FAN’S VIEW  2025/26 – WATFORD AWAY

This was one of the most disappointing displays I’ve seen from an Oxford team since we returned to the Championship. For me there was so much wrong with it. I came away feeling very dispirited.

At best I think Watford are a mid-table outfit. They deserved to win. We deserved nothing.

After having kept a clean sheet at Loftus Road I was hoping that would be the norm from now on. If a team were to score against us, they’d have to bloody well work hard to do so. But no, we gifted them two goals. And if it wasn’t for their woeful finishing we could have been on the end of a hammering.

They broke away a few times with strong running and left us outnumbered. We rarely do that to our opponents.

But hey, we only ended up losing by one. Small comfort if we keep doing so but it does mean we’re still in games right until the final whistle and are not getting turned over. (Top of the League unbeaten Coventry are crushing so many teams. They didn’t do it to us though.)

Just a bad day at the office some might say. One win, three draws and five defeats from our first nine games tells me it is more than that. It is often said wait 10 games before judgement is cast. So, one to go then. That’s Derby at home on 18 October at 12:30. They’re just two points better off than us. There’s no point pretending there’s not massive pressure on.

Much of the optimism I felt after Bristol City has drifted away. Was that a one off? I also didn’t feel too down after the Blades beat us at the Kassam. I thought they were good in a Chris Wilder getting the job done sort of way. Shame we didn’t face them whilst Ruben Selles was still there. But there’s no getting away from the fact that everyone else is still beating them. That does keep them nicely at the bottom.

Purely from a selfish point of view I hope the other Sheffield club, Wednesday, are still in a mess when we go to Hillsborough on 25 October. They may be the only other team below us but they’re on the same number of points and have picked up more points in the last four games than we have.

Here we took the lead in the third minute. It was, almost inevitably, from a set piece. As the goal went in at the far end of the ground to where we were accommodated it was difficult, if not impossible, to see who scored it. Someone got a touch on Brian De Keersmaeker’s corner kick. Turns out it was Watford defender Max Alleyne on loan from Manchester City. Factors to consider, good delivery, poor defending from Alleyne and the wind. Not that I really care, we’d scored. Nice start obvs.

It was Siriki Dembele who had won the corner. Not long after, he set up Will Lankshear after an impressive take, turn and sprint away from his marker. Our loanee from Spurs forced a save from keeper Egil Selvik but the angle was too tight for the left footed attempt to do any real damage.

At this early stage it was end to end with it very much looking like there would be further goals in the game. In the 11^th minute Jamie Cumming had to stretch and push a ball wide as it bounced quite nastily in front of him. Next Vivaldo Semedo put a chance over the bar after a very weak header from Greg Leigh.

The hosts were getting through us much too easily for my liking.

In the 26^th minute they had a decent shout for a penalty for a foul on Semedo.

A few minutes later it was our turn to feel aggrieved. In the moment I’m completely biased, as most fans are towards their side. With reflection and hindsight in the form of replaying the incident I like to think I become more balanced in opinion. Lankshear, battling and winning the ball against two Watford defenders, was tripped as he was about to enter the penalty area. Kevin Keben to be shown a red? So even if not a penalty, then we’d be playing against 10 men for about two thirds of the game. The reality was that defenders had got back and although Keben was tripping and pulling Lankshear’s shorts, our man was pulling his opponent’s shirt. So absolutely spot on from referee Lewis Smith.

Although I wasn’t impressed with how we were handling the game, with our lead still intact as we entered the last minute of first half regulation time there was no way we could possibly go in at the break a goal behind. But we managed it, oh yes. FFS.

The equaliser came after Watford had played the ball about a bit before getting a cross into our penalty area where they had five players. It went over Michal Helik’s head and went goal-bound after hitting Leigh in the face. Cumming desperately pushed the ball on to the post then knocked it up again.  Jeremy Ngakia’s task in nodding the ball in could not have been easier.

Then conceding directly from a corner. Same question as earlier, was it a good delivery, poor defending or down to the wind? This one has to be down to our keeper, doesn’t it? They all make mistakes. We move on.

After nine games we’ve conceded 13 goals. At the same stage last season, we’d let in two fewer. Improvement?

The way the game had gone the likelihood that there would be more goals in the second period was high but the score remained the same come the final whistle.

Watford came at us as soon as the action re-started. We play out, or should that be try and play out, from the back much more infrequently now. We gave it another go here. Cumming played a short pass out to Cameron Brannagan who probably wasn’t expecting it. His control wasn’t great and in a split second Nestory Irankunda looked like he would score. Our keeper, who’d put our captain into the situation in the first place, redeemed himself in this instance with a good save.

At one goal down a team is always still in it but we never did enough and although we had some chances, I thought there were only a couple of real note. Shemmy Placheta was the one who came closest but he’s no finisher. He’ll strike a fine ball every now and again but is way more likely to not hit it right. His pace is a real asset; his finishing is not.

That speed of his got him to one ball he had no right to get to. He then poked it wide. A natural goal scorer would have put it the other side of the post.

Overall, I thought this was a disjointed performance with a number of players way off their best. When marking we tended to often be wrong side of the man. We didn’t move the ball fast enough when we had it.

