When will our competitors start dropping points?

[Baboo]

Agree Matt - Turley is also a massive concern for me.

The guy is clearly unfit and looks very nervous too. In the first half last
night he dropped a cross (admittedly under a lot of pressure) and he failed repeatedly to come for corners that he should have done and got luckywhen Kelly's volley was not held and was spilled over the bar.

He also made Wolleaston's mind up for his goal by charging off his line when Tomlin chipped that pass over Batt.

I reckon Billy's time at the club will come to an end this summer. Father time is catching up with him (now 36) and he has had that shoulder problem for well over 16 months now. He is not cheap either.

He has been more good than bad this season and at times has been outstanding. 36 is not a great age for a goalie, particularly at this level. The injury is a worry though.

[Baboo]

Why do you keep doing this to yourselves?!

because if we didn't, we wouldn't have nights like last night.

horrible, nervy stuff, but the release with clist's goal was worth it all. and now we've earnt the opportunity to go through it all again on saturday at stevenage - and i, for one, can't wait.

stevenage might have 'dropped' points last night, but how many people have come away from histon with something? it's going to be tough.

on the performance last night: hardly vintage stuff, but it's an away win. foster was tremendous, and contemplating playing some of the games to the end of the season makes you realise how slender our hopes are. carruthers needs to look up when he runs with the ball and plays it. turley, i thought, didn't help us at all in relieving the pressure - his kicking was consistently poor, and he seemed more tentative than usual. is this injury worse than we're told? he was targetted at corners, and the ref did little to help (and on that subject, burgess' corners were effective i thought, even if the rest of his game wasn't).

constable once again showed everyone the way.

oxford support: just terrific. and it made a difference - the referee seemed to take on board some of our thoughts on his handling of the game when he came over to check on foster after the rushden goal...

The ref did little to help on lots of things - R&ampD left a foot in or followed through after the ball had gone time and time again. Not leg breakers but nasty enough to eventually slow the injured party down.

Wilmott was tremendous too alongside Foster.

Carruthers was a problem. A number of times he got the ball without being under too much pressure but his first touch was poor and he had to hoof it as they closed down quickly. We didn't seem very good at retaining possession for most of the game. Perhaps Murray's injury was factor in this but he does often seem reluctant to play the simple ball.
Clist was quietly effective. He can read a game. It's no fluke that he found space to get the third &amp he nodded one off the line too.

Yemi - blown his chance? And Nelly wasn't great either.

On reflection to win 3-1 away against a decent side, with a number of our players not having played well, should bode well for the future.

[Matt D]

He has been more good than bad this season and at times has been outstanding. 36 is not a great age for a goalie, particularly at this level. The injury is a worry though.

sure, and i agree with dr. bob that his absence seriously weakened us earlier this season, but i think OUFC4eva has a point.

the last two seasons i thought turley the best keeper in the division. this season, one of the best. next season? probably still one of the best... but i bet there's a file on wilder's shelf of potential replacements, and i don't think he's the sort of manager to warm to some of his showboating either.

[Baboo]

He has been more good than bad this season and at times has been outstanding. 36 is not a great age for a goalie, particularly at this level. The injury is a worry though.

sure, and i agree with dr. bob that his absence seriously weakened us earlier this season, but i think OUFC4eva has a point.

the last two seasons i thought turley the best keeper in the division. this season, one of the best. next season? probably still one of the best... but i bet there's a file on wilder's shelf of potential replacements, and i don't think he's the sort of manager to warm to some of his showboating either.

I would like to think he does have a file of potential replacements - for all positions. As for the showboating, it all depends whether it adversely effects the way Billy plays.

[recordmeister]

Agree Matt - Turley is also a massive concern for me.

The guy is clearly unfit and looks very nervous too. In the first half last
night he dropped a cross (admittedly under a lot of pressure) and he failed repeatedly to come for corners that he should have done and got luckywhen Kelly's volley was not held and was spilled over the bar.

He also made Wolleaston's mind up for his goal by charging off his line when Tomlin chipped that pass over Batt.

I reckon Billy's time at the club will come to an end this summer. Father time is catching up with him (now 36) and he has had that shoulder problem for well over 16 months now. He is not cheap either.

He has been more good than bad this season and at times has been outstanding. 36 is not a great age for a goalie, particularly at this level. The injury is a worry though.

Yeah... so... how old is Burton's goalie again???

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Poole)

And I think, let me just check... yeah! Look at that! They are top!

[boris]

I think Billy's got at least one more season in him as a decent stopper before we have to worry about replacing him. All keepers make occasional errors even at the highest level (James, Robinson... and if he didn't make mistakes he wouldn't be playing in the lowest division of full-time professional football. And if we do need a replacement, I've seen enough of Ben Hinchliffe to think that he's going to be better than Billy given time and experience.

[recordmeister]

You missed out &quotHarrison&quot on your list of top 'keepers making errors, Boz!

[Ascension Ox]

I think Billy's got at least one more season in him as a decent stopper before we have to worry about replacing him. All keepers make occasional errors even at the highest level (James, Robinson... and if he didn't make mistakes he wouldn't be playing in the lowest division of full-time professional football. And if we do need a replacement, I've seen enough of Ben Hinchliffe to think that he's going to be better than Billy given time and experience.

