Mortar boards..boards for mortar...V.Oxford Utd. 21-08-21. 1500.

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Mortar boards..boards for mortar...V.Oxford Utd. 21-08-21. 1500.

Post by TANGODANCER » Thu Aug 19, 2021 7:23 pm

Oxford United come to the Unibol this Saturday. Once we could match those dreaming spires in number with mill chimneys, but Bolton is still a world apart from the renowned 38? colleges that make up Oxford, although the kids are getting us there. Right now our interest in Oxford is all about football not cap and gowns. In the immortal style of Ronnie Barker "Mortar Boards, not hats,boards for mortar"

Bring it on... :mrgreen:
Si Deus pro nobis, quis contra nos?

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Re: Mortar boards..boards for mortar...V.Oxford Utd. 21-08-21. 1500.

Post by Prufrock » Thu Aug 19, 2021 7:30 pm

It's that bell end referee from the Tranmere game.
In a world that has decided
That it's going to lose its mind
Be more kind, my friends, try to be more kind.

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Re: Mortar boards..boards for mortar...V.Oxford Utd. 21-08-21. 1500.

Post by LeverEnd » Thu Aug 19, 2021 9:38 pm

Prufrock wrote:
Thu Aug 19, 2021 7:30 pm
It's that bell end referee from the Tranmere game.
He'll have been consumed with guilt ever since and give us more decisions than Uriah Rennie.
...

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Re: Mortar boards..boards for mortar...V.Oxford Utd. 21-08-21. 1500.

Post by DJBlu » Fri Aug 20, 2021 9:50 am

Prufrock wrote:
Thu Aug 19, 2021 7:30 pm
It's that bell end referee from the Tranmere game.
I bet he'll be completely impartial and not take the "report" to the EFL to heart. :roll:

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Re: Mortar boards..boards for mortar...V.Oxford Utd. 21-08-21. 1500.

Post by boltonboris » Fri Aug 20, 2021 10:39 am

Oxford reporting a number of injuries to regular players, but maybe a smokescreen to disrupt our prep.

We did a lot of that last season

1) Sunderland: 28
2) Bolton: 20
=)Oxford: 20

This is the table for number of chances created so far this season in League 1... Could be another open game, full of goals
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Re: Mortar boards..boards for mortar...V.Oxford Utd. 21-08-21. 1500.

Post by Whitesince63 » Fri Aug 20, 2021 11:33 am

boltonboris wrote:
Fri Aug 20, 2021 10:39 am
Oxford reporting a number of injuries to regular players, but maybe a smokescreen to disrupt our prep.

We did a lot of that last season

1) Sunderland: 28
2) Bolton: 20
=)Oxford: 20

This is the table for number of chances created so far this season in League 1... Could be another open game, full of goals


I don’t think Oxford are fibbing Boris, they had 3 of their key players injured recently so we may be playing them at just the right time.

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Re: Mortar boards..boards for mortar...V.Oxford Utd. 21-08-21. 1500.

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Fri Aug 20, 2021 1:01 pm

They’ve picked five different wingers in three games. If it’s a ruse, it’s deep cover.

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Re: Mortar boards..boards for mortar...V.Oxford Utd. 21-08-21. 1500.

Post by officer_dibble » Fri Aug 20, 2021 1:17 pm

Hadn’t appreciated they were one of the favourites. Still, let’s smash em. 5-0 to the supers!

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Re: Mortar boards..boards for mortar...V.Oxford Utd. 21-08-21. 1500.

Post by boltonboris » Fri Aug 20, 2021 1:24 pm

Whitesince63 wrote:
Fri Aug 20, 2021 11:33 am

I don’t think Oxford are fibbing Boris, they had 3 of their key players injured recently so we may be playing them at just the right time.

Let's hope so! Is Karl Robinson their gaffer?
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Re: Mortar boards..boards for mortar...V.Oxford Utd. 21-08-21. 1500.

