It’s former players day tomorrow too:
Is Bowerman still playing?
First part of 12-13 he looked better than Grigg did. Still only 27.
I was there.
There will be a few hundred Oxford fans who will have witnessed:-
- Walsall winning away under Whitney
- Walsall winning away under Keates
- An Andreas Makris goal
And they won’t even begin to appreciate how lucky they are.
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As for today, I think we will lose.
This is a completely different game from the previous four where we “played well” but lost.
Unlike our previous four opponents, Oxford won’t feel that it is “must win” or “should win”. A point will do them fine so they won’t over commit and they won’t leave the kind of counter attacking opportunity our previous four opponents have.
This puts the onus on us to break them down and then put the ball in the net. Things that we find quite difficult. Meanwhile we have a gift for conceding in the most unlikely of circumstances.
So for me, our best chance is for our top goal scorer to return and our back five to concentrate for the whole game and not knock off for a few mad minutes.
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Good post PT, echoes everything I think👍
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First things first we need a clean sheet. Keep one of those and then a lucky 1-0 win will do us fine.
Cook in the 78th, with a CBT assist, following a Liam Roberts master class.
Unfortunately this is another one where I have a horrible feeling we’ll suffer a 2-1 defeat, probably going 2 down and then fighting back. Keates to tell us “look, we were naïve” and “look, the players have got to learn” and finally “look, we’ll pick ourselves up and go again”.
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Does anyone think we wouldn’t be safe with Whitney with these players?
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I feel the last thing we’ll do is keep a clean sheet - as others have posted, we have this inbuilt ability to concede goals this season when we least need to and whilst I hope in wrong, I’m fearful it’ll curse us again today
Doesn’t really matter, that’s the past and some Walsall fans got what they wished for. Fact is that Whitney was an excellent fitness/performance coach at this level and the ideal scenario would have been to get a decent manager in to replace Smith and have Whitney working closely with him. After the success of that last season under Smith, expectations were very high and it was the wrong time to have a manager trying to learn on the job, and struggling with some aspects of it.
What we’ve now got it seems to me is a manager not really learning and struggling with many aspects of the job. Regardless of where we finish, he needs replacing with someone in the Smith mould… intelligent, thoughtful, understands how to motivate modern players, has a style and ethos he brings to the whole club etc, but they’re not easy to come by and you’re as likely to get a wrong 'un as a good 'un.
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2-0 win all day long
Its the hope that kills you
This is yet another must win game,so I predict we will give 2 goals away in the first half an hour, then spend the rest of the game shooting and missing.Keates will bemoan the missed chances and then say “if I’m honest,we’re screwed”.
I’m with Hull, 3-1 win and back heading into the mid table mix as everyone around us loses or draws. We need goals to sort our goal difference out and we will start today.
I am Optimistic.
I suspect Southend, Accrington et al are due some kind of result, as is the norm at this stage of the season. I think we’ll draw today and then the following three games mean everything.
In theory based on the other games I should be right, the only fly in the ointment is that teams in danger of relegation suddenly start winning against the odds. Time will tell.
Lose and we’re down. Simple as.
Go a goal down within 6 minutes, that is a given, so, we have to score at least two to win, which as someone above has said, we find incredibly hard to do.
I would love a thumping 4-1 victory to ease our concerns, but fear the early goal we give away will be seen through to the end, then we are in BIG trouble.
Come on me babbies, lets see a victory (at last) that would be soooo good!
We’ll probably batter them for 85 minutes and maintain a justified 1-0 lead, during which Keates will be rooted to the spot. They’ll make 3 subs. Keates will be rooted to the spot. 86, 87, 88 minutes and it’s all Oxford. Keates motionless. 89, 90 minutes and yet another ball lumped into the middle, which will come off someone’s arse and slither under the keeper for an unlikely equaliser. Keates, a whirlwind of activity will throw on our leading scorer.
Game ends 1-1. Who’d have thought!
Youve just summed up how i feel… NERVOUS!!!