Oxford 2-2 LCFC - Full Time

[adamkhalifa]

Slow start again. Its becoming a bit of a theme. Marti, is very good at reading the play and adapting to the situation. I just wish he could use some of that spirit at the beginning of the game. 

[Claudio Fannieri]

He picked the same team as the team that started against Birmingham and won, except for replacing the injured Page. 
 

People clamouring for Riccy P to start, he has been injured and clearly his game time is being managed to prevent further setbacks, as for Winks yes he was class today in the 2nd half but this was the same player who started against Preston and stank the joint out. Okoli has been a starter in the last 2 games that kept a clean sheet. 
 

I didn’t have an issue with Marti’s  selection today. JJ has trained once with the team, since signing, however off the back of today  and the fact Winks now looks to have reintegrated himself, then I suspect next weeks team selection will be a lot closer to our strongest starting XI. 
 

 

[CosbehFox]

4 hours ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

Realistically at the point of getting that red card the goalposts shift considerably. It's not a good point out of context but also fighting back from a goal down away from home with 10 men is decent regardless of the relative position of the two teams.

 

Will have to be a lot lot better against Cov though.

That’s where I’m at. 
 

I’ll take that to a degree. You have to be a little considerate of the 46 game marathon what the Championship is and you get what you can when things awry. 
 

It’s a long old shift and others will come a cropper at Oxford this season 

Edited 13 September 2025 by CosbehFox

[CosbehFox]

7 hours ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

Also. The game was there for the taking today. We didn’t use our width at all, and actually in that sense alone, we regressed when Ricky came on 

Couldnt be more wrong. We were totally ****ed playing wingers. They had three in the middle compared to our two, they could press and let another cut down passing lanes. Then when Oxford had the ball they could play through us. We couldn’t get a kick in the first half after the sending off. 
 

We had to make the centre of the pitch more congested and get Oxford having to use their wings where it’s easier for us to defend. We improved tenfold with the changes. Keep it narrow and then get the strikers to split or midfield runners 

[Dan]

These first halves are becoming a joke. Every single one of them we've been complete and utter tripe. Baffling that in the second even with ten men that we were far better than in the first.

 

A strange game, hard one to judge with an early red. I thought we did quite well in tricky circumstances in the second half but clearly a Gary Rowett Oxford side aren't set up to play on the front foot against somebody like us.

 

10 points from 5 games is a decent start but it's a huge fluke we're on that many points. We're going to be punished if we keep playing like this - bear in mind we've played four of the expected strugglers as well.

[filbertway]

Next game i reckon if we start with the good players we might do okay

[KFS]

I thought Ayew played well  

[Claudio Fannieri]

I thought up to the sending off our pressing looked better especially from the forward players, Soumare was awful but getting booked in the 3rd minute didn’t help matters, there was evidence that our patterns of play are improving, but when the red card came we were all over the place until half time. 
 

Ayew was excellent yesterday from start to finish, looked sharper and more direct, good to see him get a goal and could have had another but for a good save by the keeper. 
 

Okoli and Stolrcyrk were off it today, but that will happen at times, I felt Okoli missed challenging a header just before the shot that Jakub only parried to their player and then they tucked home the rebound. That mistake by JS seemed to really rattle him and his distribution was really poor after that.  Okoli seemed all over the place in the 20 or so minutes from the sending off to half time as did most of our side. 
 

The 2nd half subs and tactical tweaks were excellent and wrestled back control of the game and we played some really good stuff at times despite being a man down. The move for Riccy’s goal was sublime.

 

I think the chaos behind the scenes regards players wanting to move on plus some injury/fitness issues has meant the selections haven’t necessarily been the starting XI Marti would select in normal circumstances hopefully next week we will see our strongest XI and this will be the springboard to kick our season on. 

[Pliskin]

4 hours ago, KFS said:

I thought Ayew played well  

He did, but the game was ideal for him. He slowed the pace down and kept hold of the ball. He’s perfect in situations like that.

[Sunbury Fox]

58 minutes ago, Claudio Fannieri said:

think the chaos behind the scenes regards players wanting to move on plus some injury/fitness issues has meant the selections haven’t necessarily been the starting XI Marti would select in normal circumstances hopefully next week we will see our strongest XI and this will be the springboard to kick our season on. 