Post by Harry Genshaw » Fri Aug 20, 2021 1:34 pm

Tough game and shite ref. Could go either way but I'll plump for 1-0 to the Whites.
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Re: Mortar boards..boards for mortar...V.Oxford Utd. 21-08-21. 1500.

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Fri Aug 20, 2021 3:22 pm

Oxford’s manager Karl Robinson is only 14 months older than Evatt but has a decade’s league experience, having been in charge at MK Dons from the age of 29. He took the franchise up in 2015, but back down again in 2016; after spending 18 months failing to correct the flailing Charlton, he joined Oxford in March 2018 and, after a mid-table first attempt, has led them to two successive play-offs without success. They’re back in the zone again, sitting fifth thanks to two home wins – 2-1 over Charlton then 1-0 over Crewe – after an opening 1-1 draw at Cambridge.

His side are another attacking 4-3-3 set-up, and like ours their system benefits from a reliable thirtysomething No.9 who doesn’t let his being well under six feet stop him banging the goals in. Matty Taylor (for it is he) scored 19 last season and 17 the previous campaign for Oxford, thus proving despite his lack of success at Championship Bristol City that he is quite the predator in the third tier: overall he’s scored 47 in 102 at that level, while his assist total of six suggests a touch of single-mindedness.

If Matty Taylor’s is a familiar name, so is Oxford’s chief creator: James Henry. The right-sider we borrowed from Wolves in Parky’s promotion season was snapped up that summer by then-Oxford boss Michael Appleton and has since played 188, scored 48 and assisted 36 – not bad for a player who never convinced at Bolton, scoring 2 and assisting 1 in his 35 games. (The fact he’d got 38 assists in 164 Millwall games suggests the fault was not his.)

These days Henry tends to play more centrally, feeding a rotating cast of wingers. Last season, QPR loanee Olamide Shodipo scored 12 in 45, but he’s now been sent to Sheffield Wednesday; in three games so far Robinson has chosen five different widemen, including returning West Ham loanee Nathan Holland, former Preston winger Billy Bodin, Cardiff loanee Gavin Whyte, Whyte’s fellow Ulsterman Mark Sykes and Aussie Ryan Williams.

One man who will be missing is Robert Atkinson, the imposing but cultured centre-back who joined Bristol City in summer. Blackpool loanee Jordan Thorniley has filled the gap but perhaps not yet the shoes.

Robinson has said 'there are a number of key players who won't travel' due to injury, and while we can always suspect managers of mind games, Oxford have already used 19 players in three league games, with only Henry, his midfield sidekick Cameron Brannagan, goalkeeper Jack Stevens, Thorniley and fellow defensive signing Steve Seddon - a left-back signed from Birmingham for actual (but undisclosed) money in summer – have played every minute.

Per the Oxford Mail, Holland, Williams and Bodin “all limped off” during Tuesday’s win, which Sam Long, Elliott Moore, Anthony Forde and Jamie Hanson missed through injury or illness. Such is the shuffling that Oxford ended Tuesday’s game playing 3-4-1-2, with Seddon and Whyte as wing-backs - a formation they also adopted late on in the win over Charlton.

Robinson is no fan of the system – “I always love playing against a back three, I see so many flaws in it" – so he may try to patch up a winger or two, but it's another tactical possibility Evatt will be aware of.

If Oxford do play a back three, Bolton's wide attackers will be expected to keep the wingbacks pinned deep, creating a back five which would make a lot of space for Bolton's ball players to operate in.

If Robinson stays true to his preferred formation, it could be another toe-to-toe slugfest swinging from end to end, as did the game at Lincoln until Bolton stepped through the gears in the manner so familiar from last season.

Another win could hoist Bolton from ninth towards or even over the dotted line under sixth place, and while it's a marathon rather than a sprint, Wanderers fans have renewed hope that their team can cause problems in this division.

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Re: Mortar boards..boards for mortar...V.Oxford Utd. 21-08-21. 1500.

