Paul Beasley

Dragons v Sharks

Earlier in the week I found a flyer pushed through our letter box. “Support your local team, London Welsh”. I never fell for the London Oxford airport at Kidlington thing so I’m not going to be tricked by this. I don’t believe in clubs, football or rugby, moving from their roots. And I’m English. But at least London (not Oxford) Welsh (Not English) are giving it a go and when did Oxford United try anything like this?

And on the subject of rugby, we have to accept that the pitch was originally laid with both shaped balls in mind. As a fan of OUFC should I hope that the exiles get relegated and disappear from the Kassam or accept them as mutual partners with WPL in a joint venture to prise ownership of the bricks, mortar, grass and mud from Firoz? WPL will never get ownership of the ground without help and to be honest I think any meaningful partnership is light years away.

As for the playing surface, I’ve recently taken a closer look at other pitches on the Football League show, and whilst ours isn’t great, it is by no means the worst.

Peter Leven

Hearing that Leven needs an op and is likely to be out for the rest of the season was the tipping point for me. After our four wins on the spin I had our play-off odds at evens. The one point in nine then brought this back to 5/2 and now with no creative midfielder I’d say 18/1. Yes, season all but over. I doubt I’ll bother doing further calculations; each game will now be considered a one off until this, for the most part, miserable season is over.

Injuries, bah, don’t get me started.

Fans Forum – Not my bag

I didn’t go because I find this type of event extremely frustrating and at times excruciatingly embarrassing. I find that often those without the ability and experience to ask probing meaningful questions and get proper answers try to, and do, hog the floor. And not going over the same old ground would be nice.

But as I wasn’t there this could easily be way off the mark.

From feedback received after the event though I did learn that we are going to lose £600kish this financial year, which kind of confirms what I was expecting. Of that, £200k is apparently down to lower gates. Pains me to say it but that’s hardly unexpected given the product on the pitch and whole matchday experience at the Kassam.

And then there’s the signing of players without making them have a medical first. Which to me means the club have not got a gammy leg to stand on. If they are still around our football club those responsible for this sloppy practice should be removed forthwith and steps taken to ensure it never happens again.

So perhaps the reason we have so many on the side lines at any one time is that we’ve recruited young men much more prone than the average to pick up injuries due to underlying causes we’ve not bothered to properly identify and risk assess.

General training methods and fitness regimes could also be a factor but I doubt we’ll ever really know why we’re always paying a high percentage of our salary budget to men who are in no fit state to do their job.

And so to the football

Bristol Rovers

Tedious is how I would describe the first half. We had the better chances but that old failing of not being able to put the ball in the net was on show. The stand out player was one of theirs, John O’Toole.

Chris Wilder had said we would have to find a different way of playing given the state of the pitch. We did, we went long. It didn’t work. Justin Richards won a lot in the air, but he might as well not have bothered. Not once do I recall any of his headers finding a yellow shirt. Whether that’s down to the quality of these headers, the lack of intelligent movement of those around him or the fact he’s not had time to form an effective partnership with anyone is open to conjecture. He tried hard enough but I don’t see him as anything other than an average footballer.

His effort cost him both a booking and an injury. (What, an Oxford player having to go off injured, surely not.) The booking was yet another example of a referee not understanding the game. As Richards waited on the sidelines to return for just a couple of minutes after his treatment John Ward, the Rovers manager, shook his hand and motioned that he knew Richards had played the ball. That motion also indicated that Ward understands the game. It might of course also indicate that he doesn’t understand the rules. I don’t understand much anymore.

Jake Wright is almost certainly worth money and I’m surprised no club from a higher division came in for him whilst the transfer window was open. On the day I thought his tackle on Ryan Brunt was timed to perfection. Watching the FL Show it looked a penalty, I then replayed it and thought it wasn’t. Then in slo-mo I can categorically state that the referee had made an excellent decision.

Luke McCormick again seemed a good keeper but whilst stood on his line awaiting the spot kick taker and all of his team mates to run forward I didn’t think he looked like a penalty stopper.

Given our current goal scoring abilities that was enough for the Pirates. We’ve now scored once in the last four league games.

The second half misses were worse than the first. Beano missed what can only be termed a very easy chance and at times it is noticeable that the way the players set themselves when shooting at goal they are only setting themselves up to fail. Head back, leaning back, standing foot not alongside the ball. Yes, it’s easy from up in the stands, but they’re professionals. We’re not. We just each pay a very small proportion of their wages.

I can’t remember his exact words but on the radio CW greatly played down the argument that we need a striking coach by saying something like but they score in training. He then added but it’s a different situation on match day. Which Chris is exactly why we need someone to teach our lot how to stay cool under pressure and do what they do in practice when it really matters on match day. (As ever, if I misinterpreted what our manager said, apologies.)

Their second was irrelevant really, even though it still wound me up, as we were chasing an elusive equaliser. Wonder what Dean Smalley was thinking when a centre half was chosen as the better attacking option with three minutes plus to go.

I’m not sure what the free kick was awarded for. I’m not sure if it was taken from the right place. I’m not sure if the referee’s interpretation of the advantage rule is the same as anyone else’s. Our players didn’t seem to have much of a clue what was going on and I think the way they were stood around most of them thought the free kick had gone our way. But fair play to Rovers they were more quick witted than we were.

I’m trying to think of positives and am struggling. Possibly the defence. Possibly Liam Davis getting back to what he was attacking wise. Possibly the half hour Josh Parker had. He whipped in a couple of very decent balls but is hardly going to save our season. Even if there were anything to get excited about here it is more than cancelled out by the disappointing Lewis Montrose. After Bradford we wondered if he was the Messiah. He’s been out for three games so match rustiness may be the cause but Gill’s fans are saying what you get is inconsistency. Damn, that’s absolutely what we don’t need.

I’d like to ignore the off field activities but, given the vast police presence, which to those who bothered to observe what was going on and what was prevented from going on, was needed, am wondering what this cost the club.

Moving on.

A prediction – the gate on Tuesday against Fleetwood will be lower than against Burton. And the Cod Army will be marching (do Cod march?) on the Kassam with numbers no greater than the Brewers brought to town. As for the atmosphere. Well work it out for yourself. I can wait.

I’d really like to be selling my football club here and getting mates who don’t attend very often to put in an appearance now and again, but I’ve got nothing to work with.