Jourdan

7 minutes ago, Foreveram said:

Tickets for Plymouth.

block 21 where I have my seat was mysteriously blacked out after a couple of days has now reopened with another 146 tickets.

total now 236. So anyone that wants one should get one.

Got ours! ?

About 220 left now.

Hope everyone else had some joy! 

10 minutes ago, Van der MoodHoover said:

Sadly the ground is on the edge of Cowley, sort of on the way to Abingdon.

So a dump basically.

The dreaming spires are nice, but overall Cambridge is better ?

I didn’t realise the ground was so far from the centre!

But if you plan it right, it can still be a good and complete day out I reckon.

Arrive in Oxford at 9-10, walk to the centre, have breakfast, do some sightseeing, have a pint, and get a bus / taxi to the stadium at 1:30, perhaps?

You will probably still get a good feel for the city. The centre isn’t particularly big.

Any news on Plymouth tickets?

How many are left?

It’s great to get back to winning ways and a good confidence boost before another big test v Barnsley next week.

I am not sure we should pay too much attention to the table at the moment. It will just cause undue over analysis - too much excitement or worry.

We’ve got to get to 80 points and go from there.

February going into March probably signals our toughest stage of the season with seven games in 28 days. Four really tough away games (Barnsley, Plymouth, Oxford and Peterborough) and three home games which look routine but will become more pressurised if we struggle away from home.

I think we’ll find out all about Warne and this group of players and their promotion credentials in the next few weeks.

Personally I have been encouraged by this week’s response.  One loss hasn’t become two or three. So I think we can feel confident even if we do slip up v Barnsley or Plymouth, for instance.

PS. snap up tickets for Oxford away. It’s such a lovely city and day out.

I think exposure to bad language is inevitable for young people. They will come across it on TV, in the street, in playgrounds, in classrooms. A football ground won’t be the first place they hear it or indeed the last.

They are not going to be shielded from it by sitting in a particular part of the stadium either. I grew up sitting in the North and East stands and have taken in a game from every part of the stadium. You hear it everywhere. 

I think you have to explain what’s right and wrong and then give them some agency and let them police themselves. If you overdo it, they are more likely to play up.

I started going to the football on my own when I was 11 and it never did me any harm.

Everyone always comments on how nice, polite and well-mannered I am. Everyone, except my mother! ?

Bit late but stuck on a rooftop in Oxford...

Come the end of the season, we’ll have played close to 60 competitive games.

I think that is something worth factoring in before we rip apart the squad and the manager for drawing at home. The kind of draw that happens at every level, even to the elite of the Premier League.

We do have a strong group of players for this level, but we don’t have the squad size or depth to have a plan A, B and C and to be a opposition crushing juggernaut impervious to injuries or dips in form.

So of course there’ll be times when players dip below their usual standards. Of course there’ll be times when we miss a certain player and don’t look the same. Of course there’ll be times when Warne and his team of coaches get selections or tactics wrong. Of course also there will be times when the opposition get their tactics right and stop us from doing what we do well as Lincoln did last night.

I think credit has to go to Warne, the coaches and the players that they’ve set standards so high. We’ve lost just twice in 18 league games and there is widespread frustration and disappointment and even a draw feels like a loss.

I know it stems from people feeling like automatic promotion was in our grasp, but honestly it was always a long shot and it was very much reliant on one of the teams above us imploding. That hasn’t happened. What can we do?

I prefer to look at the positives. We are one point closer to the magic 80 point mark and probably only need 7-8 wins and a handful of draws to be sure of the play-offs, something that looks very achievable.

If we replicate our recent home form - 6 wins and two draws in 8 - we probably only need two away wins to make sure of a place in the top six.

I don’t see any reason to be frustrated or any reason to panic. We are right on track and if somehow we continue to waver, let’s not be despondent.

Warne and the players are giving it absolutely everything and we still have so much to play for.

Derby 2-1 Charlton

Hourihane FRGS

1 hour ago, B4ev6is said:

I thought 950 been sold already.

Looking at the site, block 21 is greyed out. It all depends on this.

Block 21 could be sold out already in which case that’s about 950 sold. Alternatively it could be being held in which case we’ve sold just 400-500 today.

Block 22 and 23 are showing availability with 714 available on my last count.

So there are tickets still available but it’s just not clear how many.

1 minute ago, Foreveram said:

We haven’t sold them though ?

Oh. How confusing. Thanks for the updates.

Glad you got your tickets. We’ll be waving to you from the home end at this rate. ?

So we’ve sold almost 950 tickets in one priority window?

? Come to see my garden. You’ve only come to see my garden. ?

