FAN’S VIEW 22/23 – No.27 – EXETER AT HOME

Form

We’d already proven twice this season that we can beat the Grecians, putting four goals past them on both occasions. The most recent meeting being at the Kassam five weeks ago in the FA Cup which set us up for Arsenal.

The win at their place was on 15 October and left us 19^th in the table with 14 points from 12 games. Exeter were 10^th with four more points but having played an additional two games. Since then they’ve played a further ten league matches winning three, losing three and drawing three. Before Thursday’s victory at Bristol Rovers they’d not won in five although included in that run were draws against Sheffield Wednesday and Portsmouth.

In the same period we’ve played one match less and have had a marginal better points per game return of 1.36 to their 1.30. We’re still a point behind them but a win in this would take us past them. We’d then have as many wins as defeats going into the New Year. Way below expectations when the season started.

Oxford fans pre-match applause in memory of fellow yellows, players and official who left us during 2022. Photo Simon Jaggs

Oxford United 0 Exeter City 1

Not good enough AGAIN by any stretch of the imagination.

We’ve now played twelve home league games and won just FOUR of them. Here we were beaten by a mid-table side.

It’s of no consolation to me that we did some things well and provided a period of very entertaining play in the first half.

We also did many things very poorly.

We had players that had gone from being very good on Thursday to being very poor on Sunday.

We’ve got a centre-forward who looks way past his best. We don’t have anyone playing that can be termed “a goal-scorer.”

We’ve got a player (Sam Baldock) who could be termed a goal-scorer but we’ve not seen him this season (other than as an un-used sub) because he’s injured and once more it seems to have gone very quiet regarding his re-appearance in an Oxford shirt to add to the FOUR league starts he’s made for us.

We’ve got more than one player we’re using for part of a game because they’re not match fit.

We’ve got players who don’t seem to learn from their mistakes.

We should not be in this state. More than half the season has now gone FFS. There’s a transfer window coming up but I’ve got little faith we’ll get it right in such a way that we’ll end up with a more robust squad that can stand up to the rigours of L1 game after game and come out the other side with more wins than defeats.

Okay I can’t deny that if we’d gone in a couple of goals up at the break I’d have said what a great half of football it had been and how well we’d played. There was some delightful football played which was really pleasing on the eye. We had more than one player who was dribbling past opponents and setting expectation levels high. It should only have been a matter of time but the final ball was not great and our shooting was really poor. I may be a bit too critical when it comes to this topic because even players in the Premier League have me quite regularly shouting that was crap when I’m sat in front of the TV but time and time again we seem inept at this skill. Do we not practice it? Did any Oxford player strike the ball cleanly with proper technique during this game either with power or accuracy? Both Djavan Anderson and Tyler Goodrham had runs taking them past players, the former with his pace and the latter more with his twisty trickery, but that counts for nothing if they don’t shoot properly.

Matty Taylor hit the post but I thought he should have scored. Surely a sharp striker would have hit it first time instead of taking a touch. Yes that could have gone in but it didn’t. The same with Goodrham’s header from Yanic Wildschut’s cross which brought a good save from Jamal Blackman – but that’s what a keeper is there for and we didn’t really test him much all afternoon. So we only had ourselves to blame that we did not have a lead to take into the second period.

There was a feeling amongst some of our fans that we would pay for not having done so and so it proved.

Our second half showing was much worse than our first. Few teams are right at the top of their game for 90 minutes but we’re nowhere near that. And if goals are a factor – which of course they are as without them you don’t win football matches – we were not at the top of our game during any period of this contest.

I wonder what the top of our game actually is and what we can achieve on a consistent basis with the squad we currently have. That doesn’t quite worry me enough to fear relegation but as for getting closer to the top than the bottom then forget it. Mid-table mediocrity it is unless something changes. Exactly what changes and how they may come about I wouldn’t like to say but what I would say is I doubt anything significant on that front will happen this season. So as a fan it’s just a case of sticking with your team by going through the motions and hoping something better is around the corner.

It’s not as if we’re playing in a ground where the fans are up close with a low roof helping to generate noise and helping to create that “sucking the ball into the net” atmosphere. I don’t think playing towards the East Stand gives us an advantage. The Exeter fans sang “football in a library” which is about right and a pleasant twist on the ultra-boring “is this a library?” even if it does touch a nerve.  The Oxford public don’t believe at the moment. This was New Year’s Day but only 8k home fans turned up. Never any hint of a five figure crowd.

For all our possession (overall 66%) I can’t recall us having any decent effort on goal in the second half. Exeter on the other hand scored one and very nearly had a couple more.

