The Final

[royal white]

Evatt has improved us every season, his record is superb, at some point the players need to take some blame. There is obviously some mental problem with big games/clubs.  To many fans think we have a Devine right to be in another league. We don’t, we’re beginning to sound like scousesrs/ united fans. 

[meanderson93]

4 hours ago, Ands1 said:

Evatt will be back next season with the full backing of the board, in reality everyone knows even Evatt himself it's his last chance

I wouldn't be so sure.

[Lt. Aldo Raine]

57 minutes ago, mickbrown said:

Aye. Not that we had any today, but he just sucks any momentum we have out of a game. 
 

Head it, tackle and outmuscle folk aye, but please stop the ball going though him. It kills us. 

Aye

It's not for nothing Buckingham set his team up not to press him in possession

[MancWanderer]

Fuck it. It’s done. What will be, will be. Roll on next season, whoever our manager will be

Feel sorry for those that have put the miles in this year. Radcliffe, marc505, matt, embankments mob, etc. You lot deserved more. Cap duly doffed to the lot of you as you’ll no doubt rinse and repeat next year 

[MannyRoad]

Long time lurker here, but if there’s ever a time to create an account and give an opinion then now’s a good time.

What a fookin shitshow that was.

Always been a fan of Evatt and never had any real reason to give him stick - until around 5pm today. 
 

Little over 12 months ago Demps tore a new back side out of a top of the league side in Plymouth on the same stage. How he doesn’t start is anyone’s guess.

Our defence was woeful for 90 minutes and got beaten for pace and strength and any 2nd balls were Oxfords. I suppose there’s only so much blame we can give a manager for a collective group of individuals sh*t performance. Loose passes all over the shop, over hit crosses into the box, insisting every corner gets put inside the 6 yard box. 
 

Every single one of them needs to take responsibility today, including Evatt with maybe the exception of Demps and Jerome. 

 

[ianofcleveleys]

39 minutes ago, royal white said:

There’s no in between, he’s either the best or the worst. 

Just not as good as many make him out to be. Can have his good days for sure (Barnsley away arguably his finest hour for us) but plenty of off days too (Barnsley h for example). 

Young kids on their socials are easily taken in by the shoulder barges out in non-threatening areas on the wing, or the odd Hollywood ball that finds it's target, but more seasoned observers can see past it. 

Since coming back off injury, apart from Barnsley (a) his levels haven't been great, too many cheap giveaways and dozy moments.

If someone offered us decent money for him I'd say goodbye 

 

[Lt. Aldo Raine]

42 minutes ago, London Wanderer said:

Imagine being one of the arrogant muppets who stormed the pitch after we lost a second leg to Barnsley. 
 

Everything about that was naive 

The supporters I can understand, but the players drinking in the stands stood out to me as very fucking naive at the time

[Not in Crawley]

6 minutes ago, Lt. Aldo Raine said:

The supporters I can understand, but the players drinking in the stands stood out to me as very fucking naive at the time

Would not under Big Sam, and did not, happen whe we beat West Brom in the semis at home.

We looked like giddy kippers a week ago - not the fans but the players.

[Farrelli]

I would have taken Santos off at half time today. It was excruciating watching him try to remember what the round thing was. 

Feels like Tranmere 1991 moment to me and the last days of Phil Neal. There was no belief in our players today so either they go or a new manager is needed. 

Edited May 18, 2024 by Farrelli

[Zulu]

I’ve been back home in Northamptonshire from Wembley for just over an hour. I have destroyed a perfectly acceptable bottle of Chilean Pinot Noir and now I’m going to my bed. 
When I wake up tomorrow morning I’ll still be a Bolton Wanderers supporter. More than those plastic cunts from Oxfordshire will have to look forward to. 
Good night all. 

[radcliffe white]

The goodwill with supporters will fade 30k plus today for a spineless performance will make many think 

[Not in Crawley]

20 minutes ago, royal white said:

Evatt has improved us every season, his record is superb, at some point the players need to take some blame. There is obviously some mental problem with big games/clubs.  To many fans think we have a Devine right to be in another league. We don’t, we’re beginning to sound like scousesrs/ united 

We don't. Why are you defending Evatt?

[Tombwfc]

46 minutes ago, London Wanderer said:

Imagine being one of the arrogant muppets who stormed the pitch after we lost a second leg to Barnsley. 
 

Everything about that was naive 

 

The flip side of this is that we would've been battered today regardless, so why not enjoy the good times? After the day they've had today the least our fans deserve is getting a bit giddy after Barnsley.

That was a disgraceful performance. It was an underachievement to not make the top two and we had another crack at it through the playoffs and failed miserably. I like Evatt and don't think he's going anywhere, but I fear his credibility is shot to bits after that. 

Worse than Stoke for all sorts of reasons IMO.

