Predicted score v Oxford

[pomp 'n circumstance]

Well.....despite the many predictions that we would muller Oxford and they were just there to make up the numbers, the banana skin was waiting in ambush. The stats tell us that we outplayed Oxford but created very little and it's no use pretending that we did 'all right' and kept another clean sheet - in the battle of the managers, MA outplayed AA in as much that our ex manager set out his stall and allowed us to play our predictable game, whilst he parked the bus in front of his goal and gave us very little for the close on 16,500 fans to crow about. Another point gained? Yes......but 2 points lost! If we have any pretentions of making the play offs, then we have to win these sort of games!

Very obviously the substitutions were too late (75minutes for the first) and then didn't make any sense - as someone pointed out, it didn't change the shape of the team and certainly didn't create any more in the way of chances. AA is now regressing into his somewhat smug shell and pontificating about the progress the team are making.......well, yes they are playing with more confidence, but the team are still punching below their ability and still suffering from inconsistency. Yesterday AA took off 2 'flair' players in Parslee and Tubbs - players who can actually change the course of a game. I'd be interested to know the rationale behind that......

[<dj.>]

True it was a mainly dull game, but we did have 11 shots of which 4 were on target. On another day at least one of them would have gone in. Oxford never really created much, although there were one or two occasions when I thought we might have gifted them the points. They came for a draw and succeeded in getting it - a better point for them than for us.

Passley was under-utilised - in particular, Joe Devera was always more willing to pass back or sideways or lump it upfield than pass to Passley. Devera does a lot of things well, but he looks uncomfortable with the ball and generally seems keen to not do a wrong thing rather than do the right thing.

Atangana had a good match, making some really good incisive passes. He plays at a faster pace than most of our players - first time passes, sharper passes and the quick ball into space. He did seem to fade a bit towards the end though. If he mistimes one of his lunging tackles, he'll get sent off.

I thought the ref started out quite well - we went nearly 30 minutes without a free kick - but he seemed to lose control later, perhaps because he let too much go early on.

Awf's substitutions didn't seem to make a lot of difference: Barcham for Passley was a straight swap, as was Westcarr for Tubbs. I think they were to freshen things up a bit rather than change of tactics. I thought we might get a look at Fogden towards the end, but we'll have to wait a bit longer for that.

edit: It's taken me a while to write this due to repeated interruptions, so to some extent it duplicate's Pomp's mail viv-a-vis the substitutions.