Match Thread Oxford United v The Mighty Blades

[RMBlade]

Woooo FT

 

[Yellarbellyblade]

Never make it easy do we???

 

[davidblade]

Thank fook for that

 

[elgoog44]

Done and dusted good away win and points clear, feel that was an important win much like last time we played them.

 

[Chief_Froley]

Pictured: my arsehole after that game.

 

[Ldn_Rd_Blades]

Needed that

 

[Alfreton14Blade]

Lol, Scunny losing now!

Last minute pen

 

[DeanLearner'sCat]

I had no confidence in us getting a result tonight. That feels like a big one to me*.


*That's what she said

 

[Esablade]

Well done tonight Blades, sounds like we turned it round 2nd half...
UTB!

 

[Antonb]

Much better 2ND half. But got to stop giving daft goals away. They looked dead and buried at 3-1 but gave them another goal at the death. Underneath Moore at the angle, maybe he should have done better. But I feel this is a defining win. Pretty much nailed on for me that we will get promoted now. Us and Fleetwood.

 

[Alfreton14Blade]

Just when Fleetwood thought they had us in striking distance...

Great, great win that. Dealing with the pressure superbly, & applying pressure on Fleetwood, etc. like a right bunch of bastards.

 

[Captain]

Dug deep tonite, 3 goals away from home again.....only one place we're going and going as Champions....well played lads and once again fantastic support!

 

[LoughboroBlade]

Blimey. We were so poor in that first half, such an odd game. Similar to Southend away in some respect – just out of sorts, everything seemed to be going wrong. EEL all over the place, midfield not at the races, forwards pedestrian.

But we came out 2nd half improved, and Lavery's introduction helped change the game. He helped win the corner leading to the equaliser, and then Freeman was key man again to goals 2 (bit fortunate) and 3 (excellent play).

Yes, we decided to make injury time interesting by gifting a goal away, but there's no denying that is a huge 3 points when we were below par, and well done Wilder for whatever he said at half-time.

Badly missed Duffy – hope he's fit for Swindon.

Basham, bar a dodgy 10 second spell that saw him slice a clearance high into our own box, was superb – and probably the only one of our outfield players that had two strong halves.

Fleck, and Coutts in particular, were out of sorts for much of the game. So static first half. Hopefully just an off day for them, though Fleck seemed to improve late-on.

 

[Bladesman]

 

[Ball_Sup (Phil)]

Bit of a match report & a bit more about a Bailiff's Office turned into a pub on The Blog

http://ball-sup.blogspot.com/2017/03/repo-man.html

 

[Grey Blade]

A game of 2 halves. Well on top for first 10 mins. Then a succession of misplaced passes and bad control. Think it was all going wrong before Wright went off so that couldn't be the excuse.
Second half after lavery replaced Hansen it all improved. Billy took goal well. Not sure whether freeman's was a cross or a shot but who cares. Give away another silly goal late on but late enough not to matter!

 

[Reynoldo]

Don't like the idea of the bad penny being anywhere near the team.

Grow up ffs!

 

[Snowman]

Grow up ffs!

ok dad sorry

 

[Crouchy]

Blimey. We were so poor in that first half, such an odd game. Similar to Southend away in some respect – just out of sorts, everything seemed to be going wrong. EEL all over the place, midfield not at the races, forwards pedestrian.

But we came out 2nd half improved, and Lavery's introduction helped change the game. He helped win the corner leading to the equaliser, and then Freeman was key man again to goals 2 (bit fortunate) and 3 (excellent play).

Yes, we decided to make injury time interesting by gifting a goal away, but there's no denying that is a huge 3 points when we were below par, and well done Wilder for whatever he said at half-time.

Badly missed Duffy – hope he's fit for Swindon.

Basham, bar a dodgy 10 second spell that saw him slice a clearance high into our own box, was superb – and probably the only one of our outfield players that had two strong halves.