Every fan has their opinion on each player and for some that becomes set in stone after they’ve watched their first few games for the club. I like to think that at the start of each game I have a blank piece of paper in front of me. It’s then what each wearer of the Oxford Utd shirt does in the 90 plus minutes ahead that I base my judgement on.

In the past I’ve been very critical of Dembele borne out of much frustration. So often he just runs into trouble when the sensible easy pass seems to be on. It’s easy from the stands – always has been, always will be. Here I thought he was one of our best players. I can’t blame him for hanging on to the ball when there’s no team mate showing for it. I can’t remember there being much movement up front dragging defenders about. Therefore, an argument that we need better from Lankshear and Nik Prelec. Initially I thought that the former might be about to reproduce what he did against Bristol City. That did not materialise.

Not for the first time I’m questioning whether I initially thought some of the new (and newish) players were better than they really are. Stan Mills might slowly be moving into that category but there is the argument that players need a run in a team before they can be properly judged.

Some of those we know much more about were nowhere near the standard we hope for.  Not a criticism as such but no point pretending.

Leigh had a bad game. Gary Rowett said as much afterwards and the player himself will know it. There was one instance when our Jamaican had gone forward and had the ball at his feet down the left. He looked as if he had no idea how to beat his man or the confidence to do so. He knocked it one side of his marker and tried to run past him the other. Possession was tamely lost. That did not look like Championship standard play. But in his defence, he had no team mates helping him out and yelling for the ball.

Brannagan is some way off the level we’ve seen from him in the past but clearly is finding the demands of this level much more of a challenge than L1.

There are positives to be found thankfully. Brian De Keersmaecker showed that extra bit of class and at the back Sam Long was battling away as ever and also anticipating things.

At the very start of this season, we soon learned that with the departure of Ruben Rodrigues we’d lost the only real no.10 creativity we had. The arrival of Filip Krastev on 1 September addressed that. He’s another class act imho and very much missed at Vicarage Road. Hope I don’t feel the need to re-visit this view a bit further down the line.

I certainly don’t get the “why isn’t Tyler Goodrham being given a chance? “ thing I’m hearing from quite a few amongst our fan base. I’ve not seen anything from him this season when he has played that suggests he should be starting or even coming on now that we’ve got the squad we have. Knuckling down in training, upping your levels, and proving yourself to the manager is what is needed from a few of our players.

That said, my hopes of getting the equaliser weren’t raised when we brought on Mark Harris and Tom Bradshaw in the 85^th minute. TG and the other Harris remained on the bench.

We’ve now got the international break and going into it on the back of a defeat isn’t good for morale. It isn’t for mine, anyway.

I’m also not happy that unfit players are going away with their countries.

Along with Brodie Spencer, Ciaron Brown has been called up for Northern Ireland. He’s been out injured all season and has not kicked a ball for us. Couldn’t we have said no?

Krastev’s injury is supposedly a minor one. He’s been picked for the Bulgarian squad and could end up facing Turkey and Spain.

Leigh is off to Jamaica and he doesn’t look anywhere near match fit.

Ole Romeny (fair to ask who this guy is even though we spent big on him) is another who hasn’t featured competitively this season after being crocked in the Indonesian jaunt. He’ll be in Saudi and Iraq.

And whilst I’m in grumpy old man mood I’ll finish with a few comments about Watford itself.

The town doesn’t have much in the way of decent real ale boozers. The 2026 Good Beer Guide is now out. Only two Watford pubs are listed. The Two Trees micro in Vicarage Road that I’ve been advised to avoid on match days due to the fact that it is tiny. The other is The Moon Under Water in the High Street. That’s the kind of name Wetherspoon give to their pubs and it is indeed a Wetherspoon pub. (Correct name is Wetherspoon not Wetherspoons but as the nickname Spoons has stuck most people think it is Wetherspoons – I’m allowed to be pedantic when I’m pissed off).

Having not felt quite 100% even before I hit Ascot races/beer festival the day before, I gave the beer a swerve in the pub. The rest of our party didn’t and none of them were impressed with what they were served. I’m not a Wetherspoon fan but have to say the coffee was exceptional. For £1.81 you’re given a cup and access to one of the best machines I’ve ever used. Choice of all the varieties, caffeinated or decaffeinated and they tasted as good as what you’d pay four quid for in a high street chain – and as many refills as you want. I think I preferred the cappuccino over the americano and flat white. Can’t go wrong with a couple of smooth whiskies either wherever you are. Jameson being the brand. Until today I though it was Jamesons.  

When I arrived at the ground it came back to me what lay ahead trying to get in and get a seat. Same as last year. Queues. Well three queues. Obviously, I picked the slowest one, the one on the right. Very few people making any progress as stewards – there seemed to be hundreds of them about, all of school age – were halting that progress. Eventually when it was your turn you got a full body scan then a couple of feet further on you were patted down. Those being held back behind were getting restless.

At least the QR code worked first time and got me in but the entrance into the stand was rammed. People had trouble moving. It was never going to be a Hillsborough but it did feel quite uncomfortable. Anyone who was a bit frail would have been in trouble and anyone trying to nip from seat to toilet for a quick final pee before kick off would have stood very little chance. The chance of finding the allocated seat was about zero. Getting to any unoccupied seat was a hell of a challenge such is the layout but I did manage it. Only to become even more pissed off as the game unfolded.

I just love football. Bring on the Derby game.