Let’s get the controversial bit out of the way first. Today’s game between Cardiff City and Oxford United was just a few minutes old when Oxford’s Przemyslaw Placheta grabbed Callum O’Dowda’s shirt during a City attack to concede a free kick by the corner flag. I can’t think of an occasion I’ve seen this season when such an offense did not see a yellow card being brandished by the referee, but, bafflingly, Farai Hallam chose not to caution Placheta – I can only think that the official decided he’d let the Oxford player off lightly because it was so early in the game.
About half an hour later,Placheta had switched sides and had become involved in a running battle with Perry Ng. Hallam had already lectured both players about their conduct, but this didn’t stop Placheta going in late on Ng as the defender was clearing the ball – it was a nasty foul which, arguably, merited a straight red, but, again, the referee was lenient and deemed it worthy of just a yellow – there could be no doubt that,one way or another, Oxford should have been left to play two thirds of the game a man short, but, instead, manager Gary Rowett was allowed to withdraw Placheta at half time with no harm done to his team’s prospects.
City have the right to claim they were robbed by the referee’s ineptitude there. However, I can’t get too worked up about the injustice of it all because, even if it had been eleven v ten for about an hour of this afternoon’s match, I can’t help thinking that this City team would still have found a way to draw the game 1-1 after having taken the lead. It’s what this City team do and, after Yousef Salech had nodded us ahead, we were pegged back by Oxford inside the last ten minutes on a day when all of the other sides down the bottom won.
A combination of us taking the number of points we’ve lost from winning positions up to twenty five and results elsewhere should mean we now need snookers to stay up given how unconvincing we’ve been since mid March. Incredibly though, we’re now left with games against the two most out of form sides in the Championship to finish our fixtures for this miserable season.
West Brom and Norwich can’t wait for this season to finish, they know they’re going to be in the Championship next season when the expectation for both teams back in August must have been that they should be contesting the Play Offs. Collectively, West Brom and Norwich’s record over their last dozen matches is won two, drawn one and lost nine. Of the other twenty two sides in the division, you would back twenty one of them to beat them both if they were completing their seasons with matches against them, but the fact that West Brom and Norwich face Cardiff City, now the team with the least wins in the division, in one of their final pair of matches will give the Baggies and the Canaries the belief that they’ll be earning a few more points yet in 24/25.
The appointment of Aaron Ramsey as interim manager has had an uplifting effect on the club and this was apparent in the way the crowd stuck with the team throughout (quite what it would have been like at the end with Omer Riza in charge does not bear thinking about). Everyone so wanted Rambo to succeed, but, for much of the game, I couldn’t get that old saying about silk purses and sow’s ears out of my mind – for all of the renewed enthusiasm and the increased vigour from the team, there wasn’t a great deal of difference from what we’ve all become too used to in recent months.
When all’s said and done, if we can’t keep a clean sheet against a team that as were as feeble in their attacking play as Oxford were today, then when will we?
Okay, okay, I know Oxford’s one on target effort was a tremendous free kick from over thirty yards out by Cameron Brannagan that you just have to concede was a stunner which you can’t blame any of the City players involved for, but you could ask questions as to why gaps were starting to appear in our midfield press in the areas in front of the back four where previously there had not been any. Sivert Mannsverk felt he had to give away what I still call a professional foul which earned him a booking and he would have thought it was far enough out not to pose a direct threat to our goal, but he figured without Brannagan.
In the minutes after Oxford’s equaliser, I couldn’t help but wonder when was the last time a City player hit a shot from distance really sweetly? Now, I accept that it was an exceptional shot, but Plancheta scored a beauty in the return fixture on Boxing Day as well.
In total contrast, I’m struggling to think of shots from distance by City players in league games that have even come close to scoring. I’m often surprised by how many goal attempts we’ve had in a game, but that’s because I’d temporarily forgotten about how much our players like having a go from distance. Most matches see a variety of Efforts from twenty five yards or further out which either go dribbling wide or into the keeper’s hands – failing that they have the fans in row Z diving for cover.
Seriously, I have to go back to Aaron Ramsey’s goal at Leicester last season for the last one I can remember in a league game that had me reacting with the sense of wonderment you get when you see your team score a really special long range goal.
As for this season, Rubin Colwill scored a ridiculous long range goal in the League Cup tie with Southampton. Now I don’t want to go starting yet another online debate about Rubin, but you contrast how easy he made scoring that stunning goal look with how difficult he finds it to replicate that shooting ability when there are league points at stake.
