these have taken 27 points away from home 

can't afford to slip again with derby to follow 

88th minute winner

Very pleased and surprised by that display, think we changed it around tonight by playing less across the lines and more through the lines, put them under pressure before the could get into shape and that was the key, front 2 were intelligent and looked a partnership, Bod looking back to his best, Santos imperious best and Sheehan was exceptional as was Cogley. Massive test now on Saturday.  I’d take a draw now.

Edited March 12, 20242 yr by Mounts Kipper

Great stuff. Rose to the occasion. Great to enjoy from 1 to 90. On to the next cup final.

Going off what I saw tonight it may be a blessing we can’t mess with Bod and Collins 

Edited March 12, 20242 yr by tomski

4 minutes ago, Zico said:

Their penalty as well

Didn't look like a foul and more like the derby player handles it

Looks like it was the same ref who sent off their keeper against us earlier this season 

 

 

Better than the 7-0 for me, considering the position of Oxford in the table.

A complete 90 minute performance for the first time in a long time.

The aggression and intensity of the team was just exceptional and has to be the blueprint for the last 8 games. 

You could see how much the players wanted it, cheering on the crowd at 2/3 nil.

Let's fucking beat those stuffy old rams now. Play anything like that and we can do it.

COYWM

PS. We are all lucky to watch Sheehan play in white. 

43 minutes ago, Mounts Kipper said:

Very pleased and surprised by that display, think we changed it around tonight by playing less across the lines and more through the lines, put them under pressure before the could get into shape and that was the key, front 2 were intelligent and looked a partnership, Bod looking back to his best, Santos imperious best and Sheehan was exceptional as was Cogley. Massive test now on Saturday.  I’d take a draw now.

No mention of Paris??

Wonderful, just wonderful. I wasn't expecting that & at h/t I still thought Oxford would improve ( they didn't ) or we would go off the boil. (we didn't, if anything, we got even better )

Everyone played well & contributed making it hard to pick a MOTM, if forced i'd go for Cogley, but it was a real team job.  

34 minutes ago, bolton va va said:

Wonderful, just wonderful. I wasn't expecting that & at h/t I still thought Oxford would improve ( they didn't ) or we would go off the boil. (we didn't, if anything, we got even better )

Everyone played well & contributed making it hard to pick a MOTM, if forced i'd go for Cogley, but it was a real team job.  

It’s just fucking annoying that we are/were capable of doing this nearly every week, anyway well done 

3 hours ago, Lostock Whites said:

Better than the 7-0 for me, considering the position of Oxford in the table.

A complete 90 minute performance for the first time in a long time.

The aggression and intensity of the team was just exceptional and has to be the blueprint for the last 8 games. 

You could see how much the players wanted it, cheering on the crowd at 2/3 nil.

Let's fucking beat those stuffy old rams now. Play anything like that and we can do it.

COYWM

PS. We are all lucky to watch Sheehan play in white. 

Very much so.

The whole team never gave them a minute tonight and with a bit of luck it could have been another sevener.

Maghoma got the side netting a couple of times, Bod came close and Jerome made a great chance for himself which was saved.

Not much in the way of shithousery but Sheehan took a sore one in the second half.

Better officials tonight for the live match on Sky, coincidence I'm sure.

Don't know if it's mentioned already but motorway was a bugger coming home.

While Oxford were poor, it's great to be praising our own performance. Comfortably our best performance of the season as we controlled the whole game.

Sheehan and Paris playing like would terrorise most midfields in this division.

2 intelligent players up top linking up well too, who'd have thought that possible. Bod missed a lot of last season and didn't play loads early on this season, it was always going to take time with him. It would be a great time for him to find form and stay fit for 2 months.

More of the same on Saturday please

7 hours ago, Zico said:

Their penalty as well

Didn't look like a foul and more like the derby player handles it

Typical ref at Pride park performance. We've got to keep the ball away from our box as much as possible to not give the ref a chance. Play it forwards quickly like last night

5 hours ago, victor meldrew said:

It’s just fucking annoying that we are/were capable of doing this nearly every week, anyway well done 

I hear you but we’ve 8 big games left. All that’s important now (hopefully)

 

6 hours ago, DazBob said:

No mention of Paris??

Played well. Not one of the stand outs though. Same as Jones, Thomason, Toal. Solid 7.5/10 all 4.  

Haha

Though more shocking is Tomo not being a stand out

Amazing, its almost as big a blind spot as brexit

3 hours ago, FrancisFogarty said:

Don't know if it's mentioned already but motorway was a bugger coming home.

Traffic was a right arse coming off the retail park considering the smaller crowd, by which point southbound motorway had backed up on to DHW. Thankfully made the decision for me to go back through Aspull and Hindley rather than the EFL Trophy game earlier in the season when I managed to get stuck on there for half an hour for the sake of one junction. 

9 minutes ago, Casino said:

Haha

Though more shocking is Tomo not being a stand out

Amazing, its almost as big a blind spot as brexit

Maghoma didn’t score didn’t assist… that’s his job, 3rd best midfielder behind Sheehan and Thomason.. but I’ll say better than bang average last night,  Sheehan a 9, Thomason  prob an 8 on reflection, Paris a 7.5.

Edited March 13, 20242 yr by Mounts Kipper

9 minutes ago, Mounts Kipper said:

Maghoma didn’t score didn’t assist… that’s his job, 3rd best midfielder behind Sheehan and Thomason.. but I’ll say better than bang average last night,  Sheehan a 9, Thomason  prob an 8 on reflection, Paris a 7.5.

