TRANMERE 

I don’t normally make comment on any of the various OUFC fora prior to letting rip via the Fan’s View but after Prenton Park I was so incensed I couldn’t help myself and my spleen was duly vented in the “Tonight” thread on the Yellows Forum.

It started off with “I’m still struggling to see how we lost tonight”.

There had been plenty of posts before I came back in with this, “To state the bleeding obvious goals win football matches. They got two we got one. At times this Appleton passing philosophy is bollocks. There’s a time and place but their winning goal came from our free kick in the Tranmere half. We played it short and lost it. They went forward – in direct fashion, no pissing about, and scored. Excuse me but wouldn’t a commonsense approach have been to have played a cross into the Tranmere box. Okay, we lack fire power but there’s more chance of scoring with the ball there than being worked back to Clarke. I’m not struggling to see how we lost at all. Possession does not = goals. Weak shots at goal does not = goals”.

The cause of my frustration was 99% down to that bloody free kick; the rest just came tumbling out. Will we never learn?

So we ended up blowing the opportunity to host a Premiership side at the Kassam that play very attractive football and wouldn’t have been the most daunting of top flight opponents. Some fans seem quite happy with this because we are “going in the right direction” and “will give someone a hiding one day”.

Perhaps we are going in the right direction but we’ll never get to our destination, wherever that may be, until we stop this free-kick nonsense and start being more pragmatic with regard to the areas of the pitch in which we play our football. The closer to the opponents penalty area the ball is, the greater our chances of scoring and the lesser their chances.

Again time for a Half Man Half Biscuit quote “The light at the end of the tunnel is the light of an oncoming train”.

And so what if we do get round to hammering a team one day by, say 8-0, does that make it alright? A win by a single goal margin brings the same number of points. Then what, waiting another 100 plus games before we totally stuff someone else? Forget it. And on that note I’ve forgotten the last occasion we’ve properly dicked someone out of sight.

But yes we did play some really good and neat football and looked to be vastly superior to the home side. But that makes it even more galling for me that we lost.

Most players can hold their heads up in what was probably some of the wettest conditions they have ever played in. There were a few though that I would have liked to have seen more from.

WHAT’S LEFT FOR 2014/15 NOW?

There’s quiet muttering in some quarters with a nod to York City’s achievement last season in reaching the play-offs suggesting that it is not out of the question for us to do the same. At the end of 2013 the Minstermen had accumulated just 22 points from 24 games. From February onwards they were unbeaten with 11 wins and 6 draws before Fleetwood beat them by the narrowest of margins in the play-off semi final.

Could we do the same? Yes, it is possible but there’s not a cat in hells chance unless …. well, anyone who has read any of my stuff will know what I think.

HARTLEPOOL

Pre match I’m thinking: We’ve got more players available than on Tuesday. We’ve got double the points they have. By all accounts they are a pretty awful side. So a win it should be. But my level of confidence was not quite as high as these statements suggest it should have been.

There was also the not insignificant factor that the Monkey Hangers were taken over on the day we got knocked out of the FA Cup with Ronnie Moore then coming in as their new manager.

I always expect the home side to take the onus from the off but in these circumstances perhaps more so than normal. Added to that they also had the boost of increased home support due to it being just a tenner to get in.

So I wasn’t too worried when they had the vast majority of the first 15 – 20 minutes. The way to have played it imho would have been to sit back, try very hard not to concede, see what the opposition had to offer, work out the best way to beat them and then become more offensive.

When half time arrived I don’t think we’d changed the way we’d played from the first minute. This disappointed me.

The second half started a bit differently with us showing more attacking intent and looking a bit more like scoring than we had done previously.

But as is the way of things when the game becomes more open, we conceded. It was a basic long ball from within the Hartlepool half that was our undoing. Chey Dunkley making his debut, having replaced the injured Johnny Mullins on the half hour mark, should really have done a lot better. He looked slow to react and with the ball in the air never seemed to quite get a grasp of where it was going. Early days of course but he did not look to me like he could slot in seamlessly, which is obviously asking a lot.

As for the other two new boys, I can’t recall Wes Burns being involved much at all and John Campbell even less so. I’d be surprised if the ex-Jarrow Roofer’s number of touches even made it to double figures. In his defence, it must be asked what service he got in the 55 minutes he had on the pitch? But again, early days.

I was having a gloomy conversation with Selfie, who had placed himself in the seat behind me, when we equalised. With Jonathan Meades replacing Campbell, to at last get a few minutes of game time, Tariq Holmes-Dennis was pushed further forward and Hylton moved into a more central role. A Meades pass found THD who, despite being held, managed to go one way, then the other before cutting the ball into the box. Hylton was on it in a flash just like earlier in the season before he was pushed wide.

We had plenty of time to have gone on and won the game but never looked like doing so. The home side were the more likely winners and it required a really good save down to his left by Ryan Clarke late on to maintain parity.

He was possibly my man of the match with other contenders being THD & Hylton, both of whom seem to have a mastery of the football that many League Twoers do not. Danny Rose for his work rate could possibly be considered too.

At the end of the day I was disappointed with both the result and the performance and am again struggling to see how these away performances under Appleton are more entertaining than watching Chris Wilder’s travelling OUFC. But under duress I’ll again say, early days.

I think Hylton’s best position could well be just off the main striker, whoever that may be now Tyrone Barnett has departed. But with so few goals in the team it is imperative that he is given every opportunity to remain at the top of the L2 scoring charts.

The Michael Collins behind the main striker thing doesn’t work for me.

On the bright side – see I’m trying, I really am – thanks to:

• OUFC for the free travel
• Hartlepool for the cheap entry fee
• The Rat Race Ale House for beer of the highest quality
• And, oh go on then – we’re unbeaten in five league games

Getting up at 6:30 is a bit much but with the coaches leaving the Kassam at 8:00 it had to be done. Once on board I was more interested in going back to sleep and whilst the drivers may have meant well I’d rather they had stuck to the driving and left the attempted comedy out. Can I get any grumpier?

As we’d already paid £20 we had to queue on arrival in Hartlepool to squeeze into a tiny ticket office that had a big notice up stating NO REFUNDS on pre-purchased tickets here to get our refunds. Yes, that was right.

The Rat Race Ale House doesn’t do fizzy beer, fizzy lager or fizzy cider. It doesn’t do spirits or alcopops. It doesn’t do food. It doesn’t have a bar. The owner an Accrington Stanley fan takes your order and brings the beer to you. He doesn’t have far to walk because it is tiny. So tiny that you can’t help getting involved in conversation with whoever else is in there. The one Hartlepool fan present correctly predicted the score.

IS IT JUST ME?

I’ve got the following questions that I’m keen to get rational responses to from fellow fans in an attempt to try and work out if it is just me that feels as I do at this point in the history of Oxford United.

Do you think Michael Appleton will turn things around? (By that I mean play-offs / promotion)

If yes, then when and importantly how?

If no, then why not?

I posed this to my travelling companion Mark.

His answer was no with the reason being because Appleton will not change his approach to games depending on who our opponents are.

Our next two opponents are second and fifth. Should they merit a different game plan to that against a rock bottom side like Hartlepool?

Finally I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.