[bluepooch]

It really was men against boys with their team possessing a wealth of talent for this level and us fielding a mainly untried untested team who basically despite the efforts of the younger players just werent good enough.

Fulton - 8 .A much better performance ,made some good stops and his handling was good.
Graham 5 Struggled today and looked lethargic.Gave the ball away too much .
Anderson 7 Did his usual thing got on the end of a lot of balls in the box but subtlety isnt in his make up .Still an important member of the team
Hird 6 Didnt do a lot wrong but should be organising his defence from set pieces better seeing as he is the senior member .Their goal being an example of this.
Maguire 7 Has settled in well to the full back role and in my opinion is a better option than Donohue at the moment
Ariyibi 4 What on earth has happened to him ,he hasnt played well for the last 6 games, something has messed with his head .
Liddle 4 This guy has been so disappointing since his arrival.The game basically passed him by yesterday ,I struggle to see what he actually brings to the team apart from the odd tackle, they had so much room in front of our defence yesterday it was unbelievable .
Nolan 5 Good looking player who can flatter to deceive ,gave the ball away a lot and I dont understand why the crowd booed because he was substituted,he was no better than the others in midfield
Mitchell .4 The lad isnt up to it at the moment ,I cannot remember him beating a man and putting in a cross
Dennis 7 I thought he did ok and was surprised when he was brought off ,looked to be the one who could nick us a goal and very good work rate
Wilkinson 6 Suffered from poor service and when he did get the ball was up against very good defenders but stuck at it .

So as you can see from the ratings it was the midfield and wide players who let us down yesterday,I do feel though that the standard of the opposition has to be taken into account and Bradford will definitely be up there at the end of the season.

[Dancingwilldoit]

Agree about Ariyibi, he's going backwards. Wants the ball at his feet all the time, doesn't read the game ie making a run, how many times yesterday did somebody play a through ball for him to run onto and he just stood there looking at it. Hopefully he will watch the match video back and learn something off Bradfords Marshall, I thought he was excellent and Maguire did very well against him.
I didn't think Liddle was that bad. We were only playing a midfield 2 because Ariyibi and Mitchell were just shite and may as well not have been there. That put pressure on Liddle and Nolan and they suffered because of it.
Bradford looked a league above us and should easily win the league on that performance. Thought Nicki Law was superb, good runs with the ball, controlled midfield and made them tick. Good signing for them.

[Devongone]

Very disappointed about Ariyibi, but you have to remember he's a young lad who, since Evans injury, has been looked to to carry our attacking threat and was the subject of bigger clubs looking at him. Give him time to get his head together and keep playing him (we have no other options anyway!) I'm not much for possession stats, but players who take men on always risk losing the ball ....... & when it is obvious their side is being hammered for possession they can't play their game, because they can't take that chance. Remember when Dancing used to castigate Tendayi for losing the ball, but we almost always dominated possession then, so the positives he gave us overrode everything. Now in a Burnley side set up to function on thirty per cent possession he's not even rated worth a place on the bench - they can't afford profligacy when they have the ball.

Saturday's was a failing team before the kick off wasn't it? It is a big ask for reserve players to lift themselves twice in a week, especially when the second ask is so huge.

More negatively the Raglan situation is beyond me. He has clearly radically improved Oxford's defence. They are hardly conceding and are now well above us. Has somebody taken a Tommy Wright?

Danny's substitutions look random. We are losing and he takes off Dennis, possibly our best hope of a goal and replaces him with Dimaio, a defensive midfielder. Then after ten more minutes of no goal threat, he removes Nolan and gambles on young German ........ Now wouldn't you think it would've been Dimaio for Nolan then German for one of two front men for the last ten? I'm afraid it looks like Danny is firefighting, chucking on a change, then thinking of the next thing .... with no more plan in mind than a hope that something might happen.

It's a bonus that Maguire is making the most of his chance, but the best thing that has happened to us is the ridiculous international games on Saturday, because it'll give everyone chance to come together after tonight's probable debacle.

My last guess is Danny doesn't like either O'Shea or Gardner's work rate. I reckon he's on the money that we can't afford both on the field, but is consigning both to the bench a step too far? Clearly on Saturday he concluded O'Shea was a better bet than Mtichell (and Pooch agreed).