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Post by Saint on Aug 9, 2015 17:57:18 GMT
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Post by Saint on Aug 10, 2015 18:39:50 GMT
Saints Starting XI: Welch; Kyriacou; Chappell; Martin; Comley; Locke; Scott Thomas; Corcoran; Theophanous; Hilliard; Allen.
Saints Substitutes: J. Green; Simon Thomas; Medlock; Longe-King; Coulton
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Post by casper on Aug 10, 2015 19:40:32 GMT
HT 1-1
Theo scored.
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Post by Saint on Aug 10, 2015 20:45:01 GMT
Lost 3-1.
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Post by COYS on Aug 10, 2015 21:09:06 GMT
First off, Oxford City were a very good side & I'd be very, very surprised if they're not up at the top end of the table come April.
Having said that, we have to be very disappointed with things from our side. I thought we were set up in a peculiar way, with what looked like a 4-2-3-1 offering no width whatsoever. Also, it's very little use playing five in midfield and one up front if most of our passes go from centre-half to centre-forward. It's been a long time since I've seen a good City side play with one up front.
There was no width whatsoever throughout the 90 minutes, and was disappointed to see Theophanous on the right with 20 minutes to go at 2-1 down. Took us far too long to go with two forwards. I was really struggling to understand the gameplan when at 2-1 down we had Thomas up top by himself, with Theophanous and Allen supporting from wide positions and Green through the middle - the one player on the pitch who could have offered some width, surely?
Good thing about the early part of the season is games come thick and fast so another opportunity to get it right is only a few days away. COYS.
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Post by notsorecentconvert on Aug 10, 2015 21:19:08 GMT
Well, I'll try not to be knee-jerk about it but that was a poor game from the Saints' perspective. Fair play to Oxford City, they hit us on the break time and again and could have scored more. Their third goal was thoroughly deserved, even though we might have nicked an equaliser shortly before that when it looked like Oxford had cleared a chance off the line.
Oxford's first goal came as the result of a quick counter-attack after we'd had a corner. The problem wasn't just that the corner was poor and resulted in nothing but with too many players pushed forward and the whole team slow in getting back Oxford had every encouragement to break in numbers and at speed.
Fair play to Saints, though, they hit back very swiftly.
The forward play, in general, looked a bit disjointed, which is perhaps not a surprise considering Scott Thomas, Theophanous, Hilliard and Allen are all new. They looked reasonably bright at times but it may take a few more games for them all to get onto the same wavelength.
I don't wish to be too harsh on the others because Oxford did look a very decent side – the equal of anyone I saw in this division last season – but the centre backs played Statues too often. The two full-backs were caught out of position or were overlapped too easily too often.
But most disappointing were a handful of incidents that did not reflect too well on the individuals. Ben Martin standing with his arms spread wide complaining at someone else for something or other. Corcoran moaning at his team-mates, including a pretty harsh "For **** sake Luke," after Allen overhit a pass. And the argument between Comley and Gray around 15 minutes from the end should have been saved for the dressing room afterwards. It's a man's game and players can be robust but when you're on the pitch, all scrapping together, it doesn't help much to moan at your team-mates. Add to that some very early moaning from supporters – which caused me to move around all four sides of the ground to get away from some of the most moany!
Anyway, a bit of a rusty old performance against a side that was fully equipped to take advantage. But it's only one game and if the performance at Gosport was as encouraging as Gray made it sound, things will be okay.
Having said that, old Nick Archer's 20-point target from 10 games is looking a bit of a stretch already... Need six wins and a draw from eight now!
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Post by Saint on Aug 10, 2015 21:28:39 GMT
Oxford City are probably the best side we've seen down Clarence Park for a while.... Having said that, we should have done better for stretches of the game, and will look to improve come Saturday.
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Post by bob666 on Aug 10, 2015 22:15:41 GMT
A issue is that we got a tricky game Saturday- given their resources Ebbsfleet should be challenging for the league. If come Saturday evening we got 1 point from 3 games a danger sets the tone for the season. I think quite difficult to assess how good Oxford are, our ball retention was so poor we made it easy for them. They were fortunate to get promoted last season and only drew at home against Chelmsford (who Hemel beat tonight) on Saturday. Maybe the idea that they be challenging is wishful thinking on our part.
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Post by Saint on Aug 10, 2015 22:36:21 GMT
A issue is that we got a tricky game Saturday- given their resources Ebbsfleet should be challenging for the league. If come Saturday evening we got 1 point from 3 games a danger sets the tone for the season. I think quite difficult to assess how good Oxford are, our ball retention was so poor we made it easy for them. They were fortunate to get promoted last season and only drew at home against Chelmsford (who Hemel beat tonight) on Saturday. Maybe the idea that they be challenging is wishful thinking on our part. Promoted last season? They missed out on the play-offs in the Conference North by a point..  And by the sounds of, they deserved to beat Chelmsford. However, the managers will I'm sure rewatch the whole of the game, and will work on things in training and have the boys ready for Saturday. But ball retention was clearly an issue for all to see this evening, especially compared with Saturday. |
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Post by bob666 on Aug 10, 2015 22:41:18 GMT
sorry my mistake. But still think we made it easy for them
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Post by yorkroader on Aug 10, 2015 23:15:41 GMT
Why are we playing on Monday nights ?
Commercially it does not make sense,gates are low and the bar is virtually empty,and clearly a lot of our players cannot manage two games in three days.
Coming up next month we have another one two days after the trip to Truro, great planning that !
