Brief Synopsis!!! (Oxford)

[ghost of hughie reed]

t.s. badly fluffed a couple of passes late in first half.

 

[neilbet79]

One thing is for sure, if it comes down to it, goal difference wont be keeping us up. Also Miller was poor.

 

[mde203]

Very impressed with Oxford today. They played lovely football and their movement and ball control was on a different level. They thoroughly deserved to beat us today. I didn't think we were dreadful- we've been worse this year at least two or three times. We just can't play with Jervis up front and with Carey not firing.

 

[monkeywrench]

with windy miller on it was like playing with 9 man, genius adams

But if ATS was injured as suggested, what was the alternative?

 

[Bonehead]

Miller is awful , agree with the previous poster, Miller must be Adam’s lovechild , can’t defend , pass , positional sense is awful , it’s chaos whenever he plays , the worst Argyle player ever perhaps?

 

[Argyle Nutter]

The sooner Adams goes the better, at least we will have the opportunity to bring someone that might be able to teach the players how to pass/ shoot /close down/ tackle. Still to give Adams some credit we must be best in the league at chasing shadows and watching the opposition run past us.

 

[Argyle Nutter]

with windy miller on it was like playing with 9 man, genius adams

But if ATS was injured as suggested, what was the alternative?

Could have brought on a statue at least the opposition would have had to move around around it.

 

[StevePAFC]

The sooner Adams goes the better, at least we will have the opportunity to bring someone that might be able to teach the players how to pass/ shoot /close down/ tackle. Still to give Adams some credit we must be best in the league at chasing shadows and watching the opposition run past us.

This.

 

[PL2 3DQ]

Another home game where the main talking point is the poor performance of the referee. This time is was Graham Horwood who pulled on an Oxford shirt and helped out his new team mates.

The game hinged on a decision by Horwood in the 14th minute, he ruled that Edwards brought down Thomas as he advanced into the box and issued the red card and awarded a penalty. The decision looked very harsh and it's debatable if it was a goal scoring opportunity because Thomas was at an angle to the goal with Matthews still to beat.
Ledson converted the penalty after Edwards had walked off.

I thought the rules had changed for double jeopardy of a red card and a penalty?

Argyle should appeal the decision but as it stands it's Edwards second red card of the season and might now be suspended for four games.

It wasn't just that decision by Horwood that annoyed Argyle fans because he allowed an obvious elbow on Bradley, he allowed a two footed lunge on Sawyer and Jervis was physically assaulted everytime the ball came near him.

That said, we started slowly and Oxford had two good chances to score before Horwood took centre stage - the first was a shot deflected just wide and the second was a shot saved by Matthews.

It's a mystery why we started slowly and sat back, we were the team on an unbeaten run and playing at home while Oxford were on a poor run with four straight defeats and no wins in six games, we should have been full of confidence and pushed our game onto Oxford. Instead we let Oxford have the ball while we defended our 18 yard box.

But credit to the players because after Horwood had awarded the penalty and sent off Edwards we were the better team, we suddenly came alive and despite being one player short we put pressure on the Oxford defence. We couldn't convert the pressure into clear chances apart from a header from Jervis and a free kick by Carey but the effort of the players, especially Jervis couldn't be faulted.

For the second half Miller replaced Taylor-Sinclair and Sawyer moved to the left back position, was the move forced because of an injury to Taylor-Sinclair because the defence was completely unsettled by this substitution? It wasn't Miller's fault but having contained Oxford so well in the first half it was a strange move to replace a defender.

We did have a very good chance to equalise just after half time when a quick free kick from Fox found Jervis, he swivelled and shot wide with only the keeper to beat. If Jervis did score Horwood would have disallowed it anyway.

The miss by Jervis seemed to suck the life out of us and Oxford were now running at our defence with ease, Thomas scored a second goal for Oxford in the 52nd minute after Matthews had made a good low save. Henry made it three for Oxford and Obika made it 4-0 in the 77th minute and Home Park emptied quicker than the Scunthorpe earlier in the season that had the same result with 10 players. Oxford also hit the woodwork twice.
It was too easy for Oxford and money for old Roper.

Horwood made a pigs ear of the game but we should also look at some of the decisions by Adams.