Fleck, and Coutts in particular, were out of sorts for much of the game. So static first half. Hopefully just an off day for them, though Fleck seemed to improve late-on.

I didn't think we were poor. I thought we were sloppy. Not quite the same

 

[Crouchy]

A game of 2 halves. Well on top for first 10 mins. Then a succession of misplaced passes and bad control. Think it was all going wrong before Wright went off so that couldn't be the excuse.
Second half after lavery replaced Hansen it all improved. Billy took goal well. Not sure whether freeman's was a cross or a shot but who cares. Give away another silly goal late on but late enough not to matter!

Looked like a cross to us. Who cares?

 

[LoughboroBlade]

Not sure whether freeman's was a cross or a shot but who cares

It was a typically accurate Freeman cross. He has had a marvellous season, but his strengths have been in forcing defenders to break their shape, opening up space for others and cutting the ball back. His crossing had largely been very disappointing – O'Shea's the only one I've really seen consistently whip a decent ball in whenever he's played.

 

[Bladesman]

 

[South Bucks]

Just got back from the match, agree with Loughboro blade we were poor in the first half and a bit slow and I was thinking a draw is the best we can hope for tonight. Knocking every other ball up towards Hanson really didn't work and the ref blew for a foul more often than Hanson got on the end of anything or held it up. Loads of fouls against him. Also our old habit of working it into dangereous positions just outside the box and then going back out to the flanks and losing it rather than being more penetrative.

Hanson going off was the turning point, more on the deck stuff, the ball sticking more up front and getting into the inside forward channels which brought the rewards you'll see with the goals. Hadn't seen this turn around coming at half time. Fleck and Coutts were a bit below par in my opinion. Basham man of the man, Billy second half and Freeman had strong games. Most were good and upped their game second half but not as good as they sometimes. Two poor goals to conceed though but we won and that'll just about do it for going up for me baring a miracle.

 

[Rusty]

Is it me or is that Oxford pitch huge?

 

[Blade82]

Just got back well worth the 5hr round trip. No way I'm sleeping yet still buzzing from that. what great turnout and support tonight. Thank you chris and the boys if anyone of you are reading this. UTB

 

[Good Pinch Of Snuff]

just got home too that was a strange match that but we got the three points and my heads buzzing still too.

 

[Cerberus Blade]

Fuck off , course it matters. Get the hair dryer out Chris.

Hey Mr Keyboard Warrior - watch your language. No need for that whatsoever. I was saying that even if we lose 2 games out of the remaining ones we will still be good enough to go up as Champions - that's all.

 

[Cerberus Blade]

Much better 2ND half. But got to stop giving daft goals away. They looked dead and buried at 3-1 but gave them another goal at the death. Underneath Moore at the angle, maybe he should have done better. But I feel this is a defining win. Pretty much nailed on for me that we will get promoted now. Us and Fleetwood.

It's been nailed on for weeks now mate - it's just that some fans are too superstitious to even think or talk about it. We have the best team in this league, by far and we're sitting on a significant points gap between us and 3rd place. 11 points as of today. Although Bolton, if they win their 2 games in hand, could reduce that to 6.

I'm responding mainly to your opening sentence though. "Got to stop giving daft goals away". I totally agree. In the last week we've conceded 5 goals and picked up 4 points. That could have, and probably should have, been 6 points, but the defending is letting us down. I'm sorry to say also that the return of EEL to the defence in the last two games has been a factor. Just watching the video back from last night's game and he was nowhere near the player for their first goal from that corner. You could say, well neither were the others, but you should expect a colossus of a bloke like that to be the first one to get his head on the ball from corners. And he doesn't.

I hope Jake Wright is able to play in the next game because we need him to steady the ship.

 

[Antonb]

To be fair with their first goal Jake Wright was off the pitch getting treatment and never came back, so we were down to ten men . But when we go up, defense should be a major priority . It's not good enough for the Championship .