Oxford 3 Morecambe 1 Stockton Match Thread

[dannymorc1]

Another really good chance for Morecambe. Come on keep this up.

[dannymorc1]

How do we do it? Get on top, and then let them in again. Sick.

[Redalert1970]

I’m afraid if we don’t stop scoring goals we are only going one way

The thing is they aren’t even good goals we concede

[Redalert1970]

That’s three more goals against

Very worrying times

[Born again Bill]

We are now beginning to struggle in all areas on the pitch , the good start to the season now seems a long time ago

[RapidShrimp]

It’s been another poor away performance. Phillips rightly brought off after another display of hitting the ball 20 yards past his target at each attempt. McDonald simply isn’t effective at this level. Lost our man for the first two goals - are we ever going to learn?

On another day, Delaney would’ve tapped in chance and we might be having a different conversation, but the overall performance hasn’t been good enough and we’re sleepwalking to losses every time we’re away from the Mazuma.

Edit: Cole’s goal was incredible, but the rest of the XI have to step up as well. Plenty of times Cole’s been in space and not been found. At least we’ve got Jonah back from injury, and Greg Leigh well-deserving of his call-up.

[Angler1]

I find it depressing, I'm sorry but that's hiw I see it. We battle all game concede a goal fight back with a excellent equaliser and then concede a poorly defended long ball concede . Then we chase the fame for an equaliser abd concede....

[dannymorc1]

Why can we not find our players? We don't seem able to string a run of passes together, give the ball away far to easily. Looking at the stats the score line flatters them. But they took their chances.

Usually only been 1 goal in the defeats and they have been good matches to watch , if you were a neutral fan that is!

It's getting a bit like League 2 days now, looking at other results to see how low we have slipped.

Where do we go now?

[Redalert1970]

We move on to Tuesday

Big big game

First 3 blocks of 5

1st block 7 from 15

2nd block 7 from 15

3rd block 1 from 15

League 1 is a bonkers league

Look at Sunderland been hammered twice in last 4 games … 4 - 1 and 5 - 1

[fulwoodshrimp]

Our away form is poor and despite the manager saying how much we are working to improve our defence against set pieces there is no obvious improvement! We are bound for the relegation places if we don’t improve and quickly.

[P/T Indie]

It must be driving Robo mad, who'd me a manger .

They are obviously either not taking on the message or they are just not good enough.

[Redalert1970]

We are getting punished for every mistake .. in league two we probably get away with some but the higher you go the more you get punished

[Keith]

We've got to stop coming away from games saying "on another day..." At 1-1 I thought we had a spell where we looked most likely to score, but then we concede another soft goal. It wasn't a poor performance against another decent side, but we need to find a win soon. Tuesday would be good.

[Phoenix Shrimp 2017]

I think that there is enough evidence now to realise that we will struggle away from home against most teams in league 1. We simply don't have the quality to get the results we need.

However our home form has by and large been superb. Tuesdays game against Cambridge is massive and if we are to stop up it is probably our form at the Mazuma which will do it for us.

The January transfer window will be very interesting. Cole is probably the stand out player in League 1 so far this season and is no doubt performing better than many strikers in the Championship. If a big offer comes in what do we do? Sell him and use the money to look to rebuild in League 2 next season or keep him and look to cling onto League 1 status. Without him I feel we would have no chance of stopping up.

Either way we need to keep up the great support at the Mazuma and start picking up some points commencing on Tuesday.

UTS.

[Redalert1970]

If we went down this season and its an IF ???

We would still be a football league club - but there is still a long long way to go this season

KEEP THE FAITH AND THINGS WILL GET BETTER

[Andy D]

Plymouth Fans last week chanting “Derek Adams he left you in shit” hhhmmmm

[Keith]

Plymouth Fans last week chanting “Derek Adams he left you in shit” hhhmmmm

N'ah!
He left us in League One, with a decent sale of an asset. Stephen Robinson came in and formed a squad in a short length of time. January window will be really important for us. Who might leave (err... Stockton) but who might come in?

I'm delighted Adams left us at the highest point we've ever been and I still think we will be comfortably clear of the relegation places come the end of the season.

[BerlinWaller]

I think that there is enough evidence now to realise that we will struggle away from home against most teams in league 1. We simply don't have the quality to get the results we need.

However our home form has by and large been superb. Tuesdays game against Cambridge is massive and if we are to stop up it is probably our form at the Mazuma which will do it for us.

The January transfer window will be very interesting. Cole is probably the stand out player in League 1 so far this season and is no doubt performing better than many strikers in the Championship. If a big offer comes in what do we do? Sell him and use the money to look to rebuild in League 2 next season or keep him and look to cling onto League 1 status. Without him I feel we would have no chance of stopping up.

Either way we need to keep up the great support at the Mazuma and start picking up some points commencing on Tuesday.

UTS.

We can't carry on playing like we do away from home. League 1 clubs will pick us off if we keep playing attacking football. It does worry me that we have no plan B and Robbo himself says we can only play one way. Last season Adams could change it by dropping Songo'o in to a back three away from home to tighten it up. Robbo needs to add steel in January as we are too soft and easy to expose.

[redrobo]

I think that there is enough evidence now to realise that we will struggle away from home against most teams in league 1. We simply don't have the quality to get the results we need.

