FAN’S VIEW 21/22 – NO.36

BOLTON AT HOME

Our opponents

After a run of four straight defeats Bolton have won five and drawn one of their last six league games scoring 14 in the process and conceding just two goals. They’re clearly better than us at keeping clean sheets.

In the “big” stakes the Wanderers are obviously some way behind Sunderland and also Sheffield Wed but I was taken by surprise to discover that their average home gate thus far this season at 15,142 is marginally better than that achieved by Pompey. Our current rented home naturally restricts us to a capacity of approx. 12k when segregation is taken into account. Restricts is probably not a fair comment to throw in because currently we have to kind of campaign to achieve a five figure gate and that’s when we host visitors who fill the away section with 1,800 ish supporters. It’s only when the likes of Man City come a calling in the cup or we’ve got a shit or bust play-off game that there’s not a ticket to be had. We are where we are. At Minchery Farm, that is. Is that really an issue home numbers wise? If we were now playing at Stratfield Brake as owners and not tenants how many home fans would be flocking the stadium of our dreams? Build it and they will come?

Size is not everything as we well know and as Accrington very much reminded us last Tuesday night, jolting us back to reality after the performances against Wed, Gills, Wigan and Portsmouth.

That brought home how little margin for error there is if we are to cement a play-off place any time soon.

Realistically forget the top two. Rotherham are 12 points clear of us with a game in hand. Second placed Wigan only have three more points but four catch up games. The two teams immediately above us have more points having played the same number of games. MK have three more and made some good signings in the transfer window. Couldn’t beat Fleetwood on Tuesday though. Sunderland only have one more point and have looked to be a club very much in crisis on the field. It remains to be seen whether the appointment of Alex Neil will change that.

When I look over our shoulders I get quite worried. With their games in hand Wycombe, Wednesday and Plymouth can all go past us.

So, another game of vital importance where the tension is likely to be right up there. If I could trust our defence I’d be turning up with a lot more confidence.

(NB: Every word of the above was genuinely written before the game)

Another large away following

OXFORD UNITED 2 BOLTON WANDERERS 3

I can’t say I found this result totally unexpected and at no time in this game, even after we’d taken the lead twice did I have much confidence that we’d go on to win it.

Defensively we’ve been way below the standard required for some time now and if we don’t sort that out I think we can kiss goodbye to the top six unless we start banging in four or five goals ourselves every game. On that front though opponents have sussed out what needs to be done to stop us playing our free flowing football. That doesn’t necessarily mean they will actually be capable of stopping us. Some teams can and some can’t. Wanderers had three men forward stopping us playing out from the back. They’re not the first team to do this. We’re then left with Jack Stevens having to go long and high with the inevitable then happening. A large centre half winning the ball and us losing possession. Matty Taylor had the most thankless of tasks and was manhandled throughout with no protection from referee Gavin Ward, but that’s the way it is.

This has been a known for a very long time yet we’ve done zilch to address it. We’ve bought nothing into our armoury to enable us to formulate a plan B. Mix it up a little? Can’t, we’re incapable.

Over the last eight league games we’ve averaged two goals a match conceded. Couldn’t be much further away from promotion form. Stevens has been back between the sticks after illness for the last six and the ball has gone past him 12 times. He played the first thirteen games and let in just 13 goals in that spell. Whilst JS was out Simon Eastwood played 11 times and was beaten on 13 occasions.

Something has got worse. We’ve got two good big centre-halves but could we be missing the recalled Jordan Thorniley as a foil to one of those two?

I heard much of the post-match debate on Radio Oxford when there was mention of how we miss Alex Gorrin. The same was talked of in the toilets at half time. I’ve been of this opinion for quite a few weeks now and again was voicing this in the car as we travelled to the match. He’s played 11 league games, six of which we won. Three were lost and two drawn. We conceded 11. Such analysis is very simplistic of course. In every game when one is trying to assess an individual’s performance and their influence on the outcome of the game there are ten others with jobs to do that they might or might not be carrying out effectively. Nevertheless it is a starting point.

The obvious question then comes, well who should you leave out for him? I’d go, almost anyone. Common sense tells that a base from which to build a successful winning team needs to be set. Get that in place and then set about winning football matches.

It is undeniable that when a player is out their value to the team is often talked up way more than it really is but there’s a sensible discussion to be had here. All academic though because AG is out long term. A sorry and quite likely costly loss.

Something I really don’t get is all this “well that was entertaining” and “we can’t play any other way, it’s what Karl does”. What, ignore the defensive side of the game? That’s something at the moment we’re shit at. The two are not mutually exclusive ffs. Okay, we’re not Premier League but take a look at Man City. The most entertaining team around. Playing football from a different planet with the vast majority of possession in every game they play. But when they have not got the ball they’re immediately in pressing mode to get it back and have a shape that rarely lets their opponents have any room in which to operate. It’s down to work rate and belief. What do they sacrifice? Nothing.

