FAN’S VIEW 22/23 – No.46 – BOLTON AT HOME

OXFORD UNITED 0 BOLTON WANDERERS 1

Unless there is a seismic shift in the way we play, especially in our approach and technique when “going for goal” we are going to get RELEGATED. End of.

I have to say I absolutely hate it when anyone uses the phrase “end of” because I find that arrogant and ignorant in not being willing to listen to an alternative opinion. It’s I’m right and that’s that, if you don’t agree with me you’re wrong. Here though I think “end of” is 100% an apt comment.

This season has instilled deep rooted anger in me, anger that is still slowly growing by the game. I thought the arrival of Liam Manning might have called a halt to it, but that’s not so.

It might be repetitive but once more I feel a need to let it out.

Blame Karl Robinson. He put together this unpolishable turd. This squad of many injured and injury prone players on good money. He didn’t bring in a goal-scorer. He didn’t get what he had available at any one time playing as a team.

Blame the owners for allowing him to carry on unchecked and not to get rid much earlier and certainly before the January transfer window when any incumbent had a chance to bring in players to suit their way of playing and what they wanted to achieve.

Blame anyone else at the club who had any involvement in the largely woeful recruitment we’ve seen in the last two windows.

And in all this the players are not blameless. Collectively and individually. Some I’ve got sympathy for but others at times I’ve thought wtf are you bringing to my football club? You’ll be off soon but I’ll still be here supporting the mess, quite possibly in L2, which you’ve helped create.

As for this defeat I’m going to lay a fair amount of blame at Manning’s door too.

I don’t think any Oxford fan I know was totally convinced when he arrived but hope did rise. That was so with me. After playing as we did at Vale last week many began to seriously question whether that hope was misplaced and knew for sure it had to be toned down a notch or two.

Before kick-off here I heard quite a few say “we’ll win this”. They meant it too. Personally I couldn’t see it. That’s not the pessimist in me, it’s the realist.

Our first half performance, particularly from an offensive perspective was rotten. Picking Josh Murphy over Tyler Goodrham is not helping me warm to our head coach. I’m not one for scapegoating but again it’s was a wtf moment when I saw Murphy in the starting line-up having witnessed what he’s done, or more to the point what he hasn’t done, in recent games. It’s cruel but there were the inevitable cries of “get him off” and one of the biggest cheers of the day, mostly from the East stand, was when his removal was announced just before the second half commenced. This of course doesn’t help but nor does picking him in the first place. There has to be a player in there somewhere but I doubt we’ll ever see it.  I’ve no idea what’s going on.

Stuart Findlay had a shocking first half. Amongst his many errors was allowing the ball to go past him in the build up to what turned out to be the only goal of the game after just seven minutes. He should easily have cut out a long low ball down the line but instead let it run past him. Bolton kept possession well and Conor Bradley worked a one-two before putting a ball across the six yard box. Easty could only get an outstretched hand to push it into an area which yelled “easy chance” and from a few feet it was converted.

Right, time to discuss the officials now. Time and time again we lay into them but often also add: yes but that wasn’t the main, or only, reason we lost as it was mostly our fault. Much as I think we deserve to go down the way we are playing, there is some case here that if it wasn’t for the performance from Seb Stockbridge that stank, we might have got a point at least out of this.

The goal should not have stood – as Ciaron Brown went to make a challenge on Bradley the Wanderers midfielder got a handful of his shirt and gave a good yank. Referees only seem to give about 5% of shirt pulls. With their pair of eyes and a further four possessed by their assistants there’s no way that they’re not seeing a very high percentage of these. Why then do they ignore them? It’s foul play.

Just past the hour Marcus Browne was bundled to the ground inside the corner of the penalty area by Josh Sheehan. Our number 11 had played the ball. Their number 8 did not. It should have been a penalty.

But clearly the most controversial and spleen venting of decisions was when Stockbridge only showed a yellow card to keeper James Trafford in the 38^th minute.

Brown had played a pass to a colleague who was marked about as tightly as they could possibly be with the Bolton player getting the ball. This resulted in it coming back in Brown’s direction. He reacted instinctively with a mighty left foot of “av it” proportions and smashed it forward. If the frustration I was feeling at the back of the SSU was the same amongst our players on the park then that likely explains such a mighty non-passing football wallop.

Given our almost non-existence of attacking creativity it was quite fitting that this action set up a very good chance. That it did was down to Kyle Joseph. The shift this guy put in was phenomenal. When Bolton had the ball at the back he at times tried to implement a one man pressing strategy running from one defender to another then possibly a third as the ball was moved. I think he was doing the work of Murphy and possibly Browne too.

Joseph had gone past M.J Williams with Trafford coming charging out of his goal when, in the D, he dived full length at Joseph who had already played the ball to the keeper’s left. Up in the air our loanee went and down to earth head first. A dangerous challenge in itself and for me morally a red card whatever the laws of the game state, but as I often have to do I hold my hands up and say I couldn’t quite quote chapter and verse so had to look them up.

