FAN’S VIEW 22/23 – No.16: PETERBOROUGH AT HOME

Papa John’s humiliation

To repeat – don’t care about this competition. But do very much care about losing.

The way this season has gone, whilst trying to maintain a degree of realism, I’ve very much been looking for any evidence of positivity and have tried to big it up a little. The much improved effort against Exeter with the scoring of four goals for example.

But any brownie points banked have been wiped out by this. I watched the extended highlights to get some idea of what had actually happened and to gauge if those fans who were being very critical were justified.

We should be beating opponents like Sutton (the usual no disrespect intended has to be added here) with the resources at our disposal. That we didn’t on top of the loss to the Chelsea kids tells me we absolutely lack any deep rooted winning mentality. Embarrassingly so. I feel sorry for the 217 Oxford fans in attendance.

At the AGM our manager commented that despite mistakes so far the view of the coaching staff was that Eddie McGinty will eventually be a very good keeper (or words to that effect). This is looking increasingly deluded. His rushing way out of his goal at Sutton adds to the evidence that we might have signed a clown.  He does this in just about every game he has played. If that’s what he’s being coached to do, get rid of the coaches. If he’s not being coached to do that then he obviously is taking no notice of what he is being told. And as for Sutton’s first goal the commentator on the highlights has it thus, “McGinty came out flapping”. We need a keeper who can command his area and who, when he comes, catches or punches the bloody ball.

Question marks over recruitment then.

And back to the signing of crocks with neither Sam Baldock nor Josh Murphy named in the squad. Being saved for the Posh or further set-backs?

Set-backs it is. The match preview for Saturday on the official site tells that Baldock picked up a new injury this week and is ruled out along with Josh Murphy while Yanic Wildschut continues his recovery and is making good progress and Jodi Jones is fit again and should be back in the squad. No details of any use whatsoever. What’s Baldocks new injury? How long before he’ll be fit? Ever? Same with Murphy. Will we ever get more than ten minutes from him every seven or eight games? It’s looking increasingly like a massive recruitment cock up as was of course initially suspected. I find it hard not to get angry.

Our opponents

Peterborough have spent all of the last 15 seasons in L1 except for three in the Championship. They’ve got relegated every time they’ve had a go at survival in tier 2 including last season.

The Posh used to be owned by Barry Fry who is still a director there with the title “Director of Football.” He had a brief spell away three years ago after the FA gave him a four month ban, three months of which were suspended, and fined him £35k for betting offences.

In September 2006 Darragh MacAnthony, at age of 30, became the youngest chairman of an English football club when he took over from Fry. In August the following year MacAnthony became the owner of the club, buying it for the usual nominal £1 after taking on the club’s debts.

He’d made his money in property development in Spain and before he got Peterborough had tried to get Woking and AFC Wimbledon.

Four years ago he sold half his stake to Dr Jason Neale and Stewart Thompson through a Canadian business, Kelgary Sports and Entertainment.

Just under a month ago MacAnthony announced that he is to leave at the end of the season to spend more time with his family in America.

Their latest accounts to year end 30 June 2021 (the season without fans) showed turnover of £6.73m, loss after tax credit of £1.02m. Staff costs were £6.95m and the balance sheet recorded £13.3m in the red.

At times the wording in the “review of the business and principal risks and uncertainties” section in the strategic report reads like a fanzine of old. “Time is the greatest healer but the travesty of PPG will never be forgotten. However ……. What happened next will be forever etched on Posh history as the “vengeance payback” (especially the Lincoln penalty) that gave us some form of closure.

It was the previous season that PPG did for them dropping them from sixth to seventh therefore missing out on a play-off place. Wycombe of course were the great beneficiaries but we helped them on their way into the Championship. I don’t know what they expected as an alternative and for me PPG whilst far from ideal was the best solution on offer in the most trying of times. As for that Lincoln penalty which helped them to a 3-3 draw in that automatic promotion season I honestly think it is the worst spot kick decision I’ve ever seen and have to wonder if there was something dodgy going on.

Oxford United 1 Peterborough United 2

The boxes as in “ticking of boxes” are invariably the “right boxes.” We’ve got ticks in so many “wrong boxes” it’s no wonder we are where we are.

That is nineteenth. Home record W2 D1 L4. Yes, FOUR. Meaning we’ve picked up 33.33% of points available at Minchery Farm so far.

