Oxford City v Torquay United 14/08/18

[arcadia]

The side Owers started with was nearly the side that played on Saturday but Hall should not have been moved back to centre half.
To many supporters are ready to knock Owers but his decision at half time with regard to the substitutions was correct and we performed a lot better second half and in one spell it was the best we had played this season. Yes a couple of passes went a stray but if we had scored during that spell we would have gone on to win the game we had that much possession.
Plastic pitch
The pitch was very slow and caused problems in the first half but the players forced the ball quicker second half and this suited us.

Introducing a wide player changing the formation helped push them back. I thought Owers should have left Keating on in a wide position leaving Reid on the bench giving us the option of putting him back in the centre later in the game.

[Hammdog2601]

It will be interesting to see what side he picks on Saturday. Id like to see Wright to start with Keating. I doubt he would drop Williams as he is the captain.

[dennisk]

Cheer up everyone, it could be worse.... Chester lost 8-1 at Blyth Spartans last Saturday. COYG

[arcadia]

It will be interesting to see what side he picks on Saturday. Id like to see Wright to start with Keating. I doubt he would drop Williams as he is the captain.

Williams is a marked man every game he has a marker and he gets kicked as he is well known. I would get him to take the marker where he does not want to go out wide and the bring the other striker or midfielder through the middle. This works.

[Southampton Gull]

If only the rest of us understood football ........

[dennisk]

Great idea, Arcadia. Might just work.

[ferrarilover]

We are **** bollocks and no mistake.

The most entertaining bit of the whole night was seeing Dave's pie go for a Burton when an apparently errant strike during the warm up found a much more amusing/deserving target.

What is immediately apparent from even a single viewing of our ragtag bunch is that Owers has recruited using some sort of random number generator and presumably coaches in the same casual manner. There is absolutely no consistency in the approach, talent, or fitness for purpose from one squad member to the next. We've got on the one hand Banton, who, I'm not joking, would not get into Buckland's reserves. Then, on the other hand, we've got Bawling, who was absolutely superb when he came on.

You can talk all you like about work rate and passion and other shit that doesn't matter, but Jamie Reid has GOT to go. He spent 45 minutes on the pitch, we had about 80% possession against a team of blokes who have to pay £2 subs each week and who had been at work all **** day and he still didn't manage so much as a shot the whole time he was out there. If you want someone to run about a bit and achieve **** all, I'll do it for half what we pay him.
In truth, pretty much the same could be said for Williams, except he had one shot and was on for 90 minutes, so it's potato/potato.

A last word on the oppo. Their fans (fan?) are adamant that last night they were "outstanding". Well Holy **** Jimmy Saville, Batman, I'd **** hate to see them on a bad day. Not a single iota of talent between them. That's not to impugn their victory, I just don't want anyone here to be under the impression that we were bested by a side full of talented but amateur blokes who simply don't love the game enough to be professional. Make absolutely no mistake about it, we were beaten yesterday by 11 blokes who could, quite conceivably, have never played the game before in their lives. Picking 11 punters out of the Inn on the Green on a Saturday night would stand a 50/50 chance of making a better team than Oxford City...


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And they still beat us fair and square.

Matt.

E&OE - I haven't proof read this, I'm just wasting time while my apple crumble cooks.

[dennisk]

Funniest post I have seen for a long time, Matt88. Regrettably, most of it is true. COYG

[MellowYellow]

...To many supporters are ready to knock Owers but his decision at half time with regard to the substitutions was correct and we performed a lot better second half ...Introducing a wide player changing the formation helped push them back.

When you gift-wrap the first half to the opposition do not be suprised that Owers 'tactics of a clown; ' come under scrunity. Even under 11's coaches would have the sense not to play 'hoof-ball' with a 3-5-2 'ball-to-feet' formation. The change of formation to 4-2-3-1 in the second half which allows a few hoof-balls, presented the game with an ironic twist -Torquay started to play ball-to-feet.

