We had a really bad day - Oxford United boss (From The Oxford Times)
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We had a really bad day - Oxford United boss
9:40am Monday 28th January 2013 in Sport
By David Pritchard, Chief Sports Reporter covering Oxford United. Follow us on twitter: @oxfordmailoufc. Call me on 01865 425458
A soaked Chris Wilder at Fleetwood
CHRIS Wilder urged for some perspective as Oxford United’s good run came to an end with a heavy defeat at Fleetwood Town, writes DAVID PRITCHARD.
The visitors looked a shadow of the side which had climbed to the top of npower League Two’s form table on the back of an eight-game unbeaten run as they went down 3-0 at Highbury.
Although it was a disappointing afternoon, United stayed in the top half of the table ahead of tomorrow’s game at home to Burton Albion.
Wilder expects criticism for Saturday’s result, but urged for some perspective after a first league defeat in more than two months.
The United manager said: “There will be doom and gloom merchants out there having a right bash at everybody – me and the players – but we’ve got to answer them on the pitch.
“We have done that, winning four games on the bounce (before Fleetwood) is not bad going.
“We’re still in the mix, I think we’re seven points off third and that’s still a target for us.
“We can’t get away from it, we’ve had a really bad day, but it doesn’t turn into a disaster overnight.”
Although the visitors lacked an attacking threat, their chances of taking something out of the game were undermined by errors at the other end of the pitch.
The U’s had gifted Bradford City a goal in their previous game, but had come back to win.
They were unable to repeat the feat on Saturday and Wilder was unhappy with the ease at which Fleetwood took their goals.
He said: “We’re having to create and open teams up all the time and they haven’t (needed to).
“We have to defend better, it’s individual mistakes.
“You can say we were a bit unfortunate, but we got ourselves into a poor position on the first one and the second one is just a routine clearance.
“If that second goal doesn’t go in then we would have gone into the last 25 minutes on the front foot.
“We should have got something out of the game, even though I don’t think we were anywhere near the standards that we had been at for the last four games.”
Comments(3)
Manor Born
says...
1:01pm Mon 28 Jan 13
PT1 wrote:It's not lack of experience that is the problem, the guy has over 500 league games under his belt. Being generous you could say that maybe it is a lack of match practice ot you could be brutally honest and just say that the guy just isn't good enough.
We can't keep using Wayne Brown, he is nothing on Ryan Clarke, Ryan being out for the rest of the season is a massive blow. If we don't bring in another keeper then our season is over.
I'm usually an optimist but Wayne has not proved that he has the experience or skill to step into Ryan's boots. Come one Wilder...We need a loan keeper until the end of the season.
End of the day, he has only played a handful of games in the last few years and in those games he has played, he has made mistakes in each and every one of them. Give Crocombe a go and if you're not going to do that, then bring in someone else with a bit of pedigree and not inexperienced youngsters from other sides (may as well give Max the nod and give our lad the experience he needs if you do that).
AR Davis
says...
4:40pm Mon 28 Jan 13
PT1 says...
9:57am Mon 28 Jan 13
I'm usually an optimist but Wayne has not proved that he has the experience or skill to step into Ryan's boots. Come one Wilder...We need a loan keeper until the end of the season.