The first “wrong” box to be ticked is of course the scandalous signing of crocks that has been highlighted time and again. Hundreds of thousands of pounds wasted on wages. Lesson never learned.

I’ll keep count as I go.

A lot happened in the first few minutes and it looked as if we might have a lively atmospheric game of football to look forward to.

It did turn out lively but whether we witnessed a game of football is another matter and I suspect the ball may have been in play for fewest minutes in an Oxford game for many a long year.

The proceedings had hardly started and we’d hit two shots wide from just outside the box. They were poor efforts. But compared with the wild swing Kyle Joseph took late on when we were spiritedly trying to salvage a point these were quality efforts.

Second “wrong” box ticked – terrible shooting technique again. It’s not like these are one offs. Don’t they practice this in training? Where’s the composure?

From the start Billy Bodin looked up for it and after beating a man found the back of the net with a low shot from the corner of the area. Great start. Except it wasn’t. I couldn’t see it at the time but Matty Taylor although he didn’t get a touch was rightly given offside because he was only inches away from keeper Lucas Bergstrom.

Perhaps if Taylor had not stepped forward Bergstrom would have saved it. Perhaps on another day the linesman would not have spotted it but the number of times our now non-goal-scoring no.9 is caught off-side has long annoyed me. This should not happen to a man of his experience. So, third “wrong” box ticked – Taylor being offside.

Instead of being one up we were almost immediately one down. Having been impressed with Bodin what he did next was criminal. He came rushing across the width of the pitch put in a challenge which briefly took him off the field of play in the left wing position. On the whole of the right hand side other than Sam Long we were un-manned. Our right back was facing two blue shirts. When the ball was pulled back into the box there were three un-marked Peterborough players. It was Jack Taylor who score, hitting the ball into the ground and beyond the despairing out-stretched hand of Simon Eastwood.

I might be a little unfair here by creating so many “wrong” boxes when they are all linked but I’m that pissed off with it all I am going to put ticks in all of them.

“Wrong” box number four ticked – Failure to keep a clean sheet. Every team have managed it more than once this season except us, MK Dons (bottom) and Forest Green (third bottom).

“Wrong” box number five ticked – poor defending in general. I’ve argued a few times this season that the back four have looked quite solid most of the time with the odd lapse being the problem. We didn’t look it here. The commentator on iFollow has it, “again Oxford all too easily opened up at the back”. I don’t know why I bother to watch the extended highlights, its torture.

“Wrong box” number six ticked – very low percentage of shots on target saved by our goal-keeper. I genuinely wonder about both of the goals conceded here.

We could have gone further behind before Peterborough’s second came. Joseph was out muscled. Nothing illegal, just not strong enough. Having lost the ball it seemed so easy for them. The commentator’s take was that Peterborough’s strikers were “too quick, too slick and too clinical for our defenders.

Every now and again I talk up Joseph and I thoroughly admire his work rate. He runs himself into the ground but in the physicality stakes seems to lose out to the really big strong boys and again here L1 quality seemed lacking.

Which brings me on to “wrong” box number seven and another tick. Lack of physically strong players. I don’t think any of our fans want a team of brutes but this is an issue that has been apparent in most of Karl Robinson’s reign. It’s been an obvious weakness that he has done nothing to address. A few stronger lads would undeniably aid our cause, provided they could play football of course. If only Tyler Goodram was at least a foot taller. His booking three minutes after coming on proved he’s not frightened to put it about when it comes to battling but also indicated a lack of discipline. There’s so much we need to improve upon.

Jonson Clarke-Harris had strength we can only dream of and the only way we were able to handle him was mostly by shirt pulling. We were doing it from the off. I hate it. It’s cheating. We started it. Referee Andy Woolmer was letting it go. That set the tone. He’s, believe it or not, a very experienced referee who officiated when Barnsley beat us at Wembley. His display on Saturday was one of the worst I have ever seen. He had no authority. Never properly in charge. Peterborough played him all along. Any player just had to sit down and pretend they were injured knowing full well our momentum, and fair play to us when down to 10 men we did generate some, would be halted with the time taken out not fully added back on. Bergstrom had treatment on his right leg but if there had been anything of note wrong with it he would not have been able to whack the ball clear with it a few seconds after play resumed. It was a joke as was the six minutes added at the end.