This is exactly what I was going to say. Marti has been picking players who he knew wanted to be here and were committed to the cause, to try to rebuild a strong culture and team spirit at the club. When those players then ground out 2 successive ugly wins, he could hardly drop 3 or 4 of them for the better, more technical players to start. It would have undermined the very culture he's trying to build. So he had to pick the same starting XI in my view (Page would have started if fully fit, too). 

 

What is good about yesterday, however, is that after the second half showing, he now has the justification to make the changes he probably wanted to - and we still got a draw that felt like a win in the circumstances. 

 

Against Cov he will surely go for something like this:

 

Jakub

 

Ricky P

Faes (I know, I know, but he's class at this level and I can't stand seeing Okoli on the ball any longer!)

Vesty

Thomas (or maybe fit Hamza in there)

 

Winks

James

 

Fatawu

Ayew

Stephy

 

Carranza

 

That team gives us 3 out of 4 defenders who can progress the ball effectively into midfield and a midfield pivot who can progress the ball to the forwards. In turn, it will also enable us to control games more and make us more press resistant. Well, that's my theory anyway!

Edited 14 September 2025 by Sunbury Fox

[Bordersfox]

50 minutes ago, Claudio Fannieri said:

I thought up to the sending off our pressing looked better especially from the forward players, Soumare was awful but getting booked in the 3rd minute didn’t help matters, there was evidence that our patterns of play are improving, but when the red card came we were all over the place until half time. 
 

Ayew was excellent yesterday from start to finish, looked sharper and more direct, good to see him get a goal and could have had another but for a good save by the keeper. 
 

Okoli and Stolrcyrk were off it today, but that will happen at times, I felt Okoli missed challenging a header just before the shot that Jakub only parried to their player and then they tucked home the rebound. That mistake by JS seemed to really rattle him and his distribution was really poor after that.  Okoli seemed all over the place in the 20 or so minutes from the sending off to half time as did most of our side. 
 

The 2nd half subs and tactical tweaks were excellent and wrestled back control of the game and we played some really good stuff at times despite being a man down. The move for Riccy’s goal was sublime.

 

I think the chaos behind the scenes regards players wanting to move on plus some injury/fitness issues has meant the selections haven’t necessarily been the starting XI Marti would select in normal circumstances hopefully next week we will see our strongest XI and this will be the springboard to kick our season on. 

Well said.  No way is this the starting 11 moving forward and now the window has shut. 

 

Numerous managers seem to have liked Soumare and I can't for the life of me fathom it.  You get far more Oxford performances than you do Birmingham.  Just nowhere near the play much of the time. 

 

Yes I know Skipp hasn't been very good but he's at least trying to get involved. Winks has to come in for Soumare and when fully fit (and Ramsey is back) you'd think James and Winks are the double pivot, or holding cm and box to box.  Watching Winks in possession and threading line breaking passes just reminds you how poor Skipp and Soumare are.

 

Ayew was our best player, he does hold onto the ball for too long but frankly when you are down to ten men, fine.

 

Genuinely think had it not been for the red, marti makes similar changes at half time and we go on to win that comfortably.  

[FoxesTalker]

Two points dropped yesterday, but it's not too bad to come away with a point after being down to 10 men for 65+ minutes, and still be 4th in the table.

[Reg Vardy]

10 hours ago, Dan said:

These first halves are becoming a joke. Every single one of them we've been complete and utter tripe. Baffling that in the second even with ten men that we were far better than in the first.

 

A strange game, hard one to judge with an early red. I thought we did quite well in tricky circumstances in the second half but clearly a Gary Rowett Oxford side aren't set up to play on the front foot against somebody like us.

 

10 points from 5 games is a decent start but it's a huge fluke we're on that many points. We're going to be punished if we keep playing like this - bear in mind we've played four of the expected strugglers as well.

That’ll be Preston who beat us and Ipswich and took a point off Middlesbrough yesterday…… 

[Walshy5]

Can't even beat Oxford! Pathetic!

[Dan]

5 hours ago, Bordersfox said:

Well said.  No way is this the starting 11 moving forward and now the window has shut. 

 

Numerous managers seem to have liked Soumare and I can't for the life of me fathom it.  You get far more Oxford performances than you do Birmingham.  Just nowhere near the play much of the time. 