I use Colwill as an example because at least he has been able to come up with a “worldie” to show he can hit long shots as cleanly as Brannagan and Plancheta did against us. Generally speaking though, our players are unable to conjure up the technique required at optimum moments.
This failure to operate with precision under pressure has more mundane consequences such as the lack of quality from dead ball deliveries that has dogged us all season and the necessity for extra touches when trying to perform what should be one or two touch passing.
I believe these failings are due more to a combination of tension and a lack of confidence than a lack of ability. Indeed, I think in terms of natural ability, this squad is stronger than many of it predecessors since 2003, but their failure to show that inate ability on a consistent enough basis, together with other weaknesses such as dreadful defending, lack of depth in some positions, an absence of what I’ll call streetwise qualities, eccentric selection and tactics and a lack of leaders means that they are the weakest City squad since we returned to the second tier twenty two years ago.
Aaron Ramsey’s first selection saw just two changes with Perry Ng back at right back enabling Andy Rinomhota to switch into midfield so that Alex Robertson could push forward more. The change from 4-4-2 to 4-2-3-1 saw Yakou Meite dropping out while the second, more straightforward, switch saw Chris Willock come in for Will Alvez.
Willock was to figure in virtually all of City’s significant attacking moves in some way. First, he shot carelessly over from ten yards early on following a lovely piece of play by Robertson which was at odds with the usual lack of creativity shown by the team. There was a better effort from Willock which curled not too far wide as City reached half time having been the better team as evidenced by their five goal attempts to Oxford’s none.
Willock then came up with City’s best cross of the afternoon after a subdued opening to the second half which Salech met on the far post to nod in from six yards. Sadly, experience has taught supporters that this team needs that second goal to start feeling confident about getting three points and so it proved again here. For all of the positivity his appointment has engendered, Aaron Ramsey is not a miracle worker (or at least i don’t think he is) – he’s not going to be able to sort this flawed squad, and club, out in a fortnight.
Hi Paul.
As ever, an excellent summary on another frustrating performance that absolutely typified our season. Think we could still be playing now – 24 hours later – and still not get that second goal! Obvious to all of us that we needed that cushion given our propensity to give away goals with poor defending.
Accepting that the free kick was a worldie, have to agree that it was a tired challenge from Mannsverk that led to it.
I was also trying to recall when a City player last did anything remotely similar, so thanks for the reminders! However, serious point that without such ability on our side and with consistently poor dead ball deliveries and the need for second touches etc, we are very limited in exactly where our goals are likely to come from.
Goutas dead ball threat now gone, little creativity without a fit Ramsey and lack of confidence from our other creative players plus, when did we last get given a penalty for instance? Can’t remember.
On the positive side, it was a better atmosphere than would have occurred without the management change and there was a noticeable increase in effort. However, these things are relative and seems the “effort” from nearly all of our rivals over the last week or so has been considerably greater and resulted in wins and not draws .
Think we not only need a couple of snookers now to survive, but also a belated Easter miracle! Just don’t see it happening so resigning myself to the delights that await us of League 1 and another Summer of change and uncertainty. So sad, given the potential of our club and even this squad of players which are, arguably, better than those we had last year. However, Messrs Bulut and Riza managed to mess things up for us – without wishing to open up a whole new thread on the poor contributions of our owner and the Board to this landmark season. I can’t say we don’t deserve the drop given our terrible form, but still feels like a kick in the proverbials!
When I was predicting relegation…. at the same time our 4 experts at WalesOnline were predicting a far rosier outcome.. https://tinyurl.com/58j8fh8y
And things have not started out well… is Rambo really Riza in disguise?
No Bagan, no Goutas to partner Fish in a back four, and substitute appearances from lightweights like Alves and Colwill are really from players not having the necessary oomph and stomach for a relegation fight… and worst of all, Ramsey showed the same inability that Riza had, to see that Salech needs to play in a 4-4-2… he is not strong enough to play as a lone striker.
And as for taking him off… dear me, we needed GOALS. Cross the ball aerially in his direction when he is in the box, and you’ve a fighting chance of a decent effort at goal… although when he has two big men marking him and nudging him as he jumps, it stands to reason he needs another teammate at his side to take some of that pressure off him.
As for taking him off when he was showing no sign of injury: well, it is a mystery how some folks’ brains work.