Was Taylor-Sinclair injured? If not it was a poor decision to change a defence that was doing so well.

At 2-0 down Lameiras replaced Grant and played on the right and Carey switched to the left. Grant was having a poor game so his substitution was understandable but why choose Lameiras, who hasn't played for a while, instead of Ainsworth who had a good game last week and right wing is his natural position?
Our two natural wingers and one striker never kicked a ball in anger and we finished the game with just two shots on target. Why didn't Jervis or Fox get a well deserved rest and save them for the Tuesday game against Northampton?

Jervis had a very good game and was full of running.
Carey went missing.
The forced move of Songo'o going into defence left our midfield wide open, Grant made some promising moves and then regularly lost the ball.

Taylor-Sinclair is a good defender but once he passes the halfway line he stops and plays the ball inside instead of surging forward.

We now must beat Northampton except we don't win Tuesday league games at home.

We suffered because of a poor referee and 10 v 12 but also because we allowed a Oxford team low on confidence to dictate the early play and didn't enforce our game onto them.

Man of the Match> Jervis.

Mathews 6, Sawyer 5, Edwards 5, Bradley 7, Taylor-Sinclair 6, Songo'o 7, Fox 6, Diagouraga 6, Carey 5, Grant 5, Jervis 8. Subs Miller 5, Lameiras 5, Sarcevic 5.

 

[Tugboat]

The sooner Adams goes the better, at least we will have the opportunity to bring someone that might be able to teach the players how to pass/ shoot /close down/ tackle. Still to give Adams some credit we must be best in the league at chasing shadows and watching the opposition run past us.

This.

Yep

Utterly bored of his attempt to compete.

 

[samjones]

Typical Argo performance as predicted. Another catastrophic error of judgement by Edwards giving away a stupid penalty and leaving the ref no option but to send him off as the last man with striker in on goal.

Rallied for 20 minutes with 10 men but never looked like breaking Oxford down.

Jervis had a clear chance early in 2nd half from a quick free kick but fluffed his lines and from there on in it was game over as oxford passed us off the park and we chased shadows dropping deeper and deeper until we ultimately played without a forward and went 4 - 5 - 0 to stop conceding any more goals.

Bit embarrassing how the heads dropped and we just caved in.

Not what we needed going into the Northampton game which is simply a must win now

#RELEGATIONFODDER

 

[John Cooper]

You could hear a gasp of dismay from the Lyndhurst when millar came on. hope we appeal the sending off. Matthews was limping at the end, hope hes fit for Tuesday.
hourihane was moaned at for passing backwards, has millar ever crossed/passed forward? seemed everything was passed back everytime.
depressing, but with tactics of setting up for 0-0 with the possibility of us accidentally scoring - week in week out, today I felt for the first time that we are going down.

 

[area51]

Wasn't going to bother to post that's how fed up I am after watching that.
As Oddball doesn't go anymore this one is for him.
I thought Oxford had three things today, that we did not have.
1. A striker who knows where the net is.
2. Commitmnet and passion.
3. A manager that can manage.

The writting was on the wall, big crowd, a team that has not won for a while - we had to lose, but it is how you lose.
It was a penalty, get over it, they would of beat us even if we had eleven men, they wanted it more and tactically they were superior - hence the result.
Will the January transfer window save us from relegation? For the first time this season I am thinking not.
Who will we sign being bottom of the league? I think we should start to worry, six weeks time it's 2018, I saw nothing today that can save us. Blisset the only signing we paid money for not in the squad?
Not happy.

 

[Tynan One Nil]

Wretched dispiriting afternoon. Big crowd in good spirits and then an afternoon changing moment, a red card, a penalty and One nil down. Battled very well until half time, without threatening the Oxford goal.
Half time substitution left us disjointed and once 2nd went in, it was poor and a hard watch.
For all our endeavour we have no cutting edge and all we need for Xmas is a new striker to arrive on Jan 1st NOT the end of Jan.
If the manager lifts them after that to a victory on Tues night, all will be forgotten- a defeat then the pressure mounts again.Onwards and upwards!

 

[Biggs]

It's rare the ref literally gets the rules wrong, normally it's a question of interpretation that we just disagree with.

After Euro 2016, you no longer get a red card for being the last man.

He's forgotten, simple as that.