Photo Simon Jaggs

One example of the many incidents of shirt pulling. Photo Simon Jaggs

The shirt pulling from both teams continued throughout the game as did fouling. Some blatant ones not given and some very questionable ones given. The perception is always that these things don’t go the way of your team.

I used to have a lot of time for Peterborough given the football they’ve played, the players brought in and sold on like Ivan Toney and the fact that they’ve managed to get promotion from this division three times when by no means the biggest of clubs going for that honour. I’m not quite sure why though when I look at their recent managers including Graham Westley and Steve Evans. After this though it’s hard not to put Grant McCann into the same category given the way his players behaved. For very ungentlemanly conduct look no further than Ephron Mason-Clark. After one of the many unnecessary stoppages Woolmer dropped the ball at Mason-Clark’s feet and pointed to give the ball back to Eastwood. That’s the way things are done. It’s an unwritten code even in the cynical snidey cheating world of football. Instead Mason-Clark hammered the ball straight at Elliott Moore, who was rightly furious, to try and get a corner. Our captain reacted quickly enough to ensued we got a goal-kick.

Woolmer induced some head scratching when the teams were lined up ready to commence the second half when with the players all lined up ready to start didn’t blow his whistle. They just stood there for quite a while before the game re-started. I’ve never seen anything like it before in a non-televised live game. I’m intrigued to know what the logic was.

I’ve never seen us have so many drinks breaks for tactical reasons and think Woolmer should have clamped down on it but he was so weak that was never going to happen.

The score remained at 2-0 at the break although we could have conceded more and Bodin should probably done better than hitting the post with a header.

After the re-start we seemed to have a bit more fire in our bellies and the crowd could at last sense we appeared to be up for it. It only took us 12 minutes to score a well worked goal. A Sam Long throw found Marcus McGuane with loads of space to his left. He got the ball back from Stuart Findlay before playing it out wide to Ciaron Brown whose cross was glanced on by Browne’s head to be smartly nodded home by Bodin.

That “game on feeling” which has unfortunately been lacking a lot this season became very evident. But then came the sending off. The awful Woolmer watched on as Taylor was being man handled and took an age to blow his whistle. There was no hint of an advantage and Ronnie Edwards should have been penalised immediately. Taylor who I am really pissed off with for losing his cool just as he was being awarded the free kick shoved out with arm / elbow into Edwards’s neck / face and left himself vulnerable. It wasn’t a punch as such but with Edwards making a meal of it I can see why the decision was eventually given and don’t think we’ve got any chance of getting it overturned. With his experience he should know better.

I don’t get why Woolmer, who was very close to the incident, needed the linesman who was further away to come on and help make the decision.

Down to 10 men there was that feeling of injustice that usually drives a team on and after the dismissal I don’t think we played any worse than we had done before it. Indeed the whole of the second half, which we meaninglessly won 1-0, was a great improvement on the first. The greatest contribution I thought Taylor had made for us was heading corners away which is a concern when he’s being picked presumably with his main task being to score goals.

A draw would have felt like a win in the circumstances but we couldn’t get that equaliser.  We were now getting to the ball first and had the visitors really worried, hence their time wasting tactics. A low Browne shot was kicked over the bar from almost off the goal line. His work rate was mightily impressive and did some excellent defensive covering.

Of our other supposed best players Cameron Brannagan had a poor game and I would have liked to have seen more from McGuane.

For all our huff and puff we never fashioned another good chance and the stats show of our 12 shots only 2 were on target. I’ve already just about covered this weakness in “wrong box” number two so I’ll leave it at that. Although I haven’t mentioned lack of width and pace. Not proper wing backs. Nor that our two full-back are probably really centre-halves.

So I’ll conclude we’ve got a shed load more weaknesses than strengths to our name at present.

How long can KR last given this very poor start to the season?

With the next two games being away at Pompey (unbeaten at home) and Bolton (five home wins, one draw and just one defeat) it’s not hard to see us getting diddly squat from these games.

I’ve lost faith. The evidence is quite overwhelming. Ten more games and that’ll be half way through the season. If he gets us into the top half of the table by then I’ll review that opinion. That’s the target I’ve set in my head and with the budget they’ve supposedly given him I’m sure that the owners at the start of the campaign had their sights set on something rather higher than that after 23 games.