift them a fourth a couple of minutes later. They had enough time and space in our penalty area to have a barbecue before putting the ball in the net. Still about twenty minutes to go. Blimey. Batt headed a ridiculous ball back into his own penalty area from out wide, trying desperately to make it five.
Of course, the Oxford players than upped it a gear or two - determined to salvage some self-respect. Did they hell. It all got even slower and more laboured. The Burton crowd at last made a bit of noise. Our lot experimented with some 'Wilder Out's, 'We're shit and we know we are's and more. They could catch on I fear.
Marsh came on for a few minutes and looked lively Luckily Burton didn't manage to score again, and that was it.
A chorus of boos and 'you don't know what you're doing' and back home.
A complete load of bollocks.
JPP and Wright were decent.
Capaldi defended OK(ish).
Batt, Raynes and Heslop were frankly awful.
Clarke was uncertain.
Chapman couldn't pass the ball.
Potter was lively but in crab mode.
Boeteng was crude but didn't make any howlers.
Was Rigg on the pitch?
Smalley was used in a totally wasteful way. I'm still nowhere near convinced he's a L2 striker - he's certainly no good on his own.
Craddock got upset about some fairly unwarranted stick he was getting from some of our 'supporters'.
The manager was terrible. The way we play is slow and predictable. There is no Plan B and not much of a Plan A most of the time ('hoof it to Smalley after arsing around with it' doesn't count). He is slow to react to what is happening on the pitch and is now regularly out thought by other managers.
At the start of the season, I was in the 'Give Wilder a bit more time' camp. But I can't say that there is any evidence that he has learnt from the mistakes of last season. We have got some decent players, but for some reason (man management? tactical naivety?) he can't get anything like the best out of them. I think it's time he went. Either to another job, or IL needs to take action otherwise this season is going to slide down the tubes quicker than last night's curry. At the moment I am hoping there are two worse teams than us in this league or we'll all be going to Barrow again...
Hold on. Depressed? Irritated? Watching a mediocre Burton team beat us by 4 goals?
Maybe I took the steroids after all. Just the heart attack to look forward to now.
See you all next time - I won't get to Cheltenham - good luck to all who go!
Oxford United, Stereo Photography, Old Amusement Machines, Odd Musical Instruments and more.
Saturday, 15 September 2012
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Wednesday, 15 February 2012
The Song Remains The Same (vs D&R L2)
Hello all -
It's nice to be back writing about the Yellows after a couple of weeks in the grip of a Siberian blast. Well, it was a bit snowy anyway. In the summer you can (sort of) forget about football for a while but in the middle of a season, it's a bit weird with no matches for a while. Which brings me to the subject of a 'mid-season break'.
When exactly would it be? I think it's generally proposed to be January. Well, we've just had a couple of weeks off in February - and freezing weather can strike anytime from November until March. If we'd had January off this year, there would have been no football from New Year until now. Doesn't bear thinking about really! And when exactly would the season end? Some time in June probably, unless there were weeks and weeks of Tuesday - Saturday - Tuesday - Saturday matches towards the end of the season.
Anyway, back to the point. Dagenham and Redbridge. Shot up the leagues and are just as quickly shooting down them again. Down in the nether regions of League 2. If there was any game that should be a gentle introduction back into actually playing football then a home game against the fast fading Daggers would surely be it.
Talking of introductions, there were some new faces at the club and in the squad named for the match. Oli Johnson (nearly new) was named up front with Beano and Scott Rendell (newer). Midfield was Hall, Mark Wilson (new) and Leven. At the back, Batt was still serving the longest two match ban in history so it was Davis, Wright, Doobs and Whing, with Clarke in goal as ever. On the bench were Worley, McLaren, Tonks, Mehdi Kerrouche (our refugee from DiCanio's circus down the road - very new indeed) and Lee Holmes (so new I doubt any of his team mates knew who he was).
So over all, three new or newish players starting and another two on the bench. It was almost back to pre-season discussions of 'gelling'!
We started out by kicking towards the fence end. The atmosphere was fairly muted, and wasn't helped by the poor turnout from D&R of about one hundred. Only just over 5,600 turned up in total - the rest didn't dare risk the wrath of their better halves on Valentine's Day! Still, the weather was OK, the surface looked good and there were some new players (and presumably revised formation and/or tactics) to run the rule over.
