Oxford (h)

[guest47]

You think he was at full stretch? Hmmm, I'm not sure about that. It was low and as said it bounced which probably made it more difficult for him.
Taylor deliberately putting topspin on a freekick I can understand but not on a penalty.

They talk about the perfect height for a keeper to save which I guess is why he struck it along the floor. Not sure about the topspin but I'm sticking with a great save rather than poor penalty.

[guest47]

In any event we certainly missed JJOT yesterday, a perfect scrappy game where he could take control.

[guest2677]

They talk about the perfect height for a keeper to save which I guess is why he struck it along the floor. Not sure about the topspin but I'm sticking with a great save rather than poor penalty.

Fair enough. It would be a dull world if we all agreed all of the time!

[everbrite]

In any event we certainly missed JJOT yesterday, a perfect scrappy game where he could take control.

I would have thought that missing JJOT and Williams was the main reason for a basically disappointing result.

[Coolcat]

Yes, Williams missed and especially JJOT. Would have been a perfect game for him to get in their faces...and the inevitable toe poke into the net!

[everbrite]

Yes, Williams missed and especially JJOT. Would have been a perfect game for him to get in their faces...and the inevitable toe poke into the net!

I am surprised and disappointed that our corespondents ( ) on the Oxford Forum did not point out that we fielded a reserve midfield on Saturday. Bound to get them going.

[Starmer87]

Glad to see our stewards and FBI guys in the away end moving people out of the gangways and getting them all to sit down. Absolute joke they are not one pair of bollox between em. consistently inconsistent as always

[The 12th Marquis of Sixfields]

Who cares

[guest2995]

Nyatanga was excellent in this game , but still people criticise him .
Credit to Adam Smith as well because he is back to his best again .
Smith and Rico don't work up front together and Keshi cannot play at the top of the diamond .
Getting really fed up with how we constantly lump the ball forwards aimlessly and give away possession , but we have come a long way forwards from Bristol Rovers away .

[Irchy cob]

I thought Michael smith had a really good game - got through a lot of hard work and his hold up play was decent, the problem is that he doesn't look like he has that many goals in him. JED's got a big decision to make in the summer as there's no way we can go with Rico, revs and smith as our strikers next season and as we know revs is still going to be under contract.

[Terryfenwickatemyhamster]

I thought Michael smith had a really good game - got through a lot of hard work and his hold up play was decent, the problem is that he doesn't look like he has that many goals in him. JED's got a big decision to make in the summer as there's no way we can go with Rico, revs and smith as our strikers next season and as we know revs is still going to be under contract.

Rico is bone idle and if you take away the pens not all that good. Keshi... Well, who on this earth would offer him anything. Smith does an awful lot and puts in a good shift. But if he's going to make it at any level he needs to find the net a lot more. Revell. Not all that good either.

So in short a good clean out is in order.. 

[guest2995]

I thought Michael smith had a really good game - got through a lot of hard work and his hold up play was decent, the problem is that he doesn't look like he has that many goals in him. JED's got a big decision to make in the summer as there's no way we can go with Rico, revs and smith as our strikers next season and as we know revs is still going to be under contract.

If you had to choose one from Rico or Smith next year , who would you have ?
Revell is under contract so he is staying .
Smith doesn't look like he has a goalscoring instinct but his hold up play is good .
Rico has lost his sharpness and eye for goal , and may not last a season .
Unless Rico vastly reduces his wages for a final season , I would get rid of them both .

[Irchy cob]

If you had to choose one from Rico or Smith next year , who would you have ?
Revell is under contract so he is staying .
Smith doesn't look like he has a goalscoring instinct but his hold up play is good .
Rico has lost his sharpness and eye for goal , and may not last a season .
Unless Rico vastly reduces his wages for a final season , I would get rid of them both .

Exactly, which is why JED's got some big decisions to make. My heart says to keep Rico (perhaps some kind of player coach role?) but if we have serious ambitions to progress we probably need to be looking at better/younger/more reliable alternatives. Much as I like smith he's not going to score 15-20 goals next season and if we still have revell there's no point in playing them together as they're too similar, unless we bring smith in as back up. In short I'd probably say we should release Rico and let smith go back to Portsmouth and try and identify that elusive, nippy 15-20 goals a season forward.

