Home Match Build Up 04/05/2024: L1 Play-Off SF 1st Leg - OUFC vs Peterborough

[Hackney Jack]

Pre Match Pack

Interview - Des Buckingham

Interview - Opposition Manager

OUFC Match Preview

Referee - Lewis Smith

Head to Head

Fair play to the club today, I got an email with ticket details at 4:30pm this afternoon for the first leg of the semi final.

 

[IsleofWightYellow]

I'd drink the entire contents of the East Stand urinal at HT if it guaranteed a win. And snog Firoz Kassam.

What I desperately want to happen and preparing for it not to happen can exist at the same time...! If only manifesting stuff into reality worked. We'd win 5-0 again and I'd be full of P**s getting shagged rotten by Firoz in the overflow carpark at 10pm tomorrow but alas

This has got to be one of the worst posts of the season, surely

 

[tonyw]

3-1 win Dale, Browne, Moore.


Tie will go to penalties eventually. Bran will win
it for us with pen 5.

Lose 2-1 in final to the Bolton meatheads. (Their fans are unpleasant and will gloat for months.)

If Des puts Cam on penalty #5, then he deserves a smack round the head!
You never put your best penalty taker on the last pen because then you risk losing without them ever getting to take one......

 

[RgYellows]

If Des puts Cam on penalty #5, then he deserves a smack round the head!
You never put your best penalty taker on the last pen because then you risk losing without them ever getting to take one......

Can always bring him forwards if needed.

 

[Sarge]

We'll win 3-0 tomorrow - up the manor

 

[tonyw]

Been thinking all week about what could happen tomorrow and Wednesday. If it were a one-off game (like the final) I'd fancy us, but over the 2 legs I'm worried.

Since Des come in...

Oxford have picked up 42 points (1.4 PPG) - 14th most in the league
Peterborough have picked up 53 points (1.82 PPG) - 3rd most in the league

VS the final top 6...

Oxford (under Des) at home - P4, W1, D2, L1
Away from home - P4, W0, D0, L4

Peterborough at home - P5, W1, D2, L2
Away from home - P5, W2, D1, L2

Interestingly, both teams only home wins vs the top 6 were against each other!

So I think you can divide the Des era into pre- and post-Bolton. Up to and obviously including that game, he was struggling to get the team playing the way he wanted them to; confidence was low and we were looking pretty ropey.

After that game he made his changes - most particularly in the centre of the park, where he realized that we didn't have a holding midfielder so no point playing as if we did. I was thoroughly unconvinced that playing two genuine CAMs would work, but I was absolutely wrong as it's worked in spades. It's helped us transition so much quicker, and our high press has been so much more effective. I would argue that we've been comfortably the better team in every one of the eight games since, we just shot ourselves in the foot against Shrewsbury, had the ref shoot us in the foot against Stevenage, and got done by a professional smash-and-grab raid by an ugly Lincoln side (which we are still susceptible to......but fortunately none of the other playoff sides are going to play that way).

So I'm throwing the season-long form guide out the window. We're playing well, we're confident and we know what our best side is (with the only slight question marks being at the FB positions). We should respect, but there's no reason to fear any of these other sides. I think this tie is an absolute coin toss - 50:50 all the way.

 

[tonyw]

Can always bring him forwards if needed.

Actually, this is a genuine question......I had always assumed that you have to submit a list of 5 to the ref before the shootout starts and then stick to it; but can you change the order of your shootout takers during the kicks based on the circumstance? Simple searching isn't telling me the answer!

If so, then fair enough - you save Cam until you have the most need. If not, then I would have Cam taking one of the first three.

 

[QR]

Actually, this is a genuine question......I had always assumed that you have to submit a list of 5 to the ref before the shootout starts and then stick to it; but can you change the order of your shootout takers during the kicks based on the circumstance? Simple searching isn't telling me the answer!

If so, then fair enough - you save Cam until you have the most need. If not, then I would have Cam taking one of the first three.

Well, if you can change the list as you go I'd have Cam taking the first, then change the order so Cam takes the second, then change the order again so Cam.... You get the picture.

 

[RgYellows]

Actually, this is a genuine question......I had always assumed that you have to submit a list of 5 to the ref before the shootout starts and then stick to it; but can you change the order of your shootout takers during the kicks based on the circumstance? Simple searching isn't telling me the answer!

If so, then fair enough - you save Cam until you have the most need. If not, then I would have Cam taking one of the first three.

Will admit I never thought of it Tony, but laws of the game suggest it’s ok to change:

“Each team is responsible for selecting from the eligible players the order in which they will take the kicks. The referee is not informed of the order”

 

[Big Ron]

We'll win 3-0 tomorrow - up the manor

Sarge, I always love your positivity but you are generally s**t at predicting the score!

 

[Sarge]

Sarge, I always love your positivity but you are generally s**t at predicting the score!

Fair comment ... though, believe

 

[PottersRightBoot]

If Des puts Cam on penalty #5, then he deserves a smack round the head!
You never put your best penalty taker on the last pen because then you risk losing without them ever getting to take one......

Stand corrected but he’s always been the last penalty taker hasn’t he? He was in 2020 semifinal. And he won it for us!

 

[tonyw]

Stand corrected but he’s always been the last penalty taker hasn’t he? He was in 2020 semifinal. And he won it for us!

Think that was the first penalty he'd ever taken for us, though? In the league, certainly (he may have taken one in a pointless Tinpot Trophy game, but even I can't be bothered to check that). James Henry took (and scored) every penalty we were awarded in 2018/19 and 2019/20. Admittedly Cam did then also score the 5th penalty in the Cup against Swansea as well........

I'm sure Cam would want to take the last one, because he's the sort of guy that likes pressure on his shoulders. But 1 in 5 shootouts don't reach the final kick, so it's an incredibly risky strategy to hold back your 'sure thing' until then.

 

[Big Ron]

Think that was the first penalty he'd ever taken for us, though? In the league, certainly (he may have taken one in a pointless Tinpot Trophy game, but even I can't be bothered to check that). James Henry took (and scored) every penalty we were awarded in 2018/19 and 2019/20. Admittedly Cam did then also score the 5th penalty in the Cup against Swansea as well........

I'm sure Cam would want to take the last one, because he's the sort of guy that likes pressure on his shoulders. But 1 in 5 shootouts don't reach the final kick, so it's an incredibly risky strategy to hold back your 'sure thing' until then.

He’d actually want to take all 5 kicks!

 

[Eric Blair]

Sarge, I always love your positivity but you are generally s**t at predicting the score!

#IStandWithSarge

 

[Bicsterboy]

So it’s on Sky, no where near a pub, can I use a foreign vpn and pay watch on i follow

 

[derek]

Not looking forward to the Sky commentary tomorrow if their image for the match is anything to go by. Surely the intern could have found a more recent image - I think this is from 2017/18?

 

[Sir Winston]

So it’s on Sky, no where near a pub, can I use a foreign vpn and pay watch on i follow

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Proven FOC website, will definitely be on there.

 

[notThisWayButThat]

Couldn't see a thread but cracking goal for Bolton. Against the run of play.

 

[bashamwonderland]

Losing some tinpot cup final is hardly motivation for revenge.
On the other had they had some idiots there that day, taking the P**s with rowing simulations, etc.

For me it was the constant droning "Yooorrrksha, yorksha, yorksha" chant they were doing. That's grounds enough for revenge in my books.

 

[UTM]

Couldn't see a thread but cracking goal for Bolton. Against the run of play.

Yes against the run of play up to then has you say,it is typical of Bolton too.