Post by BWFC_Insane » Fri Aug 20, 2021 3:27 pm

^^ Renewed hope? Season is 3 games old! If we lose on Saturday what will it be then? Hopes of a top 10 finished dashed?

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Re: Mortar boards..boards for mortar...V.Oxford Utd. 21-08-21. 1500.

Post by boltonboris » Fri Aug 20, 2021 3:40 pm

Fantastic write up DSB as ever.. Good insight into them. Particularly how Henry has evolved and excelled. Fair play to him
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Re: Mortar boards..boards for mortar...V.Oxford Utd. 21-08-21. 1500.

Post by officer_dibble » Fri Aug 20, 2021 3:48 pm

I liked Henry at our place, always thought he didn’t get enough of a chance, particularly when Clough left. Didn’t quite fit the formation I think, and parky had him as a winger. Goal v scunny will stick with me though!

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Re: Mortar boards..boards for mortar...V.Oxford Utd. 21-08-21. 1500.

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Fri Aug 20, 2021 4:04 pm

BWFC_Insane wrote:
Fri Aug 20, 2021 3:27 pm
^^ Renewed hope? Season is 3 games old! If we lose on Saturday what will it be then? Hopes of a top 10 finished dashed?
Was not your essay yesterday about having renewed hope?

Do I say anywhere it'll be "dashed" if we lose?
.
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Re: Mortar boards..boards for mortar...V.Oxford Utd. 21-08-21. 1500.

Post by The_Gun » Fri Aug 20, 2021 4:06 pm

The common consensus amongst those in the know is that League One is the most competitive division in the country this season, and with another match coming up against a well respected side, that certainly doesn't seem far from the truth.

I was interested to read on the Oxford forum that all their right backs are injured, so they will be forced to play someone out of position. Music to the ears of Messrs. John and Afolayan perhaps?

My proposed lineup, barring any injuries which I'm unaware of, would be thus:

Dixon

Jones Santos Johnston John

Williams Lee

Sarcevic

Isgrove Doyle Dapo

2-1 to the Super Whites.

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Re: Mortar boards..boards for mortar...V.Oxford Utd. 21-08-21. 1500.

Post by TANGODANCER » Fri Aug 20, 2021 4:20 pm

Interesting that some think they'll score (we'll win by the odd goal ?). After conceding six in our first two games we have to think about clean sheets (as in the Lincoln game). I'd like us to win by a couple of goals rather than the odd one. We have the strike force to do it, so let's. Our attack has to be as good as our defence...COME ON YOU WHITES :pray:

ae:)
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Re: Mortar boards..boards for mortar...V.Oxford Utd. 21-08-21. 1500.

Post by BWFC_Insane » Fri Aug 20, 2021 4:29 pm

Dave Sutton's barnet wrote:
Fri Aug 20, 2021 4:04 pm
BWFC_Insane wrote:
Fri Aug 20, 2021 3:27 pm
^^ Renewed hope? Season is 3 games old! If we lose on Saturday what will it be then? Hopes of a top 10 finished dashed?
Was not your essay yesterday about having renewed hope?

Do I say anywhere it'll be "dashed" if we lose?
.
Screenshot 2021-08-20 at 16.03.05.png
Hey don't take it seriously. It was a great insight into Oxford! Just an odd phrase. But I get what you meant - I was trying and as usual failing to be funny!

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Re: Mortar boards..boards for mortar...V.Oxford Utd. 21-08-21. 1500.

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Fri Aug 20, 2021 4:34 pm

BWFC_Insane wrote:
Fri Aug 20, 2021 4:29 pm
Hey don't take it seriously. It was a great insight into Oxford! Just an odd phrase. But I get what you meant - I was trying and as usual failing to be funny!
:D

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Re: Mortar boards..boards for mortar...V.Oxford Utd. 21-08-21. 1500.

Post by officer_dibble » Fri Aug 20, 2021 4:48 pm

Have to say I’m not sure I would risk two games, two injuries Declan John. Not quite sure what’s gone on there so far this season.

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