FAN’S VIEW 22/23 – NO.8: CARABAO CUP ROUND TWO

Getting worse

Our season so far was bad enough anyway and our injury list long enough with Sam Baldock, Josh Murphy, Yanic Wildscut, Marcus Browne and Elliott Moore already on it but now we can add James Henry, Alex Gorrin and Marcus McGuane. Every single one a pisser but the latter particularly so. In a terribly dark beginning to 22/23 MM has been our brightest spark and consistently so.

Playing a Premier League team at home, whoever they may be and whatever type of team their manager decides to put out, should be an opportunity for us to relax away from the grind and drudgery of L1 which is what we’re being subjected to at the moment. By us I mean both the players (do we have a fit XI without square pegs in round holes and a prayer that a youngster or two might just deliver?) and the fans. But now I don’t think relaxing even comes into it. I don’t think I’ve ever had less enthusiasm for a cup game against a top flight side. What to hope for?  We keep the score down and don’t pick up any more injuries, probably.

Our opponents

Palace are well established in the Premier League. This is their tenth consecutive season. They’re mid-table and that’s it. Nothing more, nothing less. Highest finishing position 10^th, lowest 15^th. Does that constitute a great achievement? Quite possibly. Have their fans enjoyed it? Not sure having watched them on telly under Roy Hodgson but they have probably been the most ultra-ish of all fan bases for quite some time now. If only we could create something similar. It helps a team no question and makes for a much more enjoyable fan experience. Now they have Patrick Vieira at the helm and are much more pleasing on the eye. They’ve started their campaign better than we have ours. Beaten Villa, drawn at Anfield (perhaps not quite the achievement of yesteryear) and only lost to a resurgent Arsenal so far. We can’t even beat every bookies favourite for relegation, Morecambe. Bet 365 are currently only offering 1 / 2.

Palace are owned by a few stakeholders, a number of whom are American businessmen. Steve Parrish who led the consortium, CPFC 2010, which saved the club from a second period of administration and ultimately ceasing to exist, became chairman then and still is to this day.  He negotiated a deal to buy Selhurst Park from Lloyds Bank for £3.5m. (Just remind me how much we would have had to pay to get the Kassam from Kassam)

As our opponents are in a different league to us financially I didn’t bother to spend much time looking at their accounts. Covid being what it was the accounting period to 30/06/21 only covered 11 months. (The previous accounts to 31/07/20 having covered 13 months). No idea what went on but I don’t think L1 clubs attempted to play around with time. We can’t afford a Tardis.

Palace’s loss for that 11 month period was £40.3m. The balance sheet showed a deficit of £89.4m. Wages and salaries including pension and social security costs came to £127m. A very different world from ours.

Photo, Simon Jaggs

Oxford United 0 Crystal Palace 2

This was far removed from the grind and drudgery referred to earlier. So many differences. The competition obviously, the quality of opposition, the atmosphere and the make-up of our team.

I was slightly disappointed that we didn’t crack the 10k mark through the gate but that was more than I was expecting considering what an easy journey we had down the A34 although we did leave early.

The visiting fans did not disappoint. Vocal, bouncy and vibrant. I do though find it hard to excuse the drum even if it may well be an integral part of the whole dynamic. It was an interesting celebration we witnessed when they scored their first. There was a flashing light as back drop to their leaping about. Wonder what it was and how they managed to smuggle it in. Strobe light and a disco about to breakout? “Let’s all have a disco”. Remember that chant? I’m old.

Our fans cannot match theirs. (Easy for me to say from the centre of the SSU as an old man). We have no Ultras anymore and it helps the closer singing fans are to the roof. There is a larger gap between the back row of seats and roof in the East stand than the North stand. Just saying. We need to get the design and acoustics right when we move.

The first forty five minutes were the best an Oxford side has produced this season and that was with a starting eleven including James Golding (just turned 18), Josh Johnson (not 18 for another month) and Gatlin O’Donker (not 18 for another two months). At the other end of the age scale we had 36 year old John Mousinho who has not played since March.

We had shape. Everyone seemed to know their job and the work-rate was there for all to see. Added to that there was a brief moment or two when we had possession and threatened to possibly look threatening. We only had one really good chance though. That came when Lewis Bate blocked a clearance and in an instant found Cameron Brannagan. His shot was repelled by £6.5m keeper Sam Johnstone who quickly got down low. Cam forced a good save but the better option may well have been a pass to his left to the unmarked Steve Seddon. I don’t think we had a proper sight of goal at all after that.

Although we were up for it and holding our own in that first period the visitors still looked a lot more likely than us to register a goal. Michael Olise was quicker to react to a high ball than Seddon was but the £8m Palace man failed to hit the target.

