FA CUP ROUND THREE Pre-match pessimism This is likely to be a regular feature of every Fan’s View from now on until there is sound evidence, not smoke and mirrors evasive bullshit, to the contrary. In the lead up to Christmas, with form being what it was, I only had Brentford down as marginal favourites  [ more ]

PLYMOUTH AWAY Pre-match pessimism Any realistic reporting of our last two games would have made extremely depressing reading for any Oxford United supporter. We looked broken, both as a collective and individually, in many instances. That’s physically and probably mentally too in some cases. Players carrying injuries will obviously be constrained in what they can  [ more ]

OXFORD UNITED 0 BRISTOL ROVERS 2 Following our drab Boxing Day showing, the fact that I’d somehow managed to pick up a bloody second cold in a fortnight and that Rovers always do us at our place, I wasn’t relishing this one, particularly with a 1 o’clock kick off when I could have done with  [ more ]

SOUTHEND AT THE KASSAM On the face of it we should be thanking the man who wrote the software that produces the fixture list? What more can we wish for than a home game on Boxing Day when traditionally there is a much larger gate than the norm. That’s money to be popped into the  [ more ]

DONCASTER ROVERS AWAY Checkatrade I’ve done this subject to death and find it all a bit wearing. I’ve recently been asking myself whether I should embrace it all as I’m never going to change the world. It’s good to re-evaluate our stance on various matters from time to time. So did I attend the game  [ more ]

BLACKPOOL AT HOME The opposition Blackpool FC is still owned by an Oyston. From afar it is all very confusing and seemingly a bit incestuous. The current “owner” I believe is still Owen. One of his four daughters, Natalie Christopher, is chairwoman. She replaced Karl as chair back in February. Karl is Owen’s son and  [ more ]

PETERBOROUGH AWAY Weekly news and conjecture With regard to the monies owed to HMRC, the Oxford Mail reported on Mon Dec 3 that “it is understood the payment – believed to be a six-figure sum – was paid earlier today” and that the next step would be for an application to withdraw the case. On  [ more ]

… Not that the FA Cup has the magic of yesteryear anyway whatever some commentators and pundits would have us believe as they try to talk up the product their employers have purchased. These are very different times to when Ricky George scored that late winner against Newcastle United. That Newcastle side was 100% a genuine first team …

Will Green debuts on Rage Online with his thoughts on the introduction of VAR at the highest levels of the game

ROCHDALE AT HOME North stand five minutes before kick-off Pre-match worrying We could lose to Rochdale and end up back in the bottom four. We could then follow that up four days later by getting knocked out of the FA Cup by a side even lower than us. That would be rather disastrous and if  [ more ]