Thanks Paul for your report. As usual, you zero-in on all the relevant details, as indeed does Huw in his assessment.
Like both of you, I was wondering why our chaps don’t seem to have a John Buchanan… or going back even further, a Peter Hooper in their ranks… and the relatively recent cases of Ramsey and Colwill’s lone efforts at a ‘Peter Lorimer’ helped jog my failing memory… but neither player has been known for power shooting.
Do you remember that season when after a couple of months, Aaron was surprisingly not only the Arsenal’s top scorer, but was actually I believe for a short period the top scorer in the EPL… (?)
I seem to recall the majority of those goals came from his clever movement and teammates finding him in space around the edge of the area, and him sweetly ‘placing’ his shot into the net… rather than him delivering any pile-drivers… known these days as ‘worldies’… though I reckon that pile-driver is a more accurate term since I reckon the greatest goal he ever scored was that goal at Craven Cottage some 6 and a half years ago.
See in the 2nd clip below… He has literally just come on as substitute. Go to 1.12 here and 22 seconds later, Aaron puts it in their net… with sublime style.
What is remarkable though is that he starts the move on the touchline deep in his half, then keeps the move alive with some fine athleticism getting his head to it to keep the momentum, and executes the goal with the accent on the third syllable. What a CUTE finish.
Now that is the sort of short forward-passing style that I like in soccer: spare me the famous 60 uninterrupted pass goal Rangers scored against hapless St Mirren at Ibrox 2 years ago.
So much of that was unnecessarily backwards… they could have easily gone for the jugular within 15 passes… I have to watch this speeded up, or I fall asleep…https://tinyurl.com/4sen59tb
But back to Mr Ramsey. This is what I call a true ‘worldy’…
https://tinyurl.com/ycxavhem
As for Cardiff’s midfield players, only one can be trusted with free kicks and corners… and that is Joe Ralls. Quite why we persevere with Alex Robertson taking both, mystifies me: his are dreadful.
Hopefully he will not be with us next season… and certainly the Norwegian also has been a disappointment and can go back to Ajax.
And I want to make a serious point here about his gratuitous foul that led to Oxford’s great goal. Had he known of his shooting power, he would have realised this free-kick was right in Cameron’s range.
I wish we would only look for players brought up in this island. (Why? And what do I mean by going all Yorkshire CCC all of a sudden?)
No dear Paul, xenophobia is not a feature of my day-to-day living. But it is simply the realisation that had Mr Mannsverk been brought up here and become a footballer, the chances are he will have seen Cameron Brannigan exhibit his extraordinary dynamic shooting power many times since 2019… if he recorded every EFL highlights programme on ITV since then, as I have.
Okay Brannigan has not been a regular scorer this season, but every game I see him in, he is as omnipresent as a shooting threat as is Will Vaulks as a master of the long throw… a feature of Will’s game that the (self called?) intellectual cognoscenti amongst our fans never remotely valued…
Cameron really seems a nice chap, eh? His career has gone under the radar a bit… but I have always liked him…
He comes over well here, talking to his own club’s media…
https://tinyurl.com/uaswhcnv
Right, that is me finished. A word if I may about bereavement.
If it seemed that I suggested that my losing my dad at 10 somehow trumped Omer losing his at 44, then I can only say that I should express myself better.
Of course Paul, I can well understand your own grief at losing your own dad when you were 34… after all I was well into my 40s when I lost my mam at 92… and that took me so by surprise that I was in a daze for weeks afterwards. (I was so sure that she would have got a Royal Telegram just 8 years later.)
No… my point was that Omer allowed some at the club to use the strain of bereavement as an excuse for his total loss of control against the Swans. Sorry Omer, it did not wash then, and it does not wash now… and it is disappointing you raising that bereavement again in your goodbye note to those fans who include incidentally those you recently called ‘clueless’.
DW.
Thanks both for your replies. Huw, I’ve not given this a great deal of thought and am talking off the top of my head here, but I can only recall one penalty we’ve been given this season. It was in the home game with Blackburn and came more from poor, panicky defending than anything we did – Turnbull saw his penalty saved, but got lucky as the ball rebounded into his path and he was left with a tap in. The galling thing is, apart from the wrestling matches we see at corners and free kicks, I can’t think of any obvious penalties we’ve been denied and I can’t help contrasting how it seemed we’d always get a penalty in home games fifteen years or so ago when we had the likes of Bothroyd, McCormack, Chopra, Whitts and Burke in the side. They were all players who dribbled with the ball in the penalty area and we have dribblers such as Tanner, Ashford, Alves, Willock and Meite in today’s squad, but I’d say the difference between then and now is two fold, first the current players don’t get into the penalty bix often enough and, second, when they do, the defenders are confident that they know what is coming whereas the five from around 2008/09 had the capability of bamboozling defenders.