With Ed McGinty between the sticks I could not in any way envisage us keeping a clean sheet. Following on from his hand-ball v Swansea he was back at it again here. His mis-kick from a back-pass could easily have led to a goal being conceded but instead it was a booking out on the touch line for our keeper. Sometimes when he cleared the ball he gave it real welly, other times he didn’t strike it truly at all getting no height or distance of note. Add that he didn’t look comfortable in coming for crosses when under any pressure and it all looked quite dodgy. Just because I have not been much of a fan of Jack Stevens doesn’t mean I was going to automatically think any Tom, Dick or Eddie brought in was necessarily going to be better than him. I’ve not got it in for all United keepers, honest. I just call it as I see it. Perhaps the man we got from Sligo will turn into a cult hero. Much coaching and improvement is needed for that to happen though. Sincerely hope it all works out for the best for the lad and our football club. Still early days I suppose.

Every single out-field player that started this game deserves massive praise.

We played a back three and wing-backs. The three centre-halves were Sam Long, Mous and Ciaron Brown. Long is a defender. He’s probably better at centre-half than full-back. He likes a tackle and one challenge that he went flying into in the second half had “‘av it” written all over it. Mous’s experience was invaluable but in the first five minutes it was evident that Palace were going to work him. He stood up to it well but when we were attacking the fence end and the back line had pushed up high I commented to Mrs FV that I hope Palace don’t break quickly and take him on for pace. It didn’t happen then but his 36 year old legs that don’t play for months on end were shown up for what they are when Edouard went through in the 71^st minute to score. A younger, fitter, faster defender probably wouldn’t have allowed that to happen. I’m not convinced Elliott Moore would have been any more use in that situation though.

Ciaron Brown looked out on his feet at the end but whenever I see him I think he should be a regular starter. No different in this.

Golding looks a real prospect and for one so young wasn’t going to get bullied. Seddon was fine at wing-back and to me is much more of a midfielder type than a full-back.

Johnson played the holding role well and was another not afraid to get stuck in.

Just ahead of him Lewis Bate occasionally had time to showcase his undoubted skill and Brannagan demonstrated the will to win that we know he has.

A front one often has that thankless task we all talk about. Here it applied to a front two. For Matty Taylor read Billy Bodin who’s not even a number 9 anyway. O’Donker had a tough time but showed glimpses of what he could do.

There were so many learning experiences for such a young side.

Our players were rightly applauded off at the break and it was a shame that the numbers doing so at the final whistle were not as great. Granted it was in the 90^th minute that Palace got their second but the instant Luka Milivojevic’s penalty flew into the back the net there was a mass exodus. Probably mostly day trippers who’ll only be back for the next biggie. They’re a different type. Not averse to wandering off during the game to get a drink or coming back quite late after the second half has kicked off. They are the types that somehow have to be converted into (and I’ll probably get slaughtered for using the word) “genuine” fans of Oxford United.

In the second half the gap between us and them that had always been there widened a bit and then widened some more as the game entered its final quarter.

The changes they made strengthened them but ours had no impact. Changing the front two with Taylor and Kyle Joseph coming on made no difference at all. Nor did the introduction of Slavi Spasov seven minutes later with MT dropping a little deeper.

Of the other two subs Tyler Goodrham looked useful but in a way that was never going to hurt the Eagles and Oisin Smyth unfortunately looked out of his depth. I’d forgotten we only acquired the latter in January this year and that he is 22. Not old for a footballer but of an age where if you are going to make it something needs to happen quickly.

In the final reckoning there’s no arguing with a two goal defeat. Palace made more than double our passes and were more accurate than we were. They had 69% possession and it wasn’t as if we really had anything to hit them on the break with or that this was part of our game plan. Palace had four shots on target to our one.

For all the pleasing things we saw from the youngsters, some of whom must now be much more in Robbo’s thinking regarding selection for the league team, it was the same again. Goals conceded and none scored. But we have to take heart from the display whilst remembering the next game is going to be an altogether different type of encounter.

There’s no way Premier League referee Peter Bankes cost us this game but I don’t think he and his assistants helped us at all. I liked it that we got stuck in and matched them physically. By doing that its proof that you won’t be bullied and fouls will be conceded but six bookings for us and just two for them, come on.

If Bankes hadn’t seen it I understand that he can’t do anything about it but from my place in the stand I saw Mous get one in the face as he was lying on the floor. Didn’t Bankes bother to consider where the blood came from or consult his helpers to see if they had seen anything?

Shirt pulling, as anyone who regularly reads these Fan’s View will know, is a massive bugbear of mine. It’s cheating. It’s something that referees almost always ignore. There was so much of it in this game it was ludicrous. Obviously we did it too but certainly no more than they did. In the second half under the assistant’s nose a Palace player had a handful of a yellow shirt. Not a chance he hadn’t seen it. No flag waved. A second later the player who had held the shirt threw himself to the ground. Up goes the flag. Palace get a free-kick. Don’t tell me they don’t favour the big boys.

I recall one free-kick given for shirt pulling. Both players appeared to be at it. Don’t even bother to guess which way the free-kick went.

And finally on this subject, leading up to the penalty I thought Jordan Ayew had hold of Long’s shirt. Not so much 50:50 in the grapple but 70:30. Still didn’t go our way.

Well, we did keep the score down and, as far as I know, we didn’t pick up any more injuries. So that’s another positive to take with us to Cheltenham.