Torquay United V Oxford 9th October 2008

I may be wrong, but I got the feeling that he wanted to give Hodges some part Of the action, as he wants to keep everyone happy. The game was there to come out and kill Off in the second half and we just let Oxford have all the play.

Three up with ten Min's to go, then fine bring on the 16 year old, but while there was little time to do much once they scored, we couldn't have done much anyway with what we had up front. I was late home and did not see who was on the bench, was Thompson on the bench? surly bringing him on to sit behind Sills would have been a better move.

If he was not on the bench then, we really should have left Green on, still you can't get them all correct, but you really can't afford to start throwing point away.

I refer you to my previous post......................"first rule of football"
I would say Hodges for Stevens because he wanted to protect Nicholson more effectively and Yeoman as a direct swap for a tired Green (he didn't have either Benyon or Dsane) to play "up on the shoulder of their back line" and thus stop them pressing forward too much and swamping our midfield.

Managers didn't lose either side the win tonight, one off "dozy" defending from re-starts did - as it so often does at this level - and THAT is down to players!

Not to sure On Roscoe, but when you are one up to really need to keep the strongest team put on the pitch, the changes did not do that and we just got deeper and deeper, its alright changing the team when It needs to be, but not just for the sake Of It, as I felt was the case tonight.

Only got to see 2nd half due to work. Disappointing. Agree Thompson for Green would have made more sense.

Roscoe unavailable through injury according to official site.

Game of two halves for sure, Oxford should definitely have had one penalty and probably two, so I'll take the point thank you very much.

Oxford were very mobile going forward but Woods and Robertson defended manfully until the equaliser, although some of their distribution, as well as Mansell's, was dreadful. For the last 30 minutes, neither Carlisle or Hodges was an attacking threat and that was our main problem - we cannot play counter-attack football very well, if at all.

MOTM - Close for me but I'd agree with the sponsors and give it to Nicky Wroe, who now looks to be a gem of a signing.

Shame for Yeoman to have to suffer this on his debut - I'd have preferred Thompson as well, and I thought hold up play, and making life tough for defenders was his speciality up front. I found the substitution baffling to say the least, but not the Hodges one. Oxford's manager just made a better one by bringing on the right winger whose free-kick led to the goal and negated Hodges'arrival.

Moving on....

Rob, I wasn't "implicating" Woods for the Oxford goal, read my post again.................I recalled the order of events leading up to it. Indeed I would add that Woods made one magnificent block to deny Oxford a clear shot on an unprotected Bevan before that.

With respect also to my view of the substitutions, I didn't profer an opinion as to whether or not the Yeomans one had worked; merely suggested why I thought he had gone for that one over a possible use of Thompson. It's easy to comment with hindsight on substitutions, so I try to avoid that and limit my comment to the situation at the time of the change and attempt to read into the manager's mind from that.

I wouldn't pull Bucks up over bringing Green off, if any player is feeling the pace he is more likely to pull a hamstring in the closing stages and incur an injury that would render him unavailable for at least three weeks. He was already without strikers Benyon and Dsane last night and we have to travel within 40 hours of the final whistle for an important game this weekend.

Had Yeomans got his toe to any ball in the six yard box and scored, we would not be having this conversation.

Not a case of me "absolving" the manager of anything Andygulls, merely pointing out that BOTH goals came about through defensive slackness and a collective team failure to sort the marking out. The manager can't call a "timeout" if he sees such scenarios developing, so how can he be held culpable?

I agree with your highlighting of Trainer's getting forward (that's the correct spelling!) and really last night's game was a reverse image of last season's at the Kassam.

A fair result to a fiercely competed game and if we were offered four points out of six before last Saturday, that surely would have been our minimum target and in the circumstances; better to deny Stevenage equal returns than Oxford at this stage of the season.

However, I suspect that Oxford will haul themselves up amongst the play off spots before too long although I also thought that once again Constable showed his game limitation to be one of aggression and agitation rather than anything sharper and such lack of vision and awareness of others as displayed by him last night would have been frustrating had he been playing for us as some on here in the close season had expressed a wish.

Probably agree with most of the analysis above. A 1 - 1 draw was probably a fair result due to sitting back and inviting the pressure on.

In respect of the substitutions agreed that Stevens was not looking good defensively when taken off. Also both Sills and Green were tiring towards the end and not pressuring the defenders and in this respect having Benyon on the bench would have been a big plus.

Agree with the MoM decision. Wroe was everywhere, full of running and generally looked calm and assured on the ball.

Five points against Wrexham, Stevenage and Oxford is still not a bad return and our seven games unbeaten run also includes away games against Cambridge and Forest Green. In conclusion, a mediocre day at the office but we still look well set!