Come Sat, Mr 'One Trick Pony' will have to seriously look at his fixation with the 3-5-2 formation. I'm not saying it's not a good footballing formation, who doesn't like watching Man City, but WIlliams does not have the pace of Rahem Stirling and Nabi's playing style does not equate to that of Kevin De Bruyne. Oxford were a modest team -not a better one - to whom we gifted-wrapped a win due to a total lack of managerial tactical awarness.

[Inspector Morse]

Oxford City , a pub side who released Jean Niate because he wasn’t up to the standard of National League South.

[arcadia]

If only the rest of us understood football ........

You are irritating. :na:

[Southampton Gull]

To many supporters are ready to knock Owers

Sorry no, too many people are only too well aware of just how crap we were last night. Full time professional club v an organised and determined but ordinary side. They looked more professional, more imaginative and a damned sight more committed to their cause than our lot. The tactics and formation was all wrong and should have been addressed a lot sooner, definitely before their goal. Who is to blame for that?

we performed a lot better second half and in one spell it was the best we had played this season.

Then my God we must have been shite in those other three games because if that is what you see as the best we've played all season, even for a spell then I must have been watching a different game. We created a couple of chances all night, against part timers. We were truly awful.

Plastic pitch
The pitch was very slow and caused problems in the first half but the players forced the ball quicker second half and this suited us.

It caused us problems because we kept hoofing it upfield instead of passing to feet, that's exactly what they did. They got it down and played out down the flanks, we're lucky Paterson didn't get much service because he would have scored.

I have no personal gripe against Owers, I just want us out of this shit league into the less shit but still shit one above. I don't mind a spell of consolidation, a few mid table finishes will suffice for me before we at least have a realistic attempt at regaining our League status. Owers has overseen a drop so far from that it's more a pipedream than reality. That's why I will pick holes in the job he's doing. It isn't good enough, never has been good enough and in my opinion is unlikely to ever be good enough.

[SBP]

This is the issue for me. I just cant see Gary Ower's changing or even trying to learn. We are stuck with this.

[hector]

Sorry no, too many people are only too well aware of just how crap we were last night. Full time professional club v an organised and determined but ordinary side. They looked more professional, more imaginative and a damned sight more committed to their cause than our lot. The tactics and formation was all wrong and should have been addressed a lot sooner, definitely before their goal. Who is to blame for that?
Then my God we must have been shite in those other three games because if that is what you see as the best we've played all season, even for a spell then I must have been watching a different game. We created a couple of chances all night, against part timers. We were truly awful.
It caused us problems because we kept hoofing it upfield instead of passing to feet, that's exactly what they did. They got it down and played out down the flanks, we're lucky Paterson didn't get much service because he would have scored.

I have no personal gripe against Owers, I just want us out of this shit league into the less shit but still shit one above. I don't mind a spell of consolidation, a few mid table finishes will suffice for me before we at least have a realistic attempt at regaining our League status. Owers has overseen a drop so far from that it's more a pipedream than reality. That's why I will pick holes in the job he's doing. It isn't good enough, never has been good enough and in my opinion is unlikely to ever be good enough.

I would tend to agree with this.

We saw enough last season from a manager with an inept managerial prior to his arrival at Plainmoor to not get our hopes up for this season.

On paper the recruitment has appeared to be ok but then similar was said about Nicholson’s signings a year ago. So the opening three results at least offered some hope we would be challenging, even though the performances were rank, especially against the woeful East Thurrock. So defeat to Oxford (not even the real Oxford) wasn’t unexpected, yet it should be. We cannot win every game but some games we should just not be losing and that is one of them.

How can it get much worse? Well it will - probably when we get knocked out of the FA Cup next month by someone like Willand Rovers.

[gateman49]

as Southampton Gull has it:

Then my God we must have been shite in those other three games because if that is what you see as the best we've played all season, even for a spell then I must have been watching a different game. We created a couple of chances all night, against part timers. We were truly awful.

Well, I can vouch for the fact that we were indeed sh.te in two of the other three matches.