Let’s hear it for the fans

I’ve often thought that some people talk up how good our support is, or more to the point how good it has been in the past. No one can currently deny that there are fewer Oxford fans attending both home and away games than there were a few years back but every now and again there’s a turnout in both numbers and vocal support that takes some explaining.

Pompey last season was off the scale but that was the first game of the campaign, the sun was shining and we’d not visited Fratton Park for an eternity. Dagenham on Saturday was something else. We’re near the bottom of the table, we don’t score goals, we’ve only won 7 league games and it’s January, yet 551 travelled and to a man and woman got behind the team for the entire game.

The stand we occupied affords a great view, vastly superior to the other three sides that housed the 1,341 home fans. There’s still something very non League about the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham Stadium (in name, even less evocative than the Kassam) and if there’s any real substance to the theory that crowds (help) win games we should have been victorious by a four or five goal margin.

MApp’s comments

So, time to consider the interview with our manager in Friday’s Oxford Mail and mention to Mr Appleton that he can’t have it both ways.

• “A pressurised atmosphere at the Kassam is having an impact on both the selection and type of player Oxford United are looking to recruit”. He believes it is easier to blood a young player, like Josh Ashby, in an away game.

• “There almost has to be a realisation of where the club is. It’s very early days still in a takeover with some really likeminded people who really want to take this club forward”.

• “If people aren’t clever enough to work that out yet then I can’t control that. I think we are going in the right direction, but ultimately we’re going to need a bit of support somewhere along the line. The players are respectful of that but it’s obviously going to make life very difficult if they’re put in an environment which I would say is not conducive to try and win games.”

I’d argue that the home fans who can still be bothered to turn up are actually rather tolerant. There’s bound to be a few voices of dissent during matches where yet again we’ve failed to deliver, but by and large the booing is reserved for the final whistle.

Trying to put blame on to the supporters is in my view disingenuous and downright disrespectful. Oxford fans get behind young home grown players. Show me the evidence that they don’t. We didn’t design the sterility in to the Kassam.

We fans know exactly where the club is, thank you very much. We’re 25 games in; we don’t have anything resembling a settled side and seem stuck with a style of play that just doesn’t look like it is going to result in a meaningful number of goals scored to take us forward. What has been the point of the season so far, a season in which we’ve spent hundreds of pounds following our team? (For the exiles who travel from both ends of the country this is probably considerably more).

Are all our new recruits just temps to be discarded come the summer when we’ll splash the cash to an even greater extent than we are doing now? What was the point of Tyrone Barnett and Joe Riley? And THD after this season? Although it may not have come over as such this is not intended as a criticism – I’ve at times quite enjoyed watching them play – I just genuinely can’t work out how this is taking us in the right direction.

The thing that has annoyed me more than anything here though is the suggestion that people who question the, what I consider to be obvious, lack of progress and his failure to admit that the style of football he wants played and League Two perhaps are not a fit that will ever work, are not clever (i.e. are stupid). There’s an oft quoted cliché that goes something like “the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result”.

Views of others

Just to prove it’s not only me who feels thus, I’ve cheated and nicked a few quotes from the RO & YF sites.
• That was a load of rubbish. Two poor teams cancelling each other out.

• Two average / poor teams. Both defences looked fairly solid. Not a lot of creativity and the forwards lacked a decent service. (From a Dagenham fan)

• Both sides are lucky that at the moment there are sides even worse than them. Hard to believe, but it’s true.

• 2 crap teams playing in a crap league

• Absolute drivel from two very poor teams who looked like they would struggle in the Conference.

• Daggers the better side by dint of a couple of dangerous crosses. Oxford were atrocious. The gulf between these sides in terms of budget and resources made it a v v v depressing afternoon. (I particularly like this one).

And mine

I can’t find anything positive to counteract this and amazingly my mild mannered mate Kevin is even more pissed off and disillusioned with it all than I am. And that is saying something.

A clean sheet means that the defence did their job well and that should not be overlooked. But as for the rest of it, we hardly threatened. They came the closer to scoring with three free-kicks that were to varying degrees not too far away. The stats on the official site show that we had 11 shots, three of which were on target. I remember one good move in the first half that resulted in a proper effort on goal but must have slept through a lot of the rest of the game. But when the stats show that we only had 38% of the possession it is probably time to completely ignore them.

This week’s player run down:

Alfie Potter: Goodbye and good luck. Best for all concerned. We’ll always have Wembley.
Michael Raynes: Good luck to Raynesy too. Whole hearted and gave his all. A loyal club man whilst he was here who never sulked when he wasn’t in the side and wanted the best for the club as witnessed by his non playing celebrations when we scored.

Junior Brown: I’m not sure about. But given the ineffectiveness we’ve witnessed without him perhaps he should have been given a bit more of a chance? NB: he was brought in by MApp.

Ryan Clarke: After a very dodgy display seven days earlier he was back to his confident best and dealt almost perfectly with everything that came his way. He didn’t have to save a proper shot though. That he is noticeably one footed and receives plenty of back passes was noted as a weakness on our journey home. George Long is two footed apparently – I had not spotted that. However, the stats show that our win ratio is much higher with Clarkie in goal.

Jake Wright: The worst player we’ve had for years? I think not, Mr Caller to Radio Oxford last week.

Josh Ruffels / Andy Whing: They are what they are. They are not creative. With three centre halves behind them it doesn’t make a lot of sense. I wonder what Danny Rose and Michael Collins made of the game from the bench?

James Roberts: Are his hamstrings up to the rigours of the Football League? If not he sadly won’t have a career.
Callum O’Dowda: Unlike most he went past players, injected a bit of pace and got a few balls back from the bye line. Well done I say.

Will Hoskins: A quality footballer who I fear may become frustrated quite quickly given that, if properly fit, he could be playing at a higher level. He’d not been on long before he made a run the like of which we’d not seen all afternoon. We of course have no midfielder who can spot such things let alone deliver the ball into his path.

A few facts

After 25 games in 2005/06 we had gained 32 points. We got relegated to the Conference. After 25 games in 2014/15 we’ve managed three points fewer. We’re notoriously bad finishers to a season. Last year we gathered 3 points from the last 24 available and 8 from the last 45. A repeat of that and we’ll be down.

I got a superb Morphy Richards coffee making machine for Christmas. It leaves a nice aroma in the kitchen. I would like to believe that those who are currently steering the direction of our football club are breathing in similar smells but think there may be an elephant in the room whose odour is trumping this.

To end

As I started, with the fans. At half time under the stand in front of the food kiosk there was much singing and chanting in pro OUFC style, waving of arms and dancing about type stuff. In short people were enjoying themselves. I know many fans by name, nickname or sight. I fell into discussion with one such who lives out Chippy way. He said I don’t go to home games any more. Just away. Gesticulating towards those having a good time despite the lack of entertainment they’d seen in the first 45 minutes, he added, “it’s the same for most of them”.