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Post by saints17mad on Aug 11, 2015 4:25:49 GMT
We looked a full yard or two off the pace last night and credit to Oxford they deserved to win. Our formation really didn't work well. We were so sluggish compared to Oxford that we couldn't pass the ball on the ground because we got caught in possession. I lost count of the amount of headers we lost and second balls we didn't even attempt to challenge.
Anyway there were glimpses that we could be a decent side, the players just really need to switch on and get up to speed.
Onwards and upwards!
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gooner
Saints Reserve Team Player
Posts: 254
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Post by gooner on Aug 11, 2015 9:36:56 GMT
What a poor game for Saints. No cohesion, structure and team spirit. What ever plan we had to start the game needed to be changed once we saw the threat that O xford
Started with. As for the moaning by team members against each other needs to stop now .
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Post by oldtimer on Aug 11, 2015 9:49:39 GMT
I think we were lucky to lose only 1-3 - it could have been far worse - and I would have gladly settled for a draw as soon as we had equalised. I was really impressed with Oxford and, on the basis of what I saw last night, I would be amazed if they were not vying for promotion at the end of the season. Several of their players would be comfortable in the division above. Let's just pray that we encounter few sides of their quality again.
On the positive side, there were glimpses of good football from the new signings and if, as already been expressed above, we can change the formation, I believe that we can move forward and use this defeat as an experience that we can learn from.
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Post by St Michael on Aug 11, 2015 9:56:03 GMT
We aren't going to get anywhere playing with 2 centre backs who lack pace (just like last season) I also wonder if our full backs are really that good defensively ?
Anyway, early days, and not every team in our league can be Barcelona, can they ?
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Post by midweekjunior on Aug 11, 2015 10:50:28 GMT
Thought the team was crying out for some width last night, but was impressed with Louie. Not sure why Locke stayed at centre half when he was injured, it's the last position you want to put an injured player in! Oxford looked very impressive, but we did make it a bit easy for them towards the end. Some positives to take away from it though; as I say Louie looked decent and Hilliard had some good moments. Hope you don't mind me posting a link here, but I did a bit more of a write up on mattsfootballview.wordpress.com/2015/08/11/st-albans-1-3-oxford-city-a-tale-of-two-cities-2/ |
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Post by Boomer on Aug 11, 2015 11:11:52 GMT
I have to agree with both old timer and St Michael. Oxford were a very, very good side. They were quick, cohesive and were always fully aware where all their players were. We were totally outclassed on the night and it hadn't have been for Welch, we might well have gone down 5 or 6. For me, playing one up front was suicide. Just don't understand it. Oxford must have thought Christmas had come early having to only cover the one man up and an open invite to come at us in numbers from the off, with no real defensive concerns, if they did so. With regard to the central defence, something has to change and quick. St Michael is right on the money and the sooner Comley returns there, the better. It worked brilliantly at the back end of last season so why on earth change it. Nonsensical. Comley has got bags of pace and is the perfect foil with one of the others but the two together with Comley in midfield is a non starter in my book.
Onwards and onwards to Saturday, which will be just as hard a game as last night but still early days.
COYS!
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Post by notsorecentconvert on Aug 11, 2015 11:41:56 GMT
The gaffer has just tweeted: "Tactical geniuses everywhere."
Presumably he reads the forum then!
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Post by Saint on Aug 11, 2015 11:49:40 GMT
The gaffer has just tweeted: "Tactical geniuses everywhere." Presumably he reads the forum then! He probably has an account! |
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Post by PaperSaint on Aug 11, 2015 15:48:08 GMT
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Post by PaperSaint on Aug 11, 2015 21:23:14 GMT
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Post by Hatboy on Aug 12, 2015 19:46:22 GMT
I thought we looked better on Saturday the way we set up than Monday night and yes Jimmy does read the forum and listens to what is said
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Post by casper on Aug 12, 2015 19:58:00 GMT
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Post by Canary Saint on Aug 13, 2015 12:28:04 GMT
Were the defence rally as bad as they looked the video? If so, Oxford did not need to be brilliant, being averagely capable was more than enough.  |
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Post by Boomer on Aug 13, 2015 13:03:57 GMT
Were the defence rally as bad as they looked the video? If so, Oxford did not need to be brilliant, being averagely capable was more than enough. A 5 minute video doesn't really tell you anything. To get a true indication, you would need to view a 95 minute one; either that or to have watched the actual game. Oxford were the best side I have seen down at CP for a very, very long time. |
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Post by jj123 on Aug 13, 2015 13:42:09 GMT
I thought we were quite evenly matched for the first 55-60 minutes with some nice football being played by both. We had a couple of chances to even take the lead before Oxford took a hold of the game. It felt like we struggled upfront for the final 25 minutes with no real idea of what we were doing almost panicing / rushing the play.
Lee Chappell was caught out a few times, but playing along side a hobbling Darren Locke wouldn't have been easy especially with the electric pace Oxford seem to have going forward.
Ben Martin dealt with any long balls well, but his distribution is poor - that's not me singling out Ben Martin - but at times he'd play a ball and we'd lose possession instead of using a simple option.
I thought Welch had another good game, and made an absolutely incredible save in the build up to Oxford second goal.
Roll on Saturday which im sure will be a bigger test than Monday evening.
Apparently some heated words were said between a couple of the supporters and a few players in the bar after the game? Hopefully nothing too serious?
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Post by casper on Aug 17, 2015 10:03:04 GMT
The gaffer has just tweeted: "Tactical geniuses everywhere." Presumably he reads the forum then! He probably has an account! Having seen the prediction league threads, I reckon it's porkypig  ;D ;D ;D ;D |
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And by the sounds of, they deserved to beat Chelmsford.
;D ;D ;D ;D