I'm not so sure, you know. He has had problems with his shoulder all season. Watch him carefuly, the injury is still partially affecting his mobility.

[GodalmingYellow]

I think Billy's got at least one more season in him as a decent stopper before we have to worry about replacing him. All keepers make occasional errors even at the highest level (James, Robinson... and if he didn't make mistakes he wouldn't be playing in the lowest division of full-time professional football. And if we do need a replacement, I've seen enough of Ben Hinchliffe to think that he's going to be better than Billy given time and experience.

I'm not so sure, you know. He has had problems with his shoulder all season. Watch him carefuly, the injury is still partially affecting his mobility.

Keepers often have these injuries. They are made of sterner stuff than other players, and particularly work on strengthening their upper body.

Billy has made some outstanding saves this season and kept us in a lot of games that we might otherwise have lost. Yes has has made a couple of bloopers, but what keeper hasn't, and rarely do his bloopers cost us matches, and even rarer are his bloopers as a result of any injury.

Given a summer of rest and rehab, I think Billy has at least one more season left, and maybe more.

[Ascension Ox]

I think Billy's got at least one more season in him as a decent stopper before we have to worry about replacing him. All keepers make occasional errors even at the highest level (James, Robinson... and if he didn't make mistakes he wouldn't be playing in the lowest division of full-time professional football. And if we do need a replacement, I've seen enough of Ben Hinchliffe to think that he's going to be better than Billy given time and experience.

I'm not so sure, you know. He has had problems with his shoulder all season. Watch him carefuly, the injury is still partially affecting his mobility.

Keepers often have these injuries. They are made of sterner stuff than other players, and particularly work on strengthening their upper body.

Billy has made some outstanding saves this season and kept us in a lot of games that we might otherwise have lost. Yes has has made a couple of bloopers, but what keeper hasn't, and rarely do his bloopers cost us matches, and even rarer are his bloopers as a result of any injury.

Given a summer of rest and rehab, I think Billy has at least one more season left, and maybe more.

Were you at the game on Tuesday though? I was, and also at the Kettering game and I was seeing signs of wear and tear that concerned me somewhat.

He is clearly restricted by a left shoulder problem.

[Mooro]

For me there were four clear playoff candidates (Camb, Histon, Torquay, Wrexham) with the rest needing one of these to slip-up. One has, but I didnt expect it to be Wrexham, and with Saunders choosing his national job over his club one this weekend and other internal issues flaring up, then I am now inclined to write them off completely..

This then opens up the chase for the rest of us - a lot of people are favouring Stevenage, but their run-in is mainly other top clubs, so they could easily fall back. Fixture congestion for kiddie mean they've got to play twice in one midweek, Kettering already have done once and still have to fit a game with Crawley in somewhere, which could easily end up with both having to double up. Crawley I dont think are up to it in any case.

Our game with Burton moving to Friday night may be significant however, as nearly all of our playoff rivals will therefore play twice between that date and the final day of the season, thus knowing what they have to do across both to finish ahead of us, so unless we've been very bold up to that point, might be the terminal factor for us.

Heart says Burton to hang on, head says Cambridge to pip them, as that will more or less ensure the 5th placed finisher gets to Wembley.

[A-Ro]

I think Histon have self destructed and will take no further part in proceedings.

[Paul Cooper]

I think Histon have self destructed and will take no further part in proceedings.

Let's hope you are right.

[Shoobedoo]

Seven of Burton's last eight games are against teams with playoff aspirations in contrast, only two of Cambridge's seven remaining are against the top 10. Burton are definitely suffering from the footballing equivalent of the yips. It's well within the bounds of possibility that Cambridge could win the title.

The down side to this of course, is that if Burton continue to drop points, they will be doing so to our rivals and thus our job is that much harder. I think I'd much rather Burton walk away with the title and put our rivals under pressure as a result. Don't think it's going to happen though, don't rate McFarland as a manager.

As Mooro says Wrexham are experiencing internal wranglings over their ground and also club v country pressures over their manager, losing their last two games may not be a direct result of this but could be a factor. I think they are in the same boat as us now and have to win most if not all of their remaining games. Hopefully, before they drop out of the picture entirely, they will take further points off Histon (have to play them twice).

I noticed Histon starting to struggle a bit a few weeks ago and wondered whether they should be the club to aim to finish ahead of. Again they have a tough run-in (including the Wrexham games mentioned above).

Stevenage and Kidderminster also have to play each other twice, I guess the best results for us would be 2 draws, or for one of the teams to do the double over the other, leaving the other easily catchable. Hopefully Stevenage will be distracted by their trip to Wembley as well.

I reckon:

Cambridge to win the title Play-offs: Burton, Torquay, Kidderminster,
Oxford or Stevenage.

Nurse - my pills....

[OUFC4eva]

I don't buy the &quotHiston have imploded&quot argument.

They are incredibly hard to beat and have possible the best front pairing in this division in Midson and Wright. Antonio Murray and Jamie Barker are class players at this level. However Histon may have picked up one or two knocks lately.