I don’t feel entertained when I see defending as a unit as bad as ours. I’d rather see a tactical chess game where we out fox our opponents to take a 1-0 win in a very tight game than a 4-4 draw with goal mouth scrambles and efforts on target every few minutes at both ends.

That might be okay for the fans who turn up a few times a season for the biggest of games, but not for me.

That might have been okay even for me if it was our first or even second season back in L1. But it is not, it’s our sixth. We’ve come close the last two seasons but effed up when push came to shove against Wycombe and Blackpool. I’d like to think we’d learnt from that but don’t think that’s the case. There’s this mind-set that says if we keep trying to play passing possession football it will eventually all come right and the defensive frailties will just disappear.

Now wouldn’t that be great but I can’t see it happening. We get Marcus Browne fit and he scores a couple in every game he plays with Sam Baldock and MT contributing loads as well rendering the two or three we let in at the other end irrelevant.

The focus on strengthening in the window as we well know was not on the back line or getting a Gorrin substitute with just one defender, Ciaron Brown, coming in basically to fill the gap in the squad left by Thorniley.

Tim R the regular Rad Ox caller made the point that instead of spending money on Browne it would have been better invested on defensive solidarity. But hey, that’s not exciting. That’s pragmatic and that doesn’t seem to be what we’re all about. And there’s no guarantee that whoever is brought in will be a success.

Other than Billy Bodin’s exceptional first half display and quality goal-scoring I don’t think anyone had a particularly good game. The bend he put on the free-kick was phenomenal and for his second it was two footed composure. Thankfully his injury doesn’t seem serious at all.

When we first took the lead I jumped up excitedly as you do but it wasn’t unbridled joy knowing our lack of resilience. I immediately said to a mate sat to my right, “but we let goals in”. His response was “stop it”, meaning shut up with your negativity why don’t you. Negativity perhaps but reality most certainly however even I didn’t expect us to be drawing again just a minute later. Utterly pathetic.

They kicked off and we didn’t get the ball again until it was us kicking off. Initially we’d forced them back meaning a long hoofed ball forward was delivered out to the wing by a centre-half. If it had been the other way round we’d probably have then lost possession. Not Bolton. The impressive Marlon Fossey won it in the air. Amadou Bakayoko then did battle with Luke McNally and used his strength to turn the ball to Dion Charles. He turned and quickly moved the ball to Aaron Morely who in turn had found his left back who had come racing forward. Gavin Whyte was too slow in reading the situation and tracking back, Sam Long couldn’t block and had the ball hammered through his legs and Stevens who still had a great sight of the shot didn’t stop it. I think he should have.

It’s not very often, if ever, that we can claim a goal from open play like that when strength had played a big part, strength and winning a ball in the air in the middle third of the pitch.

And when was the last time we’ve raved about a save an Oxford goal-keeper has pulled off?

The next time we took the lead we were so much better at hanging on to it. All of six minutes this time. It was a half decent ball crossed into our box but for it to end up in our goal was criminal. McNally got his head to it but the ball wasn’t powered away, it was placed into the danger zone. I rate him very highly and he’s still very inexperienced but things like that cost our football team. Get a centre-half with huge potential, let them learn their trade with us and sell them on, as one has to, when the offer that can’t be turned down comes in. All well and good in one respect but some day we need a defence that has the right blend of youth and experience that is good enough to get us up.

It wasn’t just the header though, the scorer Fossey was totally unmarked. Steve Seddon was ball watching and the midfielders that had got back had not got back to any great effect.

The second half nearly passed without further mishap for us and as Ricardo Santos had begun to look quite dodgy, if the game was to go either way we were definitely in with a fair shout.

But no, when the sucker punch came it was us who took the blow. Keeper James Trafford started the move, rolling the ball to his left-back who progressed to the half-way line with no yellow engagement. We had a couple of lines of four but they were incredibly easy to play through. Substitute Jón Dadi Bödvarsson found a bit of space by slightly dropping off. We let him. He turned and found a colleague in acres of room and the ball was then slotted through to Fossey whose cut back was converted by Bakayoko from close range.

I have no idea what our game plan is without the ball. Do we press? Do we drop quite deep and deny our opponents ground in which to operate? Do we ever bother to get close to the opposition? Do we know when to stand off? Do we know how to show them on to their weaker foot? Are we bothered about trying to stop crosses coming in?

I have to now follow the same path as I always do when I’ve written anything this scathing and hunt for a few positives not only to give some balance and fairness but also for my own sanity. I want to travel to the Valley with at least some hope.

First and foremost Bolton are a good side on good form.

There were times during that game when we did play some football that was pleasing to watch and on another day we may well have put away chances we missed. Taylor failed with a couple, Cameron Brannagan’s shooting was wayward and Gavin Whyte showed again that he is not a finisher. To be fair to the latter though he set up Bodin’s second really well and expertly manoeuvred the ball into Taylor’s path for our number 9’s first half effort that went an inch or two wide.

Do I feel better now? No, not really.

But I am now expecting to be proved very wrong in my writing off of my team defensively and am already looking forward to a scrappy 1-0 win next Saturday when I’ll be penning a very different set of words.