[MCHammer]

Clearly wasn't a good penalty else he would have scored.  A well taken penalty is unsaveable

Keshi is playing well out of position.  Clearly needs to be on the should of the last defender or splitting the centre halves.  Circumstances dictate but we saw against Coventry what he can do.

Nyatanga I thought was very good Saturday.  Did the defensive dirty work really well and delivers a bd cent ball forward regularly.

Smith up front also looks alright to me.  I did think there are goals in him with the right service.  Still has a lot to learn though as gives away a tremendous amount of free kicks.  Needs to become a bit more street wise.  Certainly wouldn't want all of Smith, Revell and Richards next season though.

[clarkeysntfc]

Thought the back 5 & GK all played well. Nullified any threat from Oxford except for the couple of A Smith saves in the last 10 mins.

Midfield badly missed O'Toole & Williams. K Anderson was abysmal.

Attack, M Smith did well despite getting next to nothing off the referee.

We created enough chances aside from the penalty to nick the win but lacked quality in finishing.

[GrangeParkCobbler]

Clearly wasn't a good penalty else he would have scored.  A well taken penalty is unsaveable

Thats the thing with penalties isn't it?? Exact same penalty but dived the other way and Taylor had of scored it would have been "excellent penalty, sends the keeper the wrong way"....

As you say, if you can hit the ball into the bottom corner, or the top corner, both preferably off the post, no keepers are going to get all the way across their line to save it...legally!!

[GrangeParkCobbler]

Rico is bone idle and if you take away the pens not all that good. Keshi... Well, who on this earth would offer him anything. Smith does an awful lot and puts in a good shift. But if he's going to make it at any level he needs to find the net a lot more. Revell. Not all that good either.

So in short a good clean out is in order.. 

Almost agree......

Rico I wouldn't say is bone idle but he isn't half the player he was......old age crept up on him! Now he resorts to fouling to get the ball, the ref on Sat saw through that and blew up for fouls all the time.

Keshi......dare I say a poor mans Gorre....IMO he really is that bad.....but you're going to get that from some loanees...who does he have to try to impress? He'll be released soon enough and have to find somewhere else to ply his trade.....

Smith.....yes you can't fault his workrate...reminds me of the period when Revell wasn't scoring...not for the want of trying, but just not a finisher at this level.

Revell.....agreed, a lot of effort again but getting no younger. Natural finisher?? I don't think so!

If I had the choice I wouldn't keep any of them.....I'd look for better. And yes, I still believe that Marquis and Collins were better than anything we have fielded up front this season.

[guest2995]

Almost agree......

Rico I wouldn't say is bone idle but he isn't half the player he was......old age crept up on him! Now he resorts to fouling to get the ball, the ref on Sat saw through that and blew up for fouls all the time.

Keshi......dare I say a poor mans Gorre....IMO he really is that bad.....but you're going to get that from some loanees...who does he have to try to impress? He'll be released soon enough and have to find somewhere else to ply his trade.....

Smith.....yes you can't fault his workrate...reminds me of the period when Revell wasn't scoring...not for the want of trying, but just not a finisher at this level.

Revell.....agreed, a lot of effort again but getting no younger. Natural finisher?? I don't think so!

If I had the choice I wouldn't keep any of them.....I'd look for better. And yes, I still believe that Marquis and Collins were better than anything we have fielded up front this season.

I'm not quite sure how you can say Rico is lazy and in the same breath state Collins is better than all of the current strikers . Collins was very lazy and possibly unfit .
I would however agree that Marquis is better than everyone we have currently .
Anderson is also a much more rounded player than Gorre who had absolutely no idea about anything .

[lordjord]

I disagree that Collins was lazy, thought he always put himself about.

[pattcobb]

I'm not quite sure how you can say Rico is lazy and in the same breath state Collins is better than all of the current strikers . Collins was very lazy and possibly unfit .
I would however agree that Marquis is better than everyone we have currently .
Anderson is also a much more rounded player than Gorre who had absolutely no idea about anything .

John Marquis...