Law 11 – Fouls and Misconduct.

“Where a player commits an offence against an opponent within their own penalty area which denies an opponent an obvious goal-scoring opportunity and the referee awards a penalty kick, the offender is cautioned if the offence was an attempt to play the ball; in all other circumstances (e.g. holding, pulling, pushing, no possibility to play the ball etc.) the offending player must be sent off.”

But that’s in the penalty area which Trafford was not.

Then there’s this: “Where a player denies the opposing team a goal or an obvious goal-scoring opportunity by a handball offence, the player is sent off wherever the offence occurs (except a goalkeeper within their penalty area).”

Well, it wasn’t hand ball as we know. I can’t see anything in the laws of the game that covers the denying of a goal scoring opportunity (DOGSO) when the offence takes place outside the penalty area. As ever I’m happy to be corrected by any properly qualified and up to date referee out there.

I think we’ve been let down by the FA, as well as Stockbridge on this.

“A player who commits any of the following is sent off: serious foul play / violent conduct.”  He could easily have fallen back on this wording. Instead he pointed to his right indicating that Joseph had taken the ball away from goal. Of course he had you bloody moron; if he’d headed directly toward goal he would just have ploughed straight into Trafford possibly resulting in serious injury to both. There’s a good chance Joseph would have collected the ball had he been allowed to continue on his way. That he might have missed the chance is neither here nor there. Clueless. Shows a real lack of understanding to me.

This got the adrenaline really pumping and it remained that way until the final whistle.

Fouls win points. Just before the break Joseph again was fouled on the edge of the box. Taken out by Williams who didn’t even bother to make it look like he was trying to get the ball. Players don’t get sent off for that. He knew it was a yellow. It’s the old “taking one for the team”. Bolton shared those yellows around and collected five.

At half time the possession stats had Wanderers on 53.7%. At full time the stats were 57% in our favour meaning we had the ball for 67% of the time in the second half.

There was no question that we were giving it a go and the crowd were really up for it too. For all Bolton’s superiority in the first half and our poor passing and inability to build, they never much looked like getting a second.

They looked even less like doing so in the second half except perhaps for one semi breakaway but that was probably about it.

We just don’t look like scoring in 100 years. We’ve scored one goal from open play in the five that Manning has been here and none in the last four. A recipe for disaster.

Our shooting is laughable. Forget the numbers of shots at goal and on target. Take a look at the quality. Many blasted over the bar. Many tamely straight at the keeper. Browne taking an air shot. Findlay missing an easy header from a corner. Joseph not making a connection when we’d put together a really good move involving the uplifting Goodrham. It looked quite an easy one to convert. He was offside but given how incompetent the officials were there would have been a very strong likelihood it would have stood.

The best two efforts at goal came right at the beginning and end of the second period. With a minute gone Brown hit one with real venom which gave Trafford his biggest test of the afternoon. The one Goodrham hammered right at the end had as much power but typically went directly into Trafford’s arms.

Amazingly we’re still not in the bottom four. It’s just on goal difference now though.

I got it wrong about Accrington beating Fleetwood. Unlike us they leak loads of goals but are more able to score. In their last four games they’ve let in 13 but have managed to score five. We’re still two points above them on the same number of games.

Forest Green are now down and it looks even bleaker for Morecambe, who we couldn’t beat, than it does for us. They’re two behind us and have played two games more than we have.

So likely one from the following three for the drop: us, Cambridge and MK. With Port Vale also an outsider to become involved.

Cambridge are only bottom four because their GD is vastly inferior to ours. They’re on form and have collected 10 points from the last 12 they’ve played for. They’re at home to Wycombe on Tuesday and their remaining fixtures include Accrington away. Their final game is home to FGR. I think they’ll probably pick up at least 9 more points.

We’ve got a game in hand on MK and if we were to win it would go above them on goal difference. IF – a bloody great massive IF. We have not won for FIFTEEN effing games.

MK are unbeaten in seven.

Vale have a game less than us to play but are six points better off. They have not won in seven. On Tuesday they’re away at Ipswich. Last day of the season they’re at home to Plymouth. Their other two matches are at home to Bristol Rovers and away at Charlton.

Difficult to call this. Vale were poor but we couldn’t beat them.

We can’t beat anyone. So what do the bookies know that I don’t? Best odds for our next match? An Oxford win 13/10 (Bet Victor). A Pompey win 23/10 (Unibet and Bet365). The draw 49/20 (Unibet). It is indeed a mad mad mad world.

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Pictures from the SSU. Surely someone is responsible for up keep and maintenance. It must be in the contract. It has to be either the club or the stadium company. If it is the latter then it is down to the football club to ensure it happens. Tickets are not cheap. I want to encourage others to watch OUFC but on top of the football being played not being a big sell this certainly isn’t either.