Wildsmith

Smith Cashin Forsyth Roberts

Hourihane White Knight

NML McGoldrick Dobbin

5 minutes ago, BramcoteRam84 said:

Nailed on. We’re dispatching the rubbish teams at home. We’ve got mostly midtable bottom half at PP for remainder of season. We could probably get playoffs without winning another away game all season. We’re at worst the 4th best team in this league 

I don’t think we can take anything for granted or get complacent at this stage.

You are right that we are fortunate to have some favourable home games in the run in and if we get back to what we’ve been doing during the unbeaten run, we should still finish strongly. But that’s still an if.

Form can change very abruptly and a few bad results could unsettle us and with games every 3-4 days, it could become a problem.

We still need 27 points to reach the 80 point mark. The equivalent of nine wins. That’s no small matter. It will require focus and application.

1 hour ago, Tamworthram said:

Steady on. Let’s not tempt fate. 

Whilst we’re in a good position and probably favourites or second favourites to reach the play offs, I don’t think there is anyway on earth that top 6 is nailed on just yet. (Cue a certain poster into accusing me of not being positive enough but I’m just trying to keep my feet on the ground and not get carried away).

There is still work to be done, absolutely. We have to hold our nerve and get to the 80-85 point mark as soon as we can.

Just based on the sheer number of games we play in a short time and how small our squad is, we can safely predict that this will be difficult for us.

There will inevitably be slip ups along the way. We have some really tough games coming into the final stretch which will be especially tough if we don’t apply ourselves correctly or suffer an injury crisis. A six point advantage can certainly be whittled down pretty easily if we lose our heads.

Tomorrow night will tell us a lot about the team. If we bounce back quickly and with a vengeance, it will be very encouraging.

46 minutes ago, JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta said:

He might be the fall guy, but Jones' conduct was piss poor throughout. Just bizarre. 

Hard to say really. Interviews with the media don’t tell the whole story, do they?

He was basically getting pelters by the fans four games in. They lacked any kind of perspective.

No wonder he was on the back foot and having to defend himself in the media. No-one was fighting his corner.

I could understand the fans losing patience quickly if he was an interim manager or he was on a short term contract, but he was given a 3.5 year deal.

If he was seen as the long term choice, they needed to get behind him and the team really.

I think the blame here has to lie squarely with the ownership group at Southampton.

They bought the club in January last year. They had six months to settle in, learn the ropes and understand the state of play.

Why did they start the season with Hassenhuttl? They could have made an appointment in the summer and given their own man time to settle, shape the team and bring in players of his own.

Jones is the fall guy really. He’s a good coach with some very good work in the Championship and League 1. But it was a risk to thrust him into such a job mid-season with no experience at that level.

If you are going to take that kind of risk, you need to give him time, support, understanding and be prepared to roll with the punches.

Instead he was fighting a losing battle from day one, inheriting a very young squad with precarious form and their league position already trending downwards, and the fans not on board with his appointment.

No-one at the club has really helped themselves. Who would go there now?

Derby 2-0 Lincoln

Mendez-Laing FRGS

I think yesterday will be a blessing in disguise.

When you go 15 games unbeaten and you’re barely conceding quality chances never mind a goal, you start to feel untouchable and complacency inevitably creeps in.

You can see that in the quality of the goals conceded yesterday. We are usually so dominant that sometimes you can forget how to defend and stay tight as a unit.

So I think this will be good for us in the long run - we stay grounded, we work on ourselves, we remind ourselves of the small margins between winning and losing, and get back to winning ways.

The turnout for this game will depend very much on how close we can inch towards the top two.

If we bounce back from today and pick up form again, we’ll likely be in third and looking to put pressure on the top two.

If we look dead set for the playoffs, I suspect many will decide against the 8-9 hour round trip on a weeknight and watch it on Sky.

I don’t think the away form is a concern.

We have won five, drawn four and lost just two in 11 away league games under Warne.

Plymouth have won five in 15 away from home across the entire season and they have been in the top two for the majority of the season.

Realistically, we don’t need an ‘away scalp’. It’s still just three points at the end of the day.

If we maintain our home form and win consistently at home, we only need to make ourselves difficult to beat on our travels. We have been achieving that, with today being just a minor blip hopefully.

There’s no need to panic, nor should we unless the home wins start to dry up.

We were always bound to have an off day at some point.

This squad has been stretched to its absolute limits and has put together an excellent run despite having to contend with so much.

This should be a good lesson for Warne and the players and should be a great opportunity to refocus and show what we are made of.

My feeling is we’ll bounce back very quickly. 4 of our next 5 games are at home and we have a great chance of going on another winning run.

4 hours ago, Anag Ram said:

 

Yes, great comparison.

Warne is majestic and the way he’s got us winning is getting everyone’s attention.

I hope they enjoy their trips over and keep spreading the word. Imagine if it became a contingent of 30-50!

It’s great to see, but of course, hands off those Wembley tickets! ?

Well, Rosenior never won Manager of the Month, did he?

Guess that’s settled.