FAN’S VIEW 23/24 – NO.3

LEAGUE ONE: OXFORD UNITED 1 CARLISLE UNITED 0

Having seemingly carried forward our dreadful form from the 2022/23 season into the first two competitive games of this campaign getting a win on Saturday was as much about relief as anything. Radio Oxford pointed out that this was only the second time in 203 days that we’d triumphed on home soil.

Three points and a clean sheet was just what the Doctor ordered but in the first quarter of an hour or so this looked a long way off.

The visitors were dominating and playing the game in our half. When we had the ball we were moving it slowly with little apparent intent on going forward. “Same as under Robinson” fans were murmuring.

Our short goal-kicks to keeper James Beadle were getting us nowhere other than looking like we might get robbed and concede. After a while the east Stand showed their displeasure with this but the alternative of going long just played into the hands of the Cumbrian centre-halves.

Something had to change otherwise we would have been in for a very long afternoon on top of the now obligatory expanded added time.

And change it did. The way I saw it, that was down to Josh McEachran. He began to get a bit further forward and was playing accurate passes, picking out players that your average L1 player wouldn’t have spotted, sometimes as part of the need to keep possession and sometimes presenting a teammate with the ball not that far from the goal we were attacking. He was always available and I don’t recall him giving the ball away. We had 57% possession and made 485 passes. I’d like to know how many of those were from Josh’s boot.

Another Josh positive was that he lasted the whole game – he’s normally withdrawn around the hour mark.

This was classy stuff, the type of football I admire whether or not it is played by a guy in an Oxford shirt. It was of a standard higher than we are used to seeing. I was trying to think when we last had a player who had such a passing range. Whoever it was it would have been a very long time ago and that’s no disrespect to those who have been our midfielders over the years. I’m struggling. Peter Leven my son suggested. Perhaps.

One player doing what he does best doesn’t mean his team will win the game though. Others have to do their bit too.

Carlisle were a physical side and with referee Jeremy Simpson, who has done a lot of his officiating in the Championship, ignoring the new directive to clamp down on shirt pulling and foul play from the off, along with kicking the ball away and wasting time at restarts, it was going to be a tough afternoon. He did start brandishing yellow cards in the second half but if he’d done that from the start the visitors would have had more than the four they picked up and we would have had some too.

Although he did add on four minutes at the end of the first period and eight on top of the “90” Simpson himself was to blame for lots of the delay in getting the game going again after it had stopped. I’ve never seen a referee so slow in ambling about after a free-kick has been awarded before blowing his whistle to allow proceedings to recommence.

For us to overcome this challenge and get a win others needed to start playing better too.

A number of those players were debated in the stands as we struggled to impose ourselves. That’s what fans do and often with differing opinions.

Marcus Browne made a run half the length of the pitch. A run which should have got me excited and off my seat. It didn’t because I know what usually comes. A selfish shot or just carrying on until he gets outnumbered and loses the ball. The latter happened on this occasion. “He’s nearly a great player” someone commented. I added “He’s been nearly a great player for ages”. Is there any coach anywhere who can turn him into that great player? Is Liam Manning that coach?

Another who elicited comment was Mark Harris. “Too slow.” “We’d be better off with Matty Taylor.” “He’s making goods runs”. In the first half I’d been frustrated with him. He didn’t seem to have much of a touch and was losing out on high balls to his taller marker but then he did start to make more of a nuisance of himself.

Our improvement meant that we increased our chances of winning the game, but to do that we needed a goal which had to come from somewhere and nothing stood out as an obvious route. At the final reckoning we had 14 shots but only three on target. Of those, two were straight at the giant in the Carlisle goal and offered so little threat, his gathering of the ball can hardly be classed as saves.