[wiggy]

With 10 minutes to go we had a corner. Our corner taker strolled over like we were 2-0 up. And our defenders walked slower than I could possibly imagine from the halfway line to get into the box. Couldn’t believe what I was watching. Just weird 

[Not in Crawley]

1 minute ago, Zulu said:

I’ve been back home in Northamptonshire from Wembley for just over an hour. I have destroyed a perfectly acceptable bottle of Chilean Pinot Noir and now I’m going to my bed. 
When I wake up tomorrow morning I’ll still be a Bolton Wanderers supporter. More than those plastic cunts from Oxfordshire will have to look forward to. 
Good night all. 

Bit harsh, got a few mates who are home and away Oxford fans as they've ribbed me about all night.

They couldn't believe how shit we were against a very obvious tactic.

 

[Zulu]

3 minutes ago, Not in Crawley said:

Bit harsh, got a few mates who are home and away Oxford fans as they've ribbed me about all night.

They couldn't believe how shit we were against a very obvious tactic.

 

Not that harsh NIC. We were shit against a very obvious tactic. As fans though we  are different gravy. 

[FrancisFogarty]

27 minutes ago, royal white said:

Evatt has improved us every season, his record is superb, at some point the players need to take some blame. There is obviously some mental problem with big games/clubs.  To many fans think we have a Devine right to be in another league. We don’t, we’re beginning to sound like scousesrs/ united fans. 

Yes, yes,and yes. Hence my Captain Fantastic quote. The players have to the some blame. But what can Evatt say to them tomorrow in training ? They are all going to nod their heads and agree, until another day like today looms when it will be exactly the same.

[royal white]

14 minutes ago, Not in Crawley said:

We don't. Why are you defending Evatt?

Because he’s improved us every season since he’s been here. Why are you against him? 

[Ani]

Are people really blaming fans who went on the pitch after the semi for anything that happened today ?

Or the post match reaction of the players ?

 

4 or 5 times this season we have produced lifeless performances, today was just on a bigger stage . 

[Whitesince63]

28 minutes ago, ianofcleveleys said:

Just not as good as many make him out to be. Can have his good days for sure (Barnsley away arguably his finest hour for us) but plenty of off days too (Barnsley h for example). 

Young kids on their socials are easily taken in by the shoulder barges out in non-threatening areas on the wing, or the odd Hollywood ball that finds it's target, but more seasoned observers can see past it. 

Since coming back off injury, apart from Barnsley (a) his levels haven't been great, too many cheap giveaways and dozy moments.

If someone offered us decent money for him I'd say goodbye 

 

Trouble is those in the game who know also know his faults so they won’t be offering “decent” money, whatever that is. Sadly Rico has become as much a liability as an asset. I think today was a turning point for both Santos and Evatt and I’m not sure either can fully recover from it.

[only1swanny]

Guy I was chatting to at half time summed it up perfectly

."half these lot won't be good enough for the championship and will be replaced,  and the way they're playing proves it. 

Feel we need to sort our sloppy defence out and either find a new captain or ship him out and rebuild. 

The players made no movement at full time, too embarrassed to face the fans. Evatt came over and told them to. 

Having no plan b means after playing a team twice, they know how to outplay you 

 

[royal white]

14 minutes ago, wiggy said:

With 10 minutes to go we had a corner. Our corner taker strolled over like we were 2-0 up. And our defenders walked slower than I could possibly imagine from the halfway line to get into the box. Couldn’t believe what I was watching. Just weird 

This is my only lasting memory of the game, it was at that point I fucked off. Some people will somehow  blame that on Evatt. 

[Leyther_Matt]

Just going past Wembley now on the train back to Watford. Lit up yellow and blue for fucks sake. 😞 

Edited May 18, 2024 by Leyther_Matt

[Lostock Whites]

We've had games this season where we have fell short, but played well and ultimately just didn't take our chances.

However this was not that, this was much worse. There was no fight, urgency or belief, in front of 32,000+ of your own supporters in a play off final. Like others mentioned, 2-0 down and walking to take a corner etc. 

Fans cannot accept that. That to me is the inexcusable part.

[Wanderlust]

Absolutely knew there’d be a total meltdown on here tonight. 
loads of crap about “bottle” and “being up for it” - wtf does that even mean? - other than childish catchphrases taken from has- been pundits trying to say they should have played better.

And playing better includes putting in more effort. It’s debatable whether they worked hard enough but today was about quality I.e. we didn’t have enough quality to execute OUR gameplan.

Oxford’s gameplan was to play to their strengths - and nullify ours i.e. no outball for our defenders who were forced to punt it long to their big defenders ( giving our forwards nothing to work with) and whenever we got it in midfield Branagan et al won it back immediately.  The forwards weren’t helped by appalling service from the wide men. 

Fact is Sheehan, Maghoma and to a lesser extent George were totally bossed - played like fancy dans  - although Demps wasn’t. 

Evatt made the right changes - but if he’d set the right tone from the beginning and brought on Paris and Sheehan late on instead of the other way round, we’d have won.

The game was played to their gameplan- our hope was to pass through them and we weren’t good enough to do that and a lot of the performances  were bad.

All comes back to trying to play like City with league one standard players.