We seem to be coming up against a stream of in-form teams. Oxford have done well recently after an indifferent start and are well above us in the form table in the league.
They were expected to put in a promotion challenge last season under the very experienced Karl Robinson and a well-funded playing budget, but only now do they seem to be delivering their promise.
I now quote Dave Prutton - Sky pundit :
"Oxford are on a decent run of form at the minute. They have recovered from a really poor start to the season and are unbeaten in their last five games, scoring 14 goals in that time as well."
He has good things to say about Rovers too and predicts a draw. I think our resilience will be under a real test tomorrow. If we come though it with a draw or even better I think we can regard our team as truly worthy of the promotion push that we hope for.
I'll say 1-1 and Anderson/Whiteman to score.
DPL vs Oxford Utd
posted on 12/10/19
1-0 Rovers. Whiteman
posted on 12/10/19
Greetings from Wensleydale
Oxford 2-1 Rovers
Taylor
Small Azza
1-1 Copps
posted on 12/10/19
2-1 to the rovers whiteman
posted on 12/10/19
3.1 victory to the mighty ziggers. Whiteman firsts goal.
posted on 13/10/19
The commentators found little about which to enthuse; it was more a succession of disappointments surrendering possession too easily and bad decision-making. We might have expected that the verdict will be that were well below our best, but the sides which we have beaten have supposedly been below their usual standard on the day and you can’t help thinking that when you are being outplayed you lose confidence. It is in a way, but fundamentally an excuse. The fact that we had no shots on goal for the first justification half and hour or so means we were well contained before the Oxford scoring began. In fact, we registered not a single shot on target and for the commentators to say that the result was a little “harsh” was over-generous.
DM was honest however and admitted that Oxford were better and that they had exposed weaknesses which would have to be worked on; an admirable reaction, but the reality is that we did not have the strength to make a good contest of it. The Oxford manager was highly satisfied because he sees Rovers as one of the strongest teams in the League impressing him in the way we dominated the Portsmouth match which he saw.
So, in a sense perhaps we should hope that Oxford are indeed really that good.
Moore sees the need for more power in attack and perhaps it is time the Anichebe option was taken up.
posted on 13/10/19
...please delete “justification” from the 1st paragraph.
posted on 13/10/19
Wake up call
posted on 14/10/19
A poor performance; it seems teams have discovered DM likes us to play out the back, which I like if you are good enough, but they can shut us down by pressuring us. I thought Sheaf was poor in the game with his very frequent bad passing, and only Whiteman seemed to work out how to go forward. Both full backs went very narrow giving Oxford the run of the wings. The full backs have been good going forward, but this exposed their defensive weakness with teams that really pressure them. Maybe in games like this the occasional long ball forward is what is required, especially now we have a big man up front - not that I was impressed by his ability!
We were going sideways and backwards far too often giving Oxford time to re-assemble their defence when we have been able to do a good break.
In recent games the problem has been converting accurately chances created - this time the worrying thing was not creating chances. I've yet to listen to DM's comments about that.
If Sadlier had put that one away against the run of play when it was still 0-0, the game could have been much different.
What did any of you think about the penalty? I thought it very harsh, as did most reports including the Beeb. However my cousin said it was a straight forward penalty and fully justified - but of course he is an Oxford supporter. I suppose we all want to see our team's side of any dispute.
posted on 14/10/19
Thanks for your excellent report Micky.
On the penalty, I have seen it twice and the camera angle is not the best since the arm was the one furthest away and although the arm started by his side I did think that he appeared to move it towards the ball as it passed him; he was tempted. The movement may have been instinctive and part of an attempt to get his left hip across to block the ball, but there would appear to be a reasonable grounds for the decision.
I assume it was not seriously disputed after the match and it did not really affect the outcome.
posted on 15/10/19
The realists triumphed over the optimists, so Mooli made up some ground to the leaders. Nookie remains ahead. (As agreed Nil goal forecasts do not score 4 points for "naming" the scorer, but would complete a "full house" for the bonus if the score was accurately predicted too.)
Oxford U 3 : Rovers 0
>>>>>>> Scorer > Score > Result Bonus > Total > Pts B/F > O/all
Donaldo>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 20 >>>> 20
PDXMickey> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 21 >>>> 21
Yorks Lad>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 33 >>>> 33
BVZ>>>>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 6 >>>> 6
Crazy>>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 23 >>>> 23
Uthred>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 3 >>>> 0 >>>>> 3 >>>>> 14 >>>> 17
Mooligan>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 3 >>>> 0 >>>> 3 >>>>> 25 >>>> 28
King Chmprr 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0
Small Azza> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 6 >>>> 6
Azza>>>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 8 >>>> 8
Cheltenham 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0
Nookie>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 40 >>>> 40
Selby>>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0
Lanza>>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 3 >>>> 0 >>>>> 3 >>>>> 9 >>>> 12
>>>>>>>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 9 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 9 >>> 205 >>>> 214