The first twenty five minutes. Hmm. I'd like to say they were forgettable. In fact I'd just like to forget them. Both sides were terrible. The ref was terrible. The atmosphere was terrible. We had absolutely nothing to shout about. No meaningingful shots from either side. No corners. Hardly any forward passes that reached their targets. No movement off the ball. Little shape. Throw-ins that gave the ball away, clearances straight to the opposition. And that was both sides. Were we as poor as we were in the first half at Burton? Yep. We didn't look quite as bad because the opposition was a damned sight worse though! A neutral observer would have had great difficulty telling apart the club staring at the Conference trapdoor from the one in a playoff position.
After twenty five minutes, a burst of excitement. Asa Hall (forgetting that our midfielders aren't supposed to go over the half way line unless they've got a note from their mums) found himself in front of goal with the ball passed through to him by Beano (who for much of the first half was some sort of extra left back - what was that all about?). But he hit it wide, past the left hand post. We all sat down again. Time passed. Clarke made a decent save with about five minutes of the half left. Nothing much happened and the ref put us all out of our misery by blowing for half time. The players left the pitch to a 'mixed' reception.
Well, where to start on that load of old rubbish? Barely a shot on target from either team, in fact not one at all on target from Oxford as far as I can remember. No width at all in the Oxford play, no crosses at all. Two poor teams, a poor match so far. Well, Burton had been similar, maybe the second half would see some much needed improvement in the entertainment. I was starting to regret not opting for the romantic candlelit dinner instead.
CW obviously thought that things needed shaking up as well. Asa Hall was taken off, and was replaced by Lee Holmes. Described by the official website as a 'left sided forward', we played him on the right. Ho hum. We also (I think) switched to a more 4-4-2 formation, with Rendell and Beano playing up front and Holmes, Leven, Wilson and Johnson in midfield.
After a minute or so of the half, we had a corner! Since the moments of excitement so far could be counted on the fingers of one hand by a bloke who had lost a couple of fingers, we all stood up expectantly. It was overhit and we all sat down again. Then another corner. Some people stood up, but the effort had been too much for some of us last time - so some didn't. It was woefully underhit.
And then the first moment of any quality in the game. Davis went past his man (not something any of the yellows had really attempted all match) and got to the goal line. He put in a great cross and there was Oli Johnson, in the right place at the right time to nod it in. Excellent. Surely that was the way forward. Run with the ball, get past and behind the defence and cross the ball. But that was the first and last time Davis managed it. A shame. A mark of how poor we had been was the fairly muted celebrations in the stands. True, Dagenham hadn't looked liked scoring any more than we had (up until we actually did!) but our tendency to give away stupid late goals at home against poor teams meant that confidence in the stands wasn't running high.
That pessimism was almost confirmed immediately. Dagenham went straight down to our end, and but for a clearance off the line by Johnson it would have been level. Up the other end, Holmes was now starting to show glimpses of his ability and gradually, gradually we were improving. We were putting more pressure on the Daggers goal than at any time in the match. Leven put a free kick wide of the post, a couple of decent crosses from Holmes came to nothing. But as far as shots on target were concerned, the only one had been the goal. Rendell and Beano both tried to improve that stat, but couldn't. Rendell was denied by the goalie, who did well to get out and smother the ball. Beano sliced one so wide it went for a throw in. That elusive second goal looked as unlikely to come as the first had. And when you are only one up...
... the inevitable often happens. A Dagenham corner was headed out of defence, the Oxford players stood stock still as a Dagenham player collected it. He had as much time as he wanted to cross the ball, since nobody was making any sort of move to close him down. He picked his spot and a largely unchallenged Dagger headed the ball past Clarke to equal the scores. Sigh. Not unexpected really. We keep doing it - giving away soft goals, often from crosses. Still, let's be positive - we haven't lost after going ahead. There was still 20 minutes or so to go though, and it almost got worse after another five minutes or so when a Daggers shot hit the outside of the post.
CW brought on Kerrouche to replace Rendell. Some numpties in the stand booed him. He soon shut them up. Judging by what little we saw of him (about 15 minutes) he has a good first touch. His very first touch was a first time ball to Johnson, who sent it straight on to Beano, who shot low past the goalkeeper to put Oxford back into the lead and himself into double figures for the season. Good stuff. Nice to see some quick movement up front, sometimes we are so ponderous. Is it a coincidence that our two goals had both been from bits of quick movement, with strikers moving into space? I think not.
There was still ten minutes to go plus injury time until the end. CW signalled his intentions by taking Johnson off and putting Tonkin on at left back. There were a few squeaky bum moments, mostly because our players gave some ridiculous free kicks away, but we survived. And that was it. The crowd didn't give the team much of an ovation - it was more relief than triumph. The team looked like they were let down by their own performance.