You’re so right to say our increased effort on Monday is relative. I’ve just posted on a messageboard, that what we saw on Monday should be the minimum you expect from a team staring relegation in the face – I wouldn’t say that the team weren’t trying in Riza’s last four games, but it was as i9f they were feeling sorry for themselves and it seemed to me at times that they looked resigned to their fate.
Dai, I heard someone on a City podcast saying that Cameron Brannagan will never have hit s hot in his life like the one he did on Monday, well, I’m glad someone else knows that he’s hit quite a few high quality goals from distance in his career. Brannagan was a good quality League One central midfielder for years and was surely one of those that the Oxford management would have had few worries about coping at the higer level when they were promoted.
Regarding Ramsey, I’d say he had the “piledriver” in his armoury
https://youtu.be/vRHeXQyCPiI
but, I agree, he will be remembered for clever finishes like the one you linked to rather than spectacular long range ones. One other thing about Ramsey, someone on the messageboard said he couldn’t remember City as a team playing another pass like the one he does here in the build up to our equaliser in this match
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvBhX-rFYMc
I think he’s got a point.
Agree with you about the Salech substitution, we’ve only got two games left with a decent sized gap between them so, unless he’s absolutely out on his feet like Mannsverk was, you have to keep your only available regular goalscorer on the pitch all of the time surely?
I’m not a fan of two big men up front in a 4-4-2 in the modern game, but I’d like to have seen Isaak Davies given a go alongside Salech – it’s not going to happen this season though, yet another hamstring injury has seen to that (there’s going to be all sorts of inquests held into this season if we go down, I hope there’s one into the number of injuries we’ve had, particularly hamstrings).
Morning all. I’m late with this but something Paul mentioned has motivated me to reply – I’m referring to the wrestling at corners which the defending side invariably aren’t punished for. It makes me mad when you see defenders holding an attacker to stop his movement before the kick is even taken and then the rugby tackling when the ball is in flight. The ref is almost always in full view of it and the result is always the same – a free kick against an attacker for trying to free himself! I don’t understand why more fuss isn’t being kicked up about this because it’s reducing some set pieces to a farce.
Hope everyone had a good Easter (away from the football!).
Paul,
Re Isaac Davies…you will recall that when I suggested a 4–4-2 as the best way to use Salech… it was Isaac who I named as my ideal Keegan to Salech’s Toshack. (Although of course, our duo would have to ‘go some’ to even be a pale shadow of that glorious coupling.)
Re Salech’s partner: what I knew most of all was that Callum Robinson assuredly was not that man.
Oh incidentally, re that delicious Ramsey goal against Fulham: the Sky Sports editing of those highlights bizarrely does not show that goal in full… it misses a nanosecond of Ramsey taking the throw in that leads to the goal…!! You see him moving off the touchline to get the ball returned to him… but folk seeing that goal for the first time, will not be aware that Aaron actually takes the throw-in.
Somehow that realisation makes the goal even more of a ‘worldy’ for me… that and the knowing he has just come on as sub.
Two things that pleased me about the Oxford game, that I did not mention.
First to see Ramsey and Gunter momentarily hugging each other and dancing for joy when City took the lead. And second, did you notice the look of genuine joy on the face of Méïté (at that time still a sub who’d been warming up) as he bid to be the first to embrace Salech as he ran behind the goal in celebration?
Both occurrences seemed very heartening and genuine… and augur well for a sense of team unity in Div 1.
And now a downside that I never mentioned.
Whether Rambo will get away with playing out from the back in Div 1 is a moot point… we must remember that lots of opposing teams will see victory over Cardiff as a real scalp, and will raise the fervour and quality of their press… especially when urged on by a passionate home crowd.
To me, the solution is easy… aim your goal kicks deep (remember that you cannot be offside from a goal kick) and aim them at Salech’s head… and have Isaak slightly behind but within 12-15 yards to hoover up any ball that deflects his way off either attacker or defender.