 

Yes I know Skipp hasn't been very good but he's at least trying to get involved. Winks has to come in for Soumare and when fully fit (and Ramsey is back) you'd think James and Winks are the double pivot, or holding cm and box to box.  Watching Winks in possession and threading line breaking passes just reminds you how poor Skipp and Soumare are.

 

Ayew was our best player, he does hold onto the ball for too long but frankly when you are down to ten men, fine.

 

Genuinely think had it not been for the red, marti makes similar changes at half time and we go on to win that comfortably.  

I can only assume it's to do with the lack of other options most of them have had rather than because he's any good. The own goal was unlucky really, but as a general rule this Skipp Soumare midfield. I really think you would be hard pushed to find a worse midfield pound for pound in the world.

[Dan]

45 minutes ago, Reg Vardy said:

That’ll be Preston who beat us and Ipswich and took a point off Middlesbrough yesterday…… 

Will finish no higher than 15th.

[The Year Of The Fox]

15 hours ago, CosbehFox said:

Couldnt be more wrong. We were totally ****ed playing wingers. They had three in the middle compared to our two, they could press and let another cut down passing lanes. Then when Oxford had the ball they could play through us. We couldn’t get a kick in the first half after the sending off. 
 

We had to make the centre of the pitch more congested and get Oxford having to use their wings where it’s easier for us to defend. We improved tenfold with the changes. Keep it narrow and then get the strikers to split or midfield runners 

It wasn’t so much we still needed players stood wide on the touchline

 

I took a photo on the third time I noticed it in the second half but typically it’s too big a file to upload on here. We had plenty of space to exploit but nobody looking to actually exploit it 

[WigstonWanderer]

Thought the red was pretty weak. Sweeping tackle rather than a planted foot wasn’t going to cause any more damage than if he’d made contact with the ball, as he obviously intended. Bit of over-exuberance after coming close to scoring. A yellow would have been sufficient,

[Reg Vardy]

2 hours ago, Dan said:

Will finish no higher than 15th.

Not my point, anyone can beat anyone…….

[Bordersfox]

2 hours ago, Dan said:

I can only assume it's to do with the lack of other options most of them have had rather than because he's any good. The own goal was unlucky really, but as a general rule this Skipp Soumare midfield. I really think you would be hard pushed to find a worse midfield pound for pound in the world.

My knowledge of the world game isn't that good but if you mean is there a worse midfield duo that cost a combined £45m(ish) or more I dare say they'd be hard to find.  

[JonnyZeroFox]

3 minutes ago, Bordersfox said:

My knowledge of the world game isn't that good but if you mean is there a worse midfield duo that cost a combined £45m(ish) or more I dare say they'd be hard to find.  

Let’s face it that duo looks out of place in league one.. just a disaster.. thankfully we have players that can come in and do a much better job. 

[Claudio Fannieri]

Just thinking about it for all the huff and puff of Oxford they didn’t really threaten that much. Both their goals were very sloppy on our side and then the only real shot in anger was the one in the first half that hit the bar, other than that they resorted to long range efforts. We created far better chances and there keeper had to make 2 or 3 decent saves plus the chance for Skipp when he should/could have shot instead of delaying it. 

[Spanner73]

17 hours ago, Dan said:

These first halves are becoming a joke. Every single one of them we've been complete and utter tripe. Baffling that in the second even with ten men that we were far better than in the first.

 

A strange game, hard one to judge with an early red. I thought we did quite well in tricky circumstances in the second half but clearly a Gary Rowett Oxford side aren't set up to play on the front foot against somebody like us.

 

10 points from 5 games is a decent start but it's a huge fluke we're on that many points. We're going to be punished if we keep playing like this - bear in mind we've played four of the expected strugglers as well.

Totally !! 
4 struggling teams and we got lucky and conceded 2 goals each in 3 of them. 
 

Wait till we play Cov, they’ll have a field day. 
 

Some fans can’t see this though 

[MGLCFC]

3 minutes ago, Spanner73 said:

Wait till we play Cov, they’ll have a field day. 

A Coventry team that has also drawn with Oxford with eleven men, as well as drawing with Norwich (with a very very late equaliser) and Hull. Yep they had an amazing first 2 games when everyone is bedding in. Put the right team out and we are better than these.

Edited 14 September 2025 by MGLCFC

[MGLCFC]

5 minutes ago, Spanner73 said:

4 struggling teams and we got lucky and conceded 2 goals each in 3 of them. 

Which three league games have we conceded 2 goals?