JOHNSTONE’S PAINT TROPHY

No thank you. Unless it’s Swindon or we’ve got to Wembley or I’m still on for doing every game in a season (which I was already not for 2014/15) or we’re at home.

So do I really care that we lost? Not really. But worried that we didn’t score and at the time that Danny Rose was reported to be injured.

AGM

I’m a shareholder. I have not attended for a few years due to work commitments but this time was looking forward to hearing what the new regime had to say. I’d got a couple of dates noted down in different places, one Sept 2nd the other Sept 3rd so thought I’d better check. On glancing (I really should have done more) at the OUFC website I saw the heading “AGM to be held on 2nd September.” I booked the morning of the 2nd off work but luckily before I set out for the Kassam looked at the accounts and accompanying letter which informed me that the AGM was actually on the 3rd. I looked at the website again – the heading still showed Sept 2nd although to be fair the narrative did refer to the 3rd. NB: This heading has now been mysteriously changed to Sept 3rd.

Most shareholders were more on the ball than I but I wasn’t the only one who got the wrong day. So, if you want to know what occurred at the AGM, don’t ask me or Womble.

MEMORIES

One poster on Yellows Forum, oufcgav, recently put up a link to his flickr photos of the Manor demolition. Incredibly sad, but what nostalgia, what memories. If you’ve not yet seen them and are one of the many who left a little bit of themselves in Headington I suggest you take a peek.
And as if on cue I was in my loft doing a bit of tidying and came across a piece of the Manor. They were just tiny little bits of old wood. But they were the numbers from above the turnstiles of our quaint old derelict ground. I can’t remember what I paid for them but I do know on the day of the auction the bidding got quite competitive and I began to panic that I’d come away with nothing. I’d fancy item x when the price was say £30 but as I was raising my hand it would have gone £40, £50, £60 and beyond. UP THE MANOR.

SOUTHEND

No.

Because this would have been the view from my allocated seat.

And this

£19 (and that was before the day) – you’re having a laugh.

Whilst clichés may be tired by nature, it is almost impossible to write about football week in week out without frequently reverting to them because there is no better way of telling it how it is.

So, we have very much a game of two halves.

First half

The Shrimpers were so much better than us. Sharper. Quicker. We didn’t close them down. They closed us down. Clearly we’ve been told to pass it under all circumstances, even when under pressure and even when not playing well. This resulted in us giving the ball away in embarrassing fashion. We rarely had anyone in a position to receive it let alone do anything meaningful with it. Some of our players hardly had a touch. One such was Will Hoskins although he was gifted a chance which you would have backed him even in his current rusty state to have put away. He set himself just right by, as they say, opening up his body (whatever that means) but then put it wide. It summed up a miserable half.

When the home side’s goal came it was a good one. I thought we were actually doing our defensive work pretty well down by the right hand corner flag but a superbly angled pass undid us and the ball into the box which followed was put away by Jack Payne. Whether criticism is due for him not being more tightly marked I’m not sure.

Our 424 (10% of the home support that turned up at the Kassam against the Daggers) had provided noisy support throughout with a bit of mild humour thrown in from time to time. There were however one or two loud and overly critical voices aimed at the team as a whole and specific individuals. I also got the impression that if the second half was a carbon copy of the first there could well be a mass turning.

For my part the big concern was and has been in every league game I’ve seen under the new regime that the way we play we are now defensively vulnerable. We’re not frail in the sense that we look like conceding three, four or more every game but the Wilder defensive solidarity has gone.
D&R scored three against us and created additional chances too. On Saturday Wilder’s Cobblers won 2-0 at the home of Dagenham. The report on teletext informed that Northampton denied the home side goal scoring chances. Compare and contrast. Yes, I was getting bored with the football our long serving manager was serving up for us at the Kassam but there is a balance to be had. I don’t think we’ve got that balance right. And if we refuse to change our ways will the balance ever come? If not we could be ****ed.

Second half

If however we can keep the ball for lengthy periods, do some proper attacking ourselves thus denying the opposition the opportunity to do the same to us, then we’ll be more than alright.

This is what we did in the second 45 minutes when Southend hardly got a look in. I of course have grave doubts whether we will be consistently able to do this for 90 minutes and still think there needs to be a rethink in order to once again look like a team that can keep clean sheets. For starters play David Hunt instead of Joe Riley?

Question – is football about entertainment or winning?

Danny Hylton was once again superb. The player of the season so far. But was it a penalty? He’d gone past his marker then went down. I’d need to see it again to have a better idea but it was clear that he wasn’t rugby tackled like at Morecambe. Once again he slotted it home well.
If it wasn’t for Daniel Bentley pulling off some high class saves we’d have won and possibly deservedly so. The argument against would be how poor we’d been up to the break.

Normally a point at Roots Hall would be looked on with satisfaction but we’re still without a win and again failed to score from open play. That’s another two points dropped.

Going back to last season, of the last 66 points available we’ve won 12. Without checking, I’d wager a few bob that no other club has been so crap.

And whilst I’m coming over all gloomy (wouldn’t want to disappoint) – there’s the Hoskins injury and although Radio Oxford said he did well and this wasn’t by any means his worst appearance in an Oxford shirt, I really don’t see Callum O’Dowda as the answer to anything. (Sorry). Hope I’m proven wrong.

Is it too early to call next week’s game a relegation battle?