But hey, that is just too simple for the footballing intelligentsia… of which I am proud not to be a member. They all want football to be chess: I prefer to play draughts… although I realise that the rules of chess are much more complex.
Interesting question: do you reckon a Gary Kasparov could have beaten the late Marion Tinsley at draughts? I would submit ‘never’.
And finally here are my two goals of the season: first Kaoro Mitoma’s for Brighton with his keeper’s assist…
https://tinyurl.com/4jkkaw5a
And second, this recent beauty from Grimsby’s Kieran Green… which the fans of the Mariners I live around, have not stopped raving about…
https://tinyurl.com/435k3py3
Special mention in (my ‘worldy’) despatches though go to Cameron for his fabulous pile-driver against us, and for that thrilling ‘nearly’ Bournemouth goal against Spurs by Kluivert… where alas Semenyo was correctly deemed offside by VAR… for once he was uncharacteristically lazy in not stepping back into his own half… for that would otherwise have been a ‘worldy’ of a goal alright.
How I love quick sharp passing of the ball (as long as it’s forwards)* and fast running into space and first time crosses…
From 0.27 to 1.20 here shows why Bournemouth are the best team of the lot going forward. I watched the game live on TV and knocked my cup of tea over in my sheer delight at the Kluivert ‘goal’… and was cursing Antoine for his laziness in not stepping back two paces… but I could not curse him for long, since Semenyo is my favourite player at the Vitality…
https://tinyurl.com/2kfxnbuh
Semenyo incidentally was a player I first saw as an 18 year old playing for Newport County… and you could see it then… he was marked for greatness. Why Southgate let him be pinched by Ghana, heaven only knows.
Yes I realise he identifies with the country of his father. But Antoine was born in Chelsea and had trials as a kid with various clubs including Palace and culminating in Bristol City. Alas Southgate – nice guy and all that – was not known for his ability to harness future talent… and thus Antoine has pledged his footballing allegiance to a country who once thrilled me with their ‘Black Stars of Ghana’ heyday in the 1960s to 1980s… but are nothing like the same power now.
*I wonder what Rambo thought of City defensive players still passing meaningless little square balls to themselves even against Oxford? (All too afraid to make a telling forward pass in case it got intercepted?)
If he gets the job permanently, he will have to work on that and tell them to show courage.
PS… I am very unhappy with the way football parlance has gone.
It is not just ‘worldy’ for ‘pile-driver’.
I will defiantly defend my use of the word ‘soccer’ till I die… the latest benighted soul to test my ire was a so-called comedian named Nick Dixon on ‘Headliners’ on GBNews recently… who airily dismissed it being seen as a British word transported to the US… claiming the journalist who had compiled this list was a duffer.
According to Nick Dixon: it was always an Americanism… presumably implying they had designed it to differentiate our game from American Football. And thus he was ipso facto implying that we had imported it from them. So blissfully arrogant in his ignorance.
I was going to write in and put him right on its possible etymological and social history… but I thought… no let’s save my breath to cool my porridge. Any TV station that can be so wrong about the history behind the nightmare of Gaza – and seemingly making all its presenters conform with a company view – well, what chance did I have of getting through to them?
And similarly, nothing on earth will get me to conform to this nonsense term ‘he is an ideal number ten’. A number 10…?!
What they are calling a number 10 is really a number 8. A Jimmy Greaves playing just behind a Bobby Smith or an Alan Gilzean… two of so many centre forwards who were happy to distribute to a fast moving colleague arriving at speed from behind. Gary Lineker was another number 8.
A number 10 for me will always remain a deep lying schemer and semi magician with a licence to roam every inch of the pitch. The ‘brains’ of the team… an equivalent – in thinking flair – of a quarterback in American football.
Great number 10s have included Pelé, Maradona, Michel Platini and our own Ivor Allchurch.
Right. Time to make a mug of tea.
TTFN,
Dai.
Clive, the shirt pulling and body grabbing at corners and attacking free kicks is my biggest bugbear in the modern game. Clearly, players are coached to foul these days and not defend in the manner that you and I understand that word to mean and weak officiating lets them get away with it. I’ve said for years that, although it may see games finishing with scores like, say, 15-13 for a while, awarding a penalty every time an official sees shirt pulling or body grabbing would soon see an end to the blatant cheating, but it seems that deciding if a linesman has made a “clear and obvious” error by not spotting that a forward would have been onside if he’d only cut his nails that morning is more important than the blatant cheating that is being allowed to pass as acceptable defending.
