Haven't seen the second yellow back but it sounds like a bad decision. The frustrating thing for me is that he gladly gobbled it up when their defender dived onto the ball in first half injury time, but then was seemingly desperate to book us for it later on. It's one of those inconsistencies that's always irritated me about football; that defenders can go down under absolutely no contact, especially if facing their own goal in their area, and everyone just accepts they're allowed to buy a free kick and it's somehow different to diving as an attacking player, and it doesn't seem to bother anyone but me for some reason. I’m totally with you on this one. Another is when an attacker gets a shot off, it goes wide or the keeper saves it and someone attempting to block said shot slides in and wipes them out. It’s almost exclusively never a pen. Why? Can you imagine playing a pass then getting poleaxed by a slide tackle after you’ve played the ball? Unquestionable foul and immediate booking if not red card. I’ve always found that incredibly frustrating.
Alzate was one of the main reasons we passed the ball backwards quite a lot of the time. He had loads of options to go forward but goes for ball retention most of the time. Thats why it changed for the better when he came off. Hopefully just a one off performance.
2 scrappy wins at home in a row will do a lot for players and fans alike I reckon, win our next, another should win game, and I hope we see confidence come back and a lot of the anxiety that's built up in the crowd gone
Though Oxford were largely a bunch of cloggers, I thought their defensive midfielder Alex Matos was excellent, he's 20 and on loan from Chelsea.
I moved across into South stand for second half. I ended up right in line with pen incident. As far as I was concerned it was a pen. The kid put his leg across Peurta and brought him down..Yes, he went over the leg but their kid dangled it there. Ref was in the D. I can see why he thought he went down easy, but he's 10 yards behind it. Bottled it. Can City appeal it? Poor decision.
The 7 who came on looked dangerous. Same guy who hit the bar. Pleased he wasn't on from the off. Other than him, mostly ****e. I can see them going on a losing steak. Hopefully.
Their best player by a mile..Haven't looked at their run in but a couple of more defeats and they'll do well to keep their heads above the waterline.
Someone behind me noticed that he was winning the ball for them a lot and then kept pointing out "him again" every subsequent time. It really was a lot.
He was their next best player, Przemysław Płacheta, they got him on a free from Swansea (he was at Norwich before then, but I don't remember him). No idea why they waited over an hour to bring him on. I've just read the match thread on the Oxford forum, there's a lot on there that want to see Rowett gone.
I read that OLM. Saying if they go down he'll walk....Not a happy bunch of campers. But TBH they were poor. How the hell we lost at three sides, still baffles me. We weren't much better last night, if the truth be told. Getting rid of Rowett would be a mistake, but eh that's down to them.
I think Alzate is just a bit knackered having played a lot in the last few weeks. Gelhardt looked out on his feet also toward the end and although it’s a pain in the arse, at least Puerta not playing Saturday means he gets a rest for the key games against the relegation rivals. I’d be happy with Palmer coming in for Puerta, I think he has done enough last night to step in. Harsh on Slater, though maybe give Alzate a rest and swap him in because West Brom’s midfield is decent. Loathe to change much in a winning team, but playing tired players isn’t going to help us no matter how good they are.
This isn't exactly true yes there was a mass exodus on the final whistle but I think that's to do with it being late and cold. Might be just where I was sat but I didn't notice anybody on my row or the 2 or 3 in front leave early
It's funny isn't it , Rowett came in and made an immediate impact and they won games , now they haven't won in 9 and look to be in trouble I'm very happy with Ruben Selles , I think we're making slow and steady progress
On their matchday thread, they were praising Selles for making three changes to change the game, apparently he did exactly the same with Reading against them last season.