You’re just being stubborn now Mounts. Paris took the piss last night, they didn’t know what to do with him - he danced around their midfield like he was playing against U14s. He also covered every blade of grass and was still high energy at the end.

I do agree that Sheehan and GT were brilliant, but trying to rank the 3 and use that to back up your view on Maghoma is mad - they were all about as good as I’ve seen them individually and that meant as a 3 they were unplayable, Oxford had no idea how to combat them and in the end just gave up trying.

1 minute ago, Eddie said:

You’re just being stubborn now Mounts. Paris took the piss last night, they didn’t know what to do with him - he danced around their midfield like he was playing against U14s. He also covered every blade of grass and was still high energy at the end.

I do agree that Sheehan and GT were brilliant, but trying to rank the 3 and use that to back up your view on Maghoma is mad - they were all about as good as I’ve seen them individually and that meant as a 3 they were unplayable, Oxford had no idea how to combat them and in the end just gave up trying.

He can dance all he likes and while I enjoy watching that, there has to be an end product, otherwise you can’t mark him as a stand out player on the night… the lads going the right way, his energy levels improved, his tracking back has improved, still can’t tackle though, since I made the comment about being bang average he’s improved markedly, still he’s usually behind Sheehan and Thomasson but that’s not a crime as those 2 been superb. 

Without Banga Verage having a blocked shot, Sheehan wouldn't have scored- it won't go down as an assist, but it doesn't matter.

There's a reason Dempsey isn't getting in at the moment and that's because Loud Mediocre is doing very well.

Others have already said it but that was the most complete performance I’ve seen from us for a long time. It just shows how good we can be when it clicks and everyone has a good game - hard to pick out a MoM but I’d say any of the midfield 3 or JDC personally, but the main thing was that the rest of the team were all comfortably a 7.5+ and nobody had a bad game. Oxford looked awful, their game plan was all wrong but I do think that some/most of that will have been down to how good we were - they aren’t 1 point outside the play offs for nothing.

I could go on and on about how every single one of them was brilliant but key things for me were

- clean sheet! Probably gets overlooked when you score 5 goals but just stopping that flow of goals conceded is brilliant

- Santos. Linked to the clean sheet point but he was back to his old self last night. Couple of times he was left one on one in a foot race and he just made it look too easy. Great sign because having Santos in top form is about as crucial as it gets for us.

- midfield 3 were outrageous. I don’t think GT has been at his best since he came back from his suspension but he was fantastic. Sheehan took the piss (which I’m pleased about because last time we were on sky they gave him the big build up and he had a shocker) and Maghoma was untouchable. Their interplay and also intensity in winning the ball back made it look like we had an extra man on the pitch.

- JDC back on form. Best I’ve seen him probably since the turn of the year. Maybe the rest / added competition for his place has done him good

- front 2 linked brilliantly. Very obvious that you have 2 players up front with a brain. You might have lost a bit of pace but the runs they make and their movement makes up for it. Happy for Bod too because he was starting to get questions - we know how good he can be from earlier last season and if he can get back to that for the next 8 games then we’ll be absolutely fine up top. No questions on his fitness either, he was charging around well into the second half. Goals for Collins are a big plus too, you could see his confidence grow almost instantly - there was a touch he had bringing down a high ball on the left hand side of the box just after his second and he made it look effortless, you could tell he’s just starting to get going!

- final one and a bit random. I don’t mind the option of using Dempsey as the 4th striker option. I know Oxford were shot by the time he came on, but he makes brilliant runs (Williams could have put him in if he’d have got his head up quicker), can win a header and has a decent finish on him. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t want to be starting with him up top having to win games to go up, but I think he’s a more than solid option to go up there alongside a big man to chase balls against a tired defence.

Great game, couldn’t have come at a better time, onto Derby with some much needed confidence!

41 minutes ago, Mounts Kipper said:

... since I made the comment about being bang average he’s improved markedly ...

So it's all down to you outing him as average ? Bravo.

We'll be getting Horwich claiming Thomason is better than Conference North, Div.2 standard next.

I think we should debate our need for better wingbacks as that seemed to work yesterday. Will book in on Friday.

1 hour ago, Mounts Kipper said:

Maghoma didn’t score didn’t assist… that’s his job, 3rd best midfielder behind Sheehan and Thomason.. but I’ll say better than bang average last night,  Sheehan a 9, Thomason  prob an 8 on reflection, Paris a 7.5.

Paree put an extra 10% in last night for the cameras. He took the piss but with nothing to show for it. He’d as good a game as anyone last night.

A few thoughts:

The 'rallying call' for the fans to get behind the team worked very well and showed that we can do it.

The players got into them from KO which is what we have been crying out for.

The two things feed off each other. The players were buoyed by the support and fed off it and then the crowd responded to the team playing better. 

Oxford were a bit shit tbh but they did get mullered and their heads went. I almost felt sorry for their keeper having to pick the ball out of the net 5 times. Almost.

I felt it made a massive difference that Sheehan wasn't constantly being fouled and/or clogged and so could play. I can't see Derby making that mistake

19 odd thousand on a cold Tues night for a televised game is a decent crowd.

The bloke behind me was a knob. 'Lino - your wife hates you, you Geordie cunt!' was one of his witty offerings. in front of a group of young lads (cubs group or summat). 

Also can PM now been renamed 'improved markedly' please?