Dai, I meaat to mention in yesterday’s reply that the season in which Aaron Ramsey had something like fifteen goals by Christmas was our first one in the Premier League (13/14). Two of those goals came in a 3-0 win for Arsenal at Cardiff City Stadium in which all four sides of the ground loudly applauded his second goal – a reception totally at odds with the one Cardiff born Ryan Giggs got when he came on as a sub for Manchester United at the same ground six days earlier!
Ramsey got injured at West Ham I think it was a few days after Christmas in 2013 amd missed the next three months or so, by which time Arsenal’s title challenge had faded.
However, I remember reading a preview in the Observer I think it was of the 14/15 Premier League in which five or sic of their writers were asked a series of questions about the coming season and two of them answered Aaron Ramsey ro the question eho will be the best player in the division? Obviously, this was not a universal view, but I cannot remember it being dismissed as completely fanciful either.
As for your goals of the season, I think that Grimsby goal is the longest distance one out of all of the deliberate shots from inside your own half goals I’ve seen, while the thing i like most about the Brighton goal is hearing the Chelsea fans (my least favourite set of supporters in the country) derisively shouting “hoof” as the keeper plays his superb pass to Mitoma.
The words you used for the replacement of Riza by Ramsey (last desperate roll of the dice) were the exact same ones I used to my fellow group of supporters.
The main reason I could see for the change at that time was that the relationship between some supporters and Omer was turning sour and if we were to have any hope of getting a result against Oxford, then we’d probably need a large and supportive crowd behind us.
That part worked although the gods weren’t in our favour again as a worldy strike, Oxford’s only shot on target, out of a total of two shots from them all game, meant the points were shared, and the relegation trap-door opened even wider for us!
It wasn’t all the gods fault though – Willock missed a golden opportunity early on, when it looked easier to score than lift the ball over the bar, and in the 2nd half, Salech initially did well to find himself in space in a great position in their penalty area, but from a perfect cross his control was poor and the chance was lost!
Although there were several aspects of our performance that were positive, on too many occasions we showed a lack of quality, especially with forward passes over hit, so beyond the intended player.
Under Gary Rowett, Oxford are becoming almost as horrible a watch as Preston. They led the Yellow card score 3-0 fairly early on, and one of those, by Placheta on Ng, looked like a straight red the more I see it.
He possibly got away with it because it was early and ref Farai Hallam is in his first season as a Championship ref, having only started at National league level at the start of this season.
The Oxford board, presumably for financial reasons, decided to dispense with the attractive football style of Des Buckingham earlier this season, with the risk dropping back into League 1, and gone for the grinding, hard-working workmanlike style of Gary Rowett, basing most of their attacks on long throw-ins.
That’s obviously been good news for former city favourite Will Vaulks,
I’m also writing this with the benefit of knowing that our final two opponents, West Brom and Norwich, have both followed us in making a very late managerial change, although for different reasons to us.
I suppose all we can do is hope we get the bigger managerial bounce inour last two games.
I think the “clueless” remark was the straw that broke the camel’s back as far as Riza was concerned Blue bayou, but I’d also speculate that the changes made among the coaches pointed to a worsening relationship between Riza’s staff and the players.
I agree with you about chances missed – I’d forgotten ab out the Salech one, but it was another one we should have done better with. As the pressure has come on in the c losing weeks of the season, our finishing, never that good at the best of times, has got worse and confidence levels have dropped among our forward players, while there has been a strange lack of trust in team mates which has resulted in better placed colleagues being ignored as someone takes the greedy option – Ashford, who’s usually so good at appreciating what’s happening around him, did it on Monday and Salech has done it on numerous occasions.
I didn’t know the referee’s history, but it was the first time I’d seen and I thought he came very close to losing control of the game towards the end of the first half, but things calmed down after that.
Oxford were physical and defensive, basically what you’d expect from a Gary Rowett team and their Board will say that their decision to change managers just before Christmas was vindicated, but Rowett is one of those managers whose methods make him popular as long as his team are doing okay, if they struggle next season, as I think they will, those fans cheering him now will soon lose affection for him if they are seen as losers, because there’s so little in his playing style for them to cling to in a struggle.
I hope I’m proved wrong, but the double change of manager at the club’s we play in our closing gmaes have turned me from being fairly confident about us getting six points to expecting the worst.