I haven't been so down after a home win for a long time. Admittedly we were generally better in the second half, but over all it was a very disappointing game indeed.
Thoughts in the car on the way home:
If we play at that level for the rest of the season, we can say goodbye to any thoughts of the playoffs.
The distribution out of defence was absolutely shocking. Duberry and Wright especially had very decent games in defence, but neither Doobs' horrible diagonal hoof or Wright's 15-yards-straight-to-an-opponent clearances are doing us any good whatsoever.
It is frustrating that with some players of undoubted quality, sometimes the team actually looks like less than the sum of its parts.
Dagenham were (from their perspective) perhaps unlucky not to nick a point, but they do look a desperately poor team - and with Northampton, Plymouth and Barnet picking up points it's not getting any easier down at the foot of the table.
On the positive side (let's cheer ourselves up) most of the new players look to have something about them. Holmes especially - maybe we could play him on the left. Just an idea. Like not playing Beano out wide - you can have that one for free, CW!
If we could start a game decently for a change, we might not find it so difficult to get on the front foot.
I probably won't make it to Brizzle, so good luck to the team on Saturday - give them a cheer from me.
Come On You Yellows!
It's nice to be back writing about the Yellows after a couple of weeks in the grip of a Siberian blast. Well, it was a bit snowy anyway. In the summer you can (sort of) forget about football for a while but in the middle of a season, it's a bit weird with no matches for a while. Which brings me to the subject of a 'mid-season break'.
When exactly would it be? I think it's generally proposed to be January. Well, we've just had a couple of weeks off in February - and freezing weather can strike anytime from November until March. If we'd had January off this year, there would have been no football from New Year until now. Doesn't bear thinking about really! And when exactly would the season end? Some time in June probably, unless there were weeks and weeks of Tuesday - Saturday - Tuesday - Saturday matches towards the end of the season.
Anyway, back to the point. Dagenham and Redbridge. Shot up the leagues and are just as quickly shooting down them again. Down in the nether regions of League 2. If there was any game that should be a gentle introduction back into actually playing football then a home game against the fast fading Daggers would surely be it.
Talking of introductions, there were some new faces at the club and in the squad named for the match. Oli Johnson (nearly new) was named up front with Beano and Scott Rendell (newer). Midfield was Hall, Mark Wilson (new) and Leven. At the back, Batt was still serving the longest two match ban in history so it was Davis, Wright, Doobs and Whing, with Clarke in goal as ever. On the bench were Worley, McLaren, Tonks, Mehdi Kerrouche (our refugee from DiCanio's circus down the road - very new indeed) and Lee Holmes (so new I doubt any of his team mates knew who he was).
So over all, three new or newish players starting and another two on the bench. It was almost back to pre-season discussions of 'gelling'!
We started out by kicking towards the fence end. The atmosphere was fairly muted, and wasn't helped by the poor turnout from D&R of about one hundred. Only just over 5,600 turned up in total - the rest didn't dare risk the wrath of their better halves on Valentine's Day! Still, the weather was OK, the surface looked good and there were some new players (and presumably revised formation and/or tactics) to run the rule over.
The first twenty five minutes. Hmm. I'd like to say they were forgettable. In fact I'd just like to forget them. Both sides were terrible. The ref was terrible. The atmosphere was terrible. We had absolutely nothing to shout about. No meaningingful shots from either side. No corners. Hardly any forward passes that reached their targets. No movement off the ball. Little shape. Throw-ins that gave the ball away, clearances straight to the opposition. And that was both sides. Were we as poor as we were in the first half at Burton? Yep. We didn't look quite as bad because the opposition was a damned sight worse though! A neutral observer would have had great difficulty telling apart the club staring at the Conference trapdoor from the one in a playoff position.
After twenty five minutes, a burst of excitement. Asa Hall (forgetting that our midfielders aren't supposed to go over the half way line unless they've got a note from their mums) found himself in front of goal with the ball passed through to him by Beano (who for much of the first half was some sort of extra left back - what was that all about?). But he hit it wide, past the left hand post. We all sat down again. Time passed. Clarke made a decent save with about five minutes of the half left. Nothing much happened and the ref put us all out of our misery by blowing for half time. The players left the pitch to a 'mixed' reception.
Well, where to start on that load of old rubbish? Barely a shot on target from either team, in fact not one at all on target from Oxford as far as I can remember. No width at all in the Oxford play, no crosses at all. Two poor teams, a poor match so far. Well, Burton had been similar, maybe the second half would see some much needed improvement in the entertainment. I was starting to regret not opting for the romantic candlelit dinner instead.