At the other end Beadle was hardly troubled at all with the visitors managing no efforts on target. So big credit to our outfield players for bringing this about. Elliott Moore won so much in the air and I can see why the sponsors would give him MotM. (McEachran for me of course). With Jordan Thorniley injured our captain’s partner at the back is Stephan Negru, a player I rate very highly and have done since I first saw him last season. He looks a natural to me and worth a starting slot irrespective of the fitness of others. Our two full backs, whilst not at their best, were better than they have been so far this season.

In the 75^th minute Ruben Rodrigues and Billy Bodin were replaced by Marcus McGuane and Tyler Goodrham. A minute later the goal came. At the time it appeared to be a very strange one but having watched a replay I’ve concluded that it was a very classy finish. Just inside his own half, stood on the touch line, Goodrham swivelled and played the ball first time into Carlisle territory where Harris had made another of his runs. He got between two defenders and from just outside the area got a deft right foot touch to send the ball past the advancing Thomas Holy. How unfair of me in the moment to have thought firstly that he’d mis-kicked it and then secondly that it would go wide anyway. It gets better with every viewing. I was far from the only one to misinterpret what happened. On Radio Oxford they were talking of the intention being to have tried to lob the keeper. Harris put them right: “He’s 6 foot nine” and was probably thinking “FFS” but obviously didn’t say so.

There was enough here to give hope but not yet get me thinking we’re going to be contenders. Today did though show that we’ve got players that can be brought off the bench and contribute.

Which brings me on to Gatlin O’Donkor. I’ve said a few times that I can’t quite see that he’s got it but what he did here in keeping the ball by the corner flag as we ran those extra minutes down was priceless. So strong and willing to scrap yet he’s still only 18. Very different I know but in a way I liked that as much as McEachran’s passing and Harris’s finish. Many things provide the ingredients which make up a winning football team.

On Tuesday it’s on to Derby, the bookies joint favourites along with Bolton. It’s a given that there are no easy games at this stage of the season and this one certainly isn’t but I think we’ll feel better able to cope after this victory.

Finances and ownership

Anyone who has been reading these FV’s over the years will know that from time to time I have covered the finances and ownership of our opponents. I started doing this in response to some comments on social media and by callers to Radio Oxford. It was all we’re a bigger club than x (Fleetwood possibly) and shouldn’t be losing to them etc. So I dug into the accounts in an amateurish way and discovered club x may well have had a playing budget equal to or greater than ours. And it went from there with the wonderful Price of Football podcast coming along and “wrong ‘un” owners being identified.

This season I won’t be doing this …… because there’s someone in a much better position than I to do so. They’ve capture all the financial data to y/e June 2022 and more, on a spreadsheet and I’m going to incorporate that in FV’s for home games.

So many thanks to Colin Barson for this meticulous work which will produce some real insight.

Here goes then for the first time:

Five of the clubs in L1 hide behind abridged accounts but there are 17 that publish the detailed stuff and they can be ranked accordingly. Derby and Wigan have no accounts available and in Derby’s case nothing since 2018.

Carlisle are an extremely well run club, although some of their fans find their approach a little conservative and risk averse, which is understandable but no bad thing. They have a stable board of several years standing, cash in the bank and a positive equity situation. Their attendances last season were their highest for 15 years and have only been bettered 4 times in the last 45 years, so their 2023 accounts will likely be even better, particularly with a successful play-off campaign included. They are one of only 7 clubs in our League to make a profit. They have the lowest wage bill of all clubs that publish it and probably only two or three of those that don’t publish are lower. They also have the lowest total income.

Their accounts are amongst the most comprehensive of any club, with 18 pages of strategic reporting giving detail about all matters, which is very refreshing. They even work out who has played how many minutes so that they can calculate a £ per playing minutes of their playing budget. Bravo! If only others were so transparent.

There is talk of an American takeover or investment from a guy called Tom Piatak and his company Magellan Transport, who seem to be a bit of an American Eddie Stobart, so a kind of synergy there. Magellan have recently become partners with the Jacksonville Jaguars so seem the real deal and Piatak and his wife have set up a purchasing vehicle at Companies House called Castle Sports Group Limited.