However our home form has by and large been superb. Tuesdays game against Cambridge is massive and if we are to stop up it is probably our form at the Mazuma which will do it for us.

The January transfer window will be very interesting. Cole is probably the stand out player in League 1 so far this season and is no doubt performing better than many strikers in the Championship. If a big offer comes in what do we do? Sell him and use the money to look to rebuild in League 2 next season or keep him and look to cling onto League 1 status. Without him I feel we would have no chance of stopping up.

Either way we need to keep up the great support at the Mazuma and start picking up some points commencing on Tuesday.

UTS.

We can't carry on playing like we do away from home. League 1 clubs will pick us off if we keep playing attacking football. It does worry me that we have no plan B and Robbo himself says we can only play one way. Last season Adams could change it by dropping Songo'o in to a back three away from home to tighten it up. Robbo needs to add steel in January as we are too soft and easy to expose.

Agree 100% with BW.....we are too attack minded away from home which is commendable but we have to change our game play and become more defense minded away from home and hopefully in the January window we can bring in an experienced defensive midfield enforcer to protect our back line.

We are an attractive team to watch but we must have the ability to change our style to the situation we now find ourselves in.

SR has brought entertainment back to our home games but no harm in being boring away even if it is against his beliefs for the rest of this season. An enormous amount of work both on and off the field has been undertaken to get us where we are as a club, we can't afford to take a step backwards.

[BerlinWaller]

Don't get me wrong, I am not preaching about any impending doom like others are by any means and I have loved every second of League 1 footy. I am sure Robbo doesn't need telling where we are short, he has pointed it out many times in his honestly delivered interviews. Expansive footy away from home may win plaudits on forums but it will lead to defeats on the park. We need to win ugly and learn to shut up shop to grind results out if we are to stay up. I know Neil thinks it is dire to play that way but it is vital we can do it over the winter months. Cambridge is massive on Tuesday night

[Little Shrimp]

We can't carry on playing like we do away from home. League 1 clubs will pick us off if we keep playing attacking football. It does worry me that we have no plan B and Robbo himself says we can only play one way. Last season Adams could change it by dropping Songo'o in to a back three away from home to tighten it up. Robbo needs to add steel in January as we are too soft and easy to expose.

Sorry, but this stuff about 'no plan B' is just not correct. We've switched to 3-5-2 on many occasions this season, including two mid-game changes against Blackburn and Sheffield Wednesday which helped get us a victory.

Going to a back three doesn't automatically make you better defensively. It can help in some situations, like against Sheff Weds, but it can also have virtually no impact on defensive problems, like against Cheltenham. In fact, the switch against Blackburn made us more effective in attack.

It's true Derek used to drop Songo'o into a back three occasionally, but I don't think this was ever particularly helpful as we just lost too much in midfield. I felt it almost cost us the game at Wembley - we ended up lacking control in midfield and invited far too much pressure on.

We were able to be so good defensively last season at times (later on in the season mainly) because we were super organised, worked very hard and played to the strengths of our defenders who lacked in pace, but would win pretty much everything in the box.

Yesterday, we once again competed very well with a top L1 side. No doubt they caused us trouble, but we caused them plenty of trouble at the other end. We missed an open goal, and got in at the bi-line several times and could maybe have done better in those situations once there. Despite nobody in attack having a really stand-out performance, we created quite a lot.

But losing those first contacts at set pieces and crosses is such a big issue now. I was very disappointed with Delaney - he had a good game vs Plymouth but was twice beaten for that first contact for their first two goals. He's 6'5 but that's irrelevant if you're not going to challenge properly. AOC isn't brilliant in the air but is more effective than Delaney is as, despite his relatively small size for a CB, he's much more aggressive.

There's been an on-running debate over if we'd have Songo'o back or not. Definitely not in midfield, but we could do with someone with his kind of aerial ability/aggression at centre back.

[redrobo]

Don't get me wrong, I am not preaching about any impending doom like others are by any means and I have loved every second of League 1 footy. I am sure Robbo doesn't need telling where we are short, he has pointed it out many times in his honestly delivered interviews. Expansive footy away from home may win plaudits on forums but it will lead to defeats on the park. We need to win ugly and learn to shut up shop to grind results out if we are to stay up. I know Neil thinks it is dire to play that way but it is vital we can do it over the winter months. Cambridge is massive on Tuesday night

I think that is what I implied in my post. We need to play ugly away from home even at the expense of entertainment. Leave that side of our game for home matches. Those who travel way will accept playing ugly if we get the points......

[BerlinWaller]

3 at the back worked brilliantly at Blackburn because we were torn to bits in the first 45 when we tried to play 433. When we matched up with Rovers, we were by far the better team. Switching to a back 3 doesn't need to be the only alternative. Our midfield are technically very good but besides Toums and Shane, we have very little defensive work rate. We can't tighten the midfield and we don't have the work rate of CMG and Slew/Sully out wide to double up with the full backs. I am enjoying the gung ho attitude as much as anyone.

[marky No.1]

14 goals conceded and no wins in October. However we do it, we need some points in November.
A win on Tuesday would give everone a much needed boost

[Redalert1970]

Cambridge at home will be the lowest crowd so far this season but we need to stick with the players and management even if we go a goal behind

I’m praying for three points but it’s not the end of the world if we don’t get them …after all it’s just a game of FOOTBALL