A brief summary

I’m setting myself up here to be accused of negativity but I’m not going to lie and will briefly sum up my feelings thus:

With regard to what’s happening off the field – “bewildered and if I’m truthful somewhat concerned.”

With regard to the playing side of things – “disillusioned” but that is based on the Burton match alone and hey, there are still 45 league games to go.

Moving on to the more detailed stuff I’ll start with Saturday’s Match.

Oxford United 0 Burton Albion 1

Obviously ours is a very new young team and it can only be right to be patient and give them and the new regime a chance. Rome wasn’t built in a day and all that. But patience has worn very thin in the years since we returned to the Football League. In that time we have not once achieved a top seven finish and for the most part have watched largely uninspiring football in an uninspiring three sided stadium. Expecting patience now is therefore actually asking rather a lot.

Looking at our starting line-up we mused that there “are not many goals in this team”. Stating the obvious of course; but a fact of such significance that it has to be restated time and again.

If we are genuinely on the lookout for more players and that includes a 20 goal plus a season man then all well and good (if money is not a problem – now or in the future). At this stage we should not really still be in the process of recruitment and team building but the timing of the takeover and replacement of Gary Waddock (who?) with Michael Appleton dictates that this is where we are at. Which is, to put it bluntly, a distinct disadvantage to most of the other competitors on the start line for the 2014/15 League Two Marathon as twelve referees’ whistles signalled the off at 3 o’clock.

For the first 42 minutes it was pretty even. Compared to what we’ve seen in recent years we moved the ball from one player to another a bit quicker and looked to go forward quicker but I wouldn’t say that we were playing at the highest of tempos and forcing Burton to defend in desperate style.

There was some decent link up play between our new youngsters and we had a few credible efforts at goal. The most memorable being a shot from Josh Ruffels and an Alfie Potter header. Whilst mildly encouraging this was nothing to get overly excited about. I would expect an average team in an average match to fashion such chances.

As with every game, performance has to be put into perspective by considering the strength and quality of the opposition. That the Brewers were losing play-off finalists last season and losing semi-finalist the year before suggests that having lost the opening game is no great disgrace.

At 0-0 they looked very solid, well organised and defended well all over the pitch. Perhaps they were just waiting their moment. On the Football League Show Gary Rowett, the Albion manager, said that once they had sussed out Oxford’s formation that was it. I rate Rowett.

The goal, just before half time, came from a long clearance. With our full backs being required to push up Joe Riley wasn’t in any position to deal with it. Stuart Beavon made a direct run into the box and although Michael Raynes got a challenge of sorts in the ex-Ardley United man was able to provide a ball for Lucas Akins to finish. Akins had got goal side of his marker, Tom Newey. It all looked rather easy much to Jake Wright’s disgust.

There’s the inevitable question – would a non- concussed Raynes have stopped Beavan? It looked apparent from the back of the SSU that Raynesy wasn’t with it. Was it the flawed decision to let him stay on after he’d made nasty contact with the turf which cost us the game?

From then on it was a different game.

In the second period Ruffels hit the side netting, Carlton Morris had a tame header and there was one mazy run from Danny Hylton that came to nowt but we didn’t really look like scoring. That was a massive disappointment as was the apparent lack of belief and that extra grit, determination and genuine fight that is needed to get something out of games of this type.

Afterwards Johnny Mullins commented on the difficulty of breaking down two banks of four. Isn’t that what we should be working on in training each week preceding a home game because the majority of teams that come to the Kassam set up this way? We’ve heard this over and over. Yawn. Get a solution.

In the final reckoning they were much better than us. Yes, they only won by one goal but knew they could keep us out with ease after they had scored so didn’t need to waste energy bothering to try and get another. They were comfortable winners. Burton looked bigger and stronger and much more difficult to knock off the ball than we did. In Akins they had a much bigger handful than anything we had to offer. And totally related to this neither did they have any player who had such a shocker as his marker, Newey.

Having said that I am now going to come to our left back’s defence. He never once hid, he was always available down the flank willing to receive the ball and amongst all the crappiness did a couple of really good things too. TN was asked to play a really attacking role, a role so much more suited to a player like Liam Davis (a player we got rid of and is now plying his trade a league above).

On a slightly more positive note I think we have some decent players and some had reasonable games yesterday. Danny Rose, Jake Wright, and Michael Collins for instance. As for the other new boys I’ll need to see more. I just hope Junior Brown doesn’t turn out to be one of those who flatter to deceive. To think that would probably be unfair because truth be told nearly everyone disappeared from an attacking perspective in the second half.

There will not be a Fan’s View from me after the Mansfield game. It’s not because my level of pissedoffidness has reached the point of – that’s it. Bollocks to it all. It’s because I’ve got a family wedding to attend and can’t say I’ll be missing the football as much as I would at one time. And then of course there’s the three line party whip. So if anyone wants to step forward and do a Fan’s View, please feel free. I ain’t the only fan out there and to be honest I’d be quite happy if some others shared the burden – at times that’s what watching OUFC feels like.

Off the field

I am struggling on a couple of fronts, big time, to understand what is going on here.

Firstly, the finances, which naturally were touched on in Thursday’s Radio Oxford phone in. This year the football club is budgeting for a loss of £1.5m. By June 2015 OUFC’s debt will be approx £10m. Scary. The new owners (that’s what I’ll call them and probably unfairly discount Ian Lenagan) have a plan (or is that a fanciful wish?) to break even in three years. That will mean we have run up more debt in this period. (I can’t help keep saying we. I should probably stop saying we.)When questioned, Eales (Can’t get “Susan’s House” out of my mind. What a great song that was.) kept referring to soft debt and it being owned by the owners and that it is easy to write it off. It’s all about loans and preference shares, apparently, and ENSCO is funding the club. There are lots of ENSCOs. I believe this ENSCO to be no. 908 but nowhere near have a grasp on what is going on. What happened to WPL’s role in all of this?

A big question is why are these new guys involved? I want to understand and then hopefully will come belief. What’s in it for DE and Mark Ashton? Money doesn’t seem to be that much of an object at the moment. Derek Fazakerley, assistant head coach and Mark Thomas, Head of Recruitment and Performance Analysis have appeared since the last Fan’s View and they won’t be working for free. We seem to be light years away from Firoz and the era of the pre match meal being cooked in a microwave on the bus to away games. (Was that really true?) Obviously not a bad thing but there’s a line that should not be crossed otherwise we’ll be running up bills for goldfish Peter Ridsdale style.

The plan seems to be all based on increasing income on two fairly logical fronts, bigger gates and through stadium ownership and associated activities.

I think that there may be a far-fetched view on how high gates can go and lack of understanding of how deeply the weariness and associated disinterest has settled into the bones of many current and former followers of the yellows. There needs to be something incredibly special to turn this around. New regime, new dawn? Take the number of visitors off the gate of 5,370 and there were less than 5k Oxford fans in attendance. Yes, it is the holiday season, but for that to increase significantly there has to be so much more than we saw against the Brewers.

As for owning the ground / a ground – what the flip is the plan to pull that one off and where are the finances for that going to come from, because that would be in addition to the sums mentioned above? Eales said he didn’t know what the best option was – Kassam Stadium or Water Eaton. But perhaps, just perhaps, he’s playing a really canny game. I hope so. I bloody hope so.