CW obviously thought that things needed shaking up as well. Asa Hall was taken off, and was replaced by Lee Holmes. Described by the official website as a 'left sided forward', we played him on the right. Ho hum. We also (I think) switched to a more 4-4-2 formation, with Rendell and Beano playing up front and Holmes, Leven, Wilson and Johnson in midfield.
After a minute or so of the half, we had a corner! Since the moments of excitement so far could be counted on the fingers of one hand by a bloke who had lost a couple of fingers, we all stood up expectantly. It was overhit and we all sat down again. Then another corner. Some people stood up, but the effort had been too much for some of us last time - so some didn't. It was woefully underhit.
And then the first moment of any quality in the game. Davis went past his man (not something any of the yellows had really attempted all match) and got to the goal line. He put in a great cross and there was Oli Johnson, in the right place at the right time to nod it in. Excellent. Surely that was the way forward. Run with the ball, get past and behind the defence and cross the ball. But that was the first and last time Davis managed it. A shame. A mark of how poor we had been was the fairly muted celebrations in the stands. True, Dagenham hadn't looked liked scoring any more than we had (up until we actually did!) but our tendency to give away stupid late goals at home against poor teams meant that confidence in the stands wasn't running high.
That pessimism was almost confirmed immediately. Dagenham went straight down to our end, and but for a clearance off the line by Johnson it would have been level. Up the other end, Holmes was now starting to show glimpses of his ability and gradually, gradually we were improving. We were putting more pressure on the Daggers goal than at any time in the match. Leven put a free kick wide of the post, a couple of decent crosses from Holmes came to nothing. But as far as shots on target were concerned, the only one had been the goal. Rendell and Beano both tried to improve that stat, but couldn't. Rendell was denied by the goalie, who did well to get out and smother the ball. Beano sliced one so wide it went for a throw in. That elusive second goal looked as unlikely to come as the first had. And when you are only one up...
... the inevitable often happens. A Dagenham corner was headed out of defence, the Oxford players stood stock still as a Dagenham player collected it. He had as much time as he wanted to cross the ball, since nobody was making any sort of move to close him down. He picked his spot and a largely unchallenged Dagger headed the ball past Clarke to equal the scores. Sigh. Not unexpected really. We keep doing it - giving away soft goals, often from crosses. Still, let's be positive - we haven't lost after going ahead. There was still 20 minutes or so to go though, and it almost got worse after another five minutes or so when a Daggers shot hit the outside of the post.
CW brought on Kerrouche to replace Rendell. Some numpties in the stand booed him. He soon shut them up. Judging by what little we saw of him (about 15 minutes) he has a good first touch. His very first touch was a first time ball to Johnson, who sent it straight on to Beano, who shot low past the goalkeeper to put Oxford back into the lead and himself into double figures for the season. Good stuff. Nice to see some quick movement up front, sometimes we are so ponderous. Is it a coincidence that our two goals had both been from bits of quick movement, with strikers moving into space? I think not.
There was still ten minutes to go plus injury time until the end. CW signalled his intentions by taking Johnson off and putting Tonkin on at left back. There were a few squeaky bum moments, mostly because our players gave some ridiculous free kicks away, but we survived. And that was it. The crowd didn't give the team much of an ovation - it was more relief than triumph. The team looked like they were let down by their own performance.
I haven't been so down after a home win for a long time. Admittedly we were generally better in the second half, but over all it was a very disappointing game indeed.
Thoughts in the car on the way home:
If we play at that level for the rest of the season, we can say goodbye to any thoughts of the playoffs.
The distribution out of defence was absolutely shocking. Duberry and Wright especially had very decent games in defence, but neither Doobs' horrible diagonal hoof or Wright's 15-yards-straight-to-an-opponent clearances are doing us any good whatsoever.
It is frustrating that with some players of undoubted quality, sometimes the team actually looks like less than the sum of its parts.
Dagenham were (from their perspective) perhaps unlucky not to nick a point, but they do look a desperately poor team - and with Northampton, Plymouth and Barnet picking up points it's not getting any easier down at the foot of the table.
On the positive side (let's cheer ourselves up) most of the new players look to have something about them. Holmes especially - maybe we could play him on the left. Just an idea. Like not playing Beano out wide - you can have that one for free, CW!
If we could start a game decently for a change, we might not find it so difficult to get on the front foot.
I probably won't make it to Brizzle, so good luck to the team on Saturday - give them a cheer from me.
Come On You Yellows!
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