Before they took the lead they’d already come very close. A wonderful block by Elliot Moore saved us after we were undone down our left and a good ball in.  Eddie McGinty came sliding out, missing the ball and thankfully the man too.

The goal came from a corner. Ours not theirs. How naïve was that to get done on the breakaway and end up with one of ours, McGuane, facing three of theirs? Fair play to McGuane for doing his best to get in a position to hold them up but it was futile. Also to Stuart Findlay for getting his head down and pumping his arms to get back and McGinty for making the initial save but also futile. Afterwards our manager blamed some players for not doing their jobs.  Cameron Brannagan for not bringing down Jake Caprice in our half and taking a booking? It looked to me though that CB thought he could win the ball fairly. Nevertheless all this hinted at them as a whole being faster, fitter and with more stamina than us. They’d picked us off perfectly.

Less than 30 seconds after we’d re-started the game we’d lost the ball and allowed Exeter to hit a post possibly via the slightest of touches from our keeper. Yes, that’s how professional we were in our attempts to salvage an equaliser.

For all my anger at one more sub-standard performance when the whole 90 minutes are considered there are players in our squad I really rate and some played pretty well in this. So, why aren’t we doing better? What’s it down to? Are these rhetorical questions? Not sure.

What a midfield three in Brannagan, McGuane and Bate we now have. We’ve known for a number of years what Brannagan gives us and whilst he’s not quite at his very best I don’t think he’s far off. McGuane gets through a tremendous amount of work and seems to fully understand the game at this level now. He can move with the ball too. Then there’s some Premiership class in the form of our loanee from Leeds. A criticism would be that they don’t score goals from open play and that at times when we could do with a body in the centre-circle, there’s no-one there. But overall I’m well pleased with them.

So if I’m correct the problems are elsewhere on the park.

At the back I thought Moore was really good. This time when he was forced wide he got in crunching tackles and wasn’t left trailing in anyone’s wake. At centre half Sam Long looked very much at ease with that position. In fact he looks a very good player there. More of a footballing c-h than he was at the start of his career. But right back is a problem. Karl Robinson has planned changes which I think he is going to make whatever. We know they’re coming. Anderson was always going to go off with Long moving over and Findlay coming on. Although Anderson is no defender, having four defenders in those defensive positions seemed to weaken us when we needed strengthening. Findlay wasn’t as good as he has been recently but we had reached a stage where I thought Anderson had to go. Just like the previous game he’d stood still waiting for the ball to arrive at his feet instead of getting it and protecting it. Ceding possession so tamely is not acceptable.

There are players that presumably Karl knows or thinks don’t have ninety minutes in them (yet?) or that are not capable of playing two full games close together.

We had an hour of Yanic Wildschut. At the start he looked a bit leggy but grew into it and there was plenty of evidence that he could be a real asset playing wide-ish. But for us to extract the full potential of each and every (fit) player on our books we need to get playing as a team and that includes a fully functioning attacking unit. As if to show he was truly an Oxford player he cut in from the wing and hit a wild shot which was probably the worst produced. It was so bad that the assistant referee couldn’t believe it was possible so gave us the throw-in.

Josh Murphy, who against Charlton had looked like he could lead us to better things, had half an hour and looked crap. Another substitute, Billy Bodin, who had also been very good against the Addicks was poor here too. The comment made on Radio Oxford in the post-match chat that Bodin doesn’t play well two games in a row seems about right.

So we’ve got injury prone players and inconsistencies to deal with. No wonder we’re not progressing.

Another player I have a lot of time for is Goodrham. So very enjoyable to watch but we should not be relying on ones so young to get our season properly on track.

In our last four league games we’ve failed to score in three so problems there then. (Deserves a “no shit Sherlock”)

At the other end of the pitch I’ll be happier when Easty is back. McGinty is something different and wasn’t a complete disaster here but failed to hold one shot at the near post which could have cost us and went on one of his crazy walkabouts (runabouts) ending up on the touchline. That’s not where the sane of his profession would have found themselves.

Finally I have to mention our indirect free-kick in the penalty area right at the death. There’s time wasting and then there’s time wasting. Blackman couldn’t differentiate and even Darren Drysdale who I thought had been unduly lenient in many regards decreed enough was enough. More of that from referees I say.

However we were never going to score and sure enough the dead ball was hit into the wall.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Thankfully it isn’t but if this was anywhere near my seat I would be kicking up a fuss.

This is my wife’s hot chocolate. Well that’s what she asked for and paid for. What she got would better be described as warm milk.

Thought I’d start 2023 as I mean to go on, always finding something to moan about. HAPPY NEW YEAR. MAY IT BE A GOOD ONE FOR EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU.