Oxford United Match Thread
 

I am getting quite excited about the match v Oxford United on Saturday. We have been playing some great entertaining football and I have been trying to put the word out to a number of friends and relatives about the way Stanley are playing at the moment. I really hope that we get a good turn out of Accrington folk to get behind the team tomorrow!:jimbo:
The two goals that we scored on Tuesday against Yeovil were simply 'Scintillating'! I am still waxing lyrical about the goal scored by Crooks which took me back to the mid sixties when I had to watch Man United on the Stretford End and 'put up' with my all time favourite player Bobby Charlton smashing them in regularly from outside the penalty box!
More like that one please Matt!:alright:
Like Josh Windass, goals like this will add zeros to your value Matt. IMHO both Josh and Matt could play at a much higher level but I hope that we can hang onto them for most of this season, as with them I think we could get promotion. Of course Stanley is always a club that needs to sell players in order to survive and the inevitable will happen at some time!:idunno:
I always feel a bit sad when we play Oxford as they were the team that replaced us in the league all those years ago when we went out of business in 1962 and we had to resign from the League!
Anyway! Tomorrow is another great chance for us to build a real challenge for promotion. The young lads at the centre of our defence did superbly on Tuesday and I hope that we can get a similar result tomorrow!
It feels a bit strange to have our little club up near the top of the league and it makes my stomach flutter with anticipation of the possibilities for the rest of the season!:couchplus
Come on all STANLEY FANS tomorrow.....
SING, SHOUT, CLAP and CHEER our team onto another three points and help our brave little club defy all the odds!:wave8:
ON STANLEY ON:theband:

Re: Oxford United Match Thread
 

Tomorrow it should be a cracking game i reckon, a good test for us, hope we can replicate tuesday nights form, no contest if we can.;)

Re: Oxford United Match Thread
 

Oxford fans are very wary of us on their forum, but only seem to be worrying about Joss's goal scoring prowess. Good. Maybe their players will concentrate on him and ignore our other potent weapons up front and in midfield! not to mention our transformed defensive powers. Hopefully.

Re: Oxford United Match Thread
 

Good, joss scored a damn good goal on tuesday, but fer me, he aint our best finisher,

Re: Oxford United Match Thread
 

How about a brief word of praise and thanks to Buzzer at the start of this thread. His careful preparation and hard work has produced the playing surface upon which out team have been able to produce the best home performances we have seen for a long time, and created 'Fortress Stanley ' at the same time.
With this weeks fine weather and Buzzer's efforts I'm sure that another pristine surface will be there for all to see and for the REDS to provide another performance to gladden the hearts of all the fans !.
Mustn't be too complacent mind as Oxford will be looking to consolidate their good start to the season and really be up for it !.
ON STANLEY..ON TO GREATER THINGS !!!.

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I see Sean is guaranteed a start as Coley made him his MOM v.Yeovil, above Crooks. Does anyone else find that strange as the posters on here made special mention of 9 of our players in their reports, but nobody thought fit to mention our no.11? I only remember one notable moment from him when he failed to even hit the target when presented with an open headed goal from Piero's peach of a cross in the first half! Am I right, wrong, or just obsessed?

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Thought he had a good game and worked his socks off to press the ball,MOM?,not for me(Billy Kee),but his work rate was 50% higher than of late and i hope it continues as he and Pierro may have some competition
!!! :)

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I though he wasn't that good particularly in first 45.

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To be fair Cashy i think he gives us something different.
Cutting in from the left wing hes quite capable of putting the ball in the far corner and his touch is excellent.
His work ethic is sometimes questioned,but hes seems to have sorted that out,hes been consistent for me and is dangerous around the box.

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Aye i think MoM on tues is taking the pish.:rolleyes:But then i aint qualified.

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ain't it great when the MOTM is so questionable, what it really means is we have so many players having a good game that its a team performance, as cashy said in post 2 this game against a fellow form team should be a good test but win lose or draw I know its an exciting time for the reds

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Best side won, no doubt at all, there first was lax defending n atrocious keeping i thought, crooksy equalised wi another cracker,we then looked like going on to win it, until tuesdays so called MoM missed when it looked easier to score,Chester have been very fortunate i reckon, but well played Oxford, just one thing bugs me, WHY? do we play a home match wi 1 man up front? ridiculous i think.but then i aint qualified.:rolleyes:

Re: Oxford United Match Thread
 

I thought Sean McConville was lucky to stay on the pitch or lucky the ref and assitants didn't notice him kick out after being fouled. Ref to me won that game though, didn't give us anything but soon as an Oxford player tripped, fell did a swallow dive, it was a free kick to them. I also agree with Cashy, lax defending, but I won't blame Mooney for poor keeping. In fact, my thought is that OUFC were the dirtiest fouling team to visit the Wham this season. Every time the ball went near Billy Kee he was pulled, pushed etc etc out of the way. Maybe our players were to honest when to fall over and draw the foul would have been easier. Anyway onto Barnet on Saturday and start again. Oh and please Radio Lancashire don't make us a commentary game again this season.

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The defence looked uneasy all the match against a very good attack and we deperately missed Tom Davies. Balls out of defence were poor as well so the midfield struggled to get enough ball. Can't fault Conneally and Crooks though, who did their best to get us going. I don't know why the subs came so late as things needed changing much, much earlier - a familiar story when we are playing below par. Oxford deserved the points but left a nasty feeling with their cynical, diving play and time wasting. Not too much damage done in our table position and hopefully we can get back to the smooth machine we have become in the last 10 performances or so.

Re: Oxford United Match Thread
 

This bloke's qualified.

Hodgson on the 4-4-2 formation - UEFA.com

Re: Oxford United Match Thread
 

I think on reflection we were beat by a good side today excellent at the back their No5 never give Kee a sniff mldfield they had more bite I think 3-1 flattered them a bit but we were never going to win very poor down the flanks today and I think we should have changed it earlier but a learning curve and if we are going to remain towards the top we need to learn quickly. Just a pity once again we can,t win when we have a decent home turnout for once but hopefully they will come again because we need them behind us. 2 hard away games to come I,d take 3 points as a good return anything else a bonus.

Re: Oxford United Match Thread
 

How long has Mike Newell been at Stanley?

Re: Oxford United Match Thread
 

Dam :(

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Ok the subs terry @ shay were brought on at 3-1 down 5 mins or so to play,will some one explain to me how that was likely to get us a result?:confused:

Re: Oxford United Match Thread
 

Thought Oxford deserved the three points today but we easily have gone 2-1 up.
Shaun missed three goal opportunities today and will be disappointed.
Crookes goal was a worldy out the top drawer and can't wait to see it again.
They won the tactical battle and played 4-2-4 which meant our centre backs were tied up and the fullbacks up against two quick lads.
To be fair no one helped them out by doubling up and were exposed by their players pace which cost us big time.
Runners from deep also caused problems and they pressed us when we had the ball.
Hopefully lessons learned and we move on,MOM -Pearson/Coonnelly it's a toss up between them

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He's not the only one, if you mean Sean!

Re: Oxford United Match Thread
 

I presume you mean the corner where the flag is?

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Lets see- summat different? well yes he seems to score every Preston Guild.:D The disappointment today was the fact he managed to stay on the pitch that long, everyone around me was saying.;) I think i could have even been a league player, if i had a relative in charge. yeh never know.

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On a positive note Sean got into the box despite not scoring !!

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Just watched the goals,fullbacks will be having nightmares !!

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An had are 3 best chances despite playing on the left side of midfield, scapegoat again! Oxford were better than us today an we move on, no one mentions the right back who was poor for us or Windass an pierro not playing well, but as I said we move on, a good run of form has come to an end but we will win more games than we lose this year, that I am confident of.

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Scapegoat my arse, he was shocking today, yet the wise one said he was MoM on tuesday,which to anyone with 6 brain cells is utter rubbish.

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Don't know about that Cashy,there were a number of performances poorer than Sean's
Even the keepers kicking was well below his recent standards.
One disappointment was we never matched their grit and determination in certain areas which allowed them to control large parts of the game.
I know they had us watched and viewed DVDs of us,so fare play to them

Re: Oxford United Match Thread
 

he's been at the club for a while, doing a bit of coaching

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Not the best game we've had defensively but had more than had our fair share of chances!

Crooksys goal was a good un!...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQYI2yB8SY0

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Sean will always be the scapegoat for some,no matter what he does -not saying he's always top notch or full value for money but no matter what he does in some folks eyes he'll never be good enough -

Re: Oxford United Match Thread
 

I agree.

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Perhaps cos he isn't,never will be.

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It's not just the players fault it's the officials aswell that was the worst refereeing I've seen all season how he, also I have to say and I know I'll get abuse for this but windass is rubbish, yes he can score goals but he's weak he's lazy he doesn't challenge for the ball incase he messes up his hair both him and mconville should of been brought off a lot sooner

Re: Oxford United Match Thread
 

A disappointing performance and result for us. Oxford fully deserved their win!

That nuisance Danny Hylton seems to be a real 'Bogeyman' against us! Every time I have seen him against us he always seems to 'rumble' us! I finish up wishing that he played FOR us instead of AG'IN us! He is a clever player both in a creative positive way but also in a sly way, constantly pushing and nudging opponents and being quite unsporting at times! Grrrr!:dflam:
I agree that Oxford in general were a sly lot and were adept at pushing opponents in nearly every 50/50 play! The referee was totally duped by this and it added to the disruption caused to our attempts to play football. To their credit though, Oxford did press us with their mobilty and speed of response and as some of our boys were a bit under par we never really got going. Oxford also seemed to get the run of the ball nearly every time it ran loose!:confused:
Coneely and Crooks were both very good again and Billy tried hard up front on hs own against a big and strong centre half. :(
Our distribution out of defence was poor and young Wakefields match got worse culminating in him giving away the penalty for Oxford's third goal...A match for the youngster to learn from and then file the match result away!
I agree that the two late substitutions were simply too late!
We missed the strength of Davies and Deano at the back although we did look a bit tighter when Deano came on as the first substitute.:hidewall:
Let's hope that Coley and our boys learn from this and then we can get back to top form soon.
ON STANLEY ON:jimbo:

Re: Oxford United Match Thread
 

they just about deserved a win but 3-1 was unjust on us. they seemed to score just at the important times when we were getting on top. first goal not long after josh,s lob landed on the top of the net and the second after the goalmouth scramble where we couldn,t put it away. the main difference was they were carrying no passengers unlike us. liam wakefield had a nightmare and our previous man of the match winner only came to life after he was fouled and then only for a couple of mins. not the end of the world though as when your are on a winning run you always turn up thinking is this the day it finishes. off back to Hartlepool for a few days so will be getting up dates on poor old Ronnie moore.

Re: Oxford United Match Thread
 

One thing that struck me yesterday is how negative a home crowd we actually have. 4th in the league having only lost one thus far and yet from kick off every misplaced pass met with a loud collective groaning sound from all areas. Same people who were ranting over beating Exeter 4-2 a disgrace. There are far more disgraceful situations to be in than a comfortable win.

As for Sean....he's this seasons scapegoat it seems. Joining the ranks of Joyce, Peter Murphy and Matt Crooks in seasons gone by. As the third goal went in a chorus of "mconville.....blah blah....jimmys nephew blah blah" began. Seemingly overlooking the fact that Jimmys son once played for us and was farmed off for not being good enough....this blowing a hole in the nepotism theory.

There were far worse players yesterday. Windass went missing for example.

At least when Proccy's back it will go back to being him. :rolleyes:

As for the game...poor goals to concede. If that crazy goal line scramble at the Clayton ENd is poked in we win the game. On the balance of play they were quicker and stronger and deserved it. Let's not panic and change things too much for Barnet.

Coleman Out. I miss the days of 12 without a win. :rolleyes::D

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Another using the word scapegoat,:rolleyes: Just tell us this, if hes so good WHY has NO club kept him on? Certainly he can produce a good game, but few and far between, in other words "Flatters To Deceive" that seems to me to be the reason no club in the league kept him on.

Re: Oxford United Match Thread
 

Are you sure about this? From what I read Bell jnr. was offered a new deal, turned it down and cleared off in search of regular first team football. I wonder if he found it?

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I think you get negative supporters at most clubs win lose or draw they just like moaning as I was leaving yesterday Wakefield where did we get him from Doncaster I shouted back thinking do they know anything about any player but people pay there money and can say what they like I suppose and more through the gate and you will probaly get more moaners that,s football as for Sean McConville I can think of at least 4 or 5 players who had a worse game yesterday some players just are,nt liked what ever they do by sections of the crowd, I just try to get behind every one in the red and white of Stanley.

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Here you are Alvin:

Accrington Stanley - Bell turns down new contract offer

Re: Oxford United Match Thread
 

Last known club Marine 2009 probaly playing in lower leagues now if still playing.

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Not on the Clayton End! If it bothers you that much you should move.

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Now the dust has settled,for me it simple,just a bad day at the office.
We have defended well in the first ten games,but we got punished yesterday for a mixture of poor finishing and naive defending.
Its not that we are a bad team or the shape of the team is wrong,just errors at key times.
Positives,we created chances and looking at the bench,plenty strength in depth.
We just looked a bit open from the off yesterday,with passes going astray and struggled to build a head of steam.
It happens and we learn our lessons and move on.

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Was on the Clayton End actually. Moaning galore towards the left hand side although not to Main Stand standards. With a ground as compact as ours it must make a difference to the lads. Football19...even more evidence as we didn't rate him highly enough to offer a competitive deal.

A bad day all round. We shall regroup and smash Barnet with a Macca hattrick. 2 defeats in 11. I'll take that. Factor in we should really have beaten Luton and Northampton.....:)

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The main stand is the place to be !!!
Takes moaning and critical slating to a new level,great to listen too tho and is very entertaining :)
Sean Mac gets hammered even in the warm up !!.
Wouldn't want to watch the match from any other place lol

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The ' get it up t'field' lads in The Main Stand were in full flow at one point !, and a new call emerged from one of them .....' What do they keep passing it for ?...and yes it was closely followed by 'get it up t'field' '...
The odd fickle remark has now become a mantra almost !.... and it doesn't half get you down !

Re: Oxford United Match Thread
 

Think we need a little balance. We're all disappointed when we don't win, however agree with F19 - it was a bad day at the office. We've just won 5 on the run, and I'd take 5 wins from every 6 games for rest of season.

All in all, we've had an excellent start. Let's put yesterday down to one of those days where we had 4 or 5 who under performed and they were really up for it, had done their homework and didn't let us get into our stride.

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Offering any deal was evidence of the nepotism you speak of. I never saw Bertrand Bossu play (who many have stated was the worst) but Bell jnr. was definitely the worst player to pull on a Stanley shirt that I've ever seen. Could you tell us where he's playing now?

Re: Oxford United Match Thread
 

From an Oxford fan:-

Forget that Stanley are a small club with a small budget who play in front of small crowds; they are a decent team. I have admiration for them. Jason Mooney is the biggest goal-keeper I’ve ever seen. He’s six foot nine but I reckon they had one outfield player who was nearly as tall. That said, they didn’t play an overly physical dirty game and in son of Dean obviously have a goal scorer.
Coming in to this one they were unbeaten in eight league games and had won the last four. Is this a better time to play them than if they were going through a bad run? I’m not sure but I do know that if you are on form yourself it doesn’t really matter either way.

The first half was pretty even and whilst we didn’t deserve to be losing, were perhaps just a tad fortunate to be one up on the balance of play. But we’ve got skilful players who can produce that little bit extra at the drop of a hat and with getting men in the box at the appropriate moments, goals will come.

The first goal came after Joe Skarz and Danny Rose kept the ball between themselves following a throw in before finding John Lundstram. Our ex-Everton man was thinking only positively as he played a through ball for Roofe. It took a bit of a deflection which didn’t do us any harm. Roofe reacted quickly, got away and pulled the ball back for Calum O’Dowda to finish perfectly. There were other yellow shirts around who could probably have done the job too. I’m not saying Mooney should have saved it but I will say he wasn’t nimble. Whereas this went in, Windass’ excellent lob from distance did not. Fine margins.

Twenty five minutes into the second half we’d been pegged back. Overall our shape had been very good but there were times when the opposition had more space in which to operate in the centre of the field than I was comfortable with. A red shirt was able to stride forward with some ease before passing to Matt Crooks. We didn’t close him down quickly. At the moment he got his shot away we’d got four players pretty close but it was too late. It was a very good finish aided by a bit of a flick off an Oxford boot. I attach no blame to our keeper for this one.

A few minutes later we survived our biggest scare of the game. We did not mark well from a corner which allowed a shot to be hammered in from outside the box. Sam Slocombe, who should possibly have done better, parried, only for the ball to ricochet upwards off Sean McConville and seemingly into the net. George Baldock was not having that and got back to head off the line. Windass then headed over SS and on to the bar with McConville looking like he was going to hook it in. Instead he hooked it over but Slocombe had thrown himself back across goal and may well have kept it out if it had been on target. Never say die. It shouldn’t be forgotten that there were scrambles at the other end too, although with a little less intensity.

Five minutes after this incident we’d taken the lead again. It’s not something we’ve been able to say over the years but perhaps we’ve now turned a corner in that we’re keeping the ball from throw-ins and indeed setting up goals from them. Graham received the ball and with supreme control and slippery dribbling skills went this way and that before playing the perfect low ball inviting Liam Sercombe to score. Again we had many men in the box.

That extra bit of dribbling skill and ability to go past players was something we had that they didn’t and that was the difference. That made us better than them and deserved winners.

For the record I’ll admit that I would have gone for a more conservative approach and brought on the defensively reliable Alex MacDonald, not Graham, for the injured Danny Rose. Michael Appleton obviously got it right. His other substitution didn’t look bad either. Ryan Taylor is starting to show a bit in the 10-15 minutes playing time he is now getting.

On 84 minutes the home side made two substitutions which obviously didn’t work as we soon had increased our lead. Again superior dribbling skill did it and there was no one in the ground who thought Roofe had not been fouled.

Liam Sercombe’s name is one that needs to be on the team sheet every week. He brings such a lot to the team. Scoring a penalty is one such thing if you play for Oxford United.

Before I finish this long winded FV I have to mention Accy manager John Coleman and the nonsense he spouted in his post-match interview. Apparently we were allowed to time waste at every opportunity in the first half (Really?). We’re a good side (true) but we’re no better than them. If they had scored that mad scramble they would have gone on to win by three or four. (I think he had some mind altering drugs slipped into his half time cuppa). And he’s confident that they will beat us at the Kassam. (A lot of worse teams than AS have won at our place over the years but what arrogant nonsense).

Did I say earlier that I admire Accrington? Based on the attitude of their manager I’ve changed my mind. He’s just stepped up alongside Evans and Westley and talking of those sort of emotions brings us on to that JPT match on Tuesday.



Also a bit more of the action here. Pen looked a real Premier League job to me, i.e., "He touched me, ref!" Their player should have been booked for diving:-

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vukXazTcU-Y

Re: Oxford United Match Thread
 

They took there chances, we didn't is what happened simple as that to me, but our manager dont seem to me to have learned any lessons with substitutions?:rolleyes:

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It's a difficult one Cashy on making subs as one was forced on us at half time.
Think the right players were replaced but possibly earlier as both died after 70 minutes.
Sean put a proper shift in on Tuesday and for me it caught him up on Saturday.

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Not the issue who was replaced, but it was too late to get any kinda result in my view,I honestly thought that lesson had been learned as its gone on for yonks with the dynamic duo, but alas it seems not, I just wonder how then can the players be asked to learn lessons?:confused:Sean i thought was poor in the first half on tuesday, much better second half.

Re: Oxford United Match Thread
 

Interesting that the Oxford fan alludes to them not being any good with throw-ins. That's one aspect of the game that, imho, has bedevilled Stanley for years. They often seem to take too long time and allow the opposition to sort out their defence. Not a major issue, I know, but we rarely threaten from throw-ins that are in the opponents' half. If we have to take such a long time, is there no-one, other Mr.Mooney:eek:, who can throw a ball into the box from the side-line?

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Their second goal was helped by a quick throw in !!!

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qed;)

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Unfortunately I was unable to attend the match, I have seen the clips and read the comments. one thing that does make me wonder about team selection is the lack of rotation with some of the subs. I notice Gerado came on a couple of weeks ago and scored a cracker of a goal. he does not seem to get a decent run out, He is not the only one. Could someone explain why we make double substitutions so late in a game. It can take a player 10 mins to get up to speed in a fast game, I will be at the next game so if JC or JB need advice i am willing to help.

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Don't forget to bring your badges.:rolleyes:

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...... & your tin hat if you try & offer 'advice' whilst the game's on ;)