Well........

[Pigman]

........THAT was our own bloody fault !!

We had the chances and blew them, guilt edged chances and couldn't take them. As I said on Saturday about Stevenage, if you don't take your chances you don't win games, tonight that summed us up.

Oxford were NEVER going to score in open play - I was very disappointed with them to be honest, I thought they'd be better - or perhaps they were as good as we let them be eh? It was just the kind of game I expected it to be and we deserved to lose in the end because we didn't take our chances when we'd carved out.

I personally didn't think either was a penalty, especially not the last one where their guy seemed to be backing into our defender - not even the Oxford fans thought it was if you read their messageboard.

The ref got ALL the big decisions wrong tonight. We should have had a penalty for the two handed push into O'Connor's back, and when Tommo was through their guy should have been sent off, had Tommo got past him there was no-one else, he was last man.

I'm not going to say the ref was a cheat, but he was either incompetent or just plain intimidated by the Oxford fans, that was a MASSIVE decision at the end and he got it wrong. I feel cheated !! He was massively influenced by the crowd all night, often giving decisions only if the crowd bayed for them - I don't think there was a person in the stadium apart from the ref who thought that was a penalty.

Still, we did it to Stevenage on Saturday, Oxford did it to us tonight. They are a very ordinary side who I'm confident we'll beat at Nene Park. If you said we'd average 1.5 points from games against the top 2 sides I'd have taken that before tonight - but part of me is gutted because we really did have the chances, even in the dying minutes, to get something from the game.

I'm disappointed tonight because we should not have lost, but the lads showed great character yet again, no finger pointing from me, although I will say I was a little disappointed with Tommo, he's far better than he showed tonight, but I'll give him that one due to being a little ring rusty due to the suspension.

Onwards and upwards - Mansfield next up - a must win game !!

[diamond82]

Was stood next to you during the game Pigman ( I was with the bloke with the red hat) and completely agree with everything you've said. I'm not as forgiving of the ref though. Had forgotten about the foul on Tommo. :evil:

Like you say the ref was either incompetent or has been overawed by the crowd which begs the question of why he was appointed for this game. At least when we beat Stevenage it was with a legitimate goal. Like you I feel robbed.

[DiamondsFan]

I don't get how the ref can justify giving a yellow for it.. The guy was the LAST MAN for a good 10 feet and Tomlin had team mates square to him so had he gone through, we'd definitely had scored.

Ref was a useless prick. Hats off to the lads though, did just about everything we could except score.

[Olly]

Obviously very disappointed but on a positive note, I felt it was another good battling performance from the lads, perhaps a little weak attacking wise but defensively we were superb and certainly didn't deserve to concede and I agree Oxford were never going to score form open play, or from set pieces(apart from the penalty of course) it seemed, the ref gave them quite a few good set piece chances and they wasted them.

Also it was fantastic to be in such a brilliant away crowd tonight as well. 382 away is good for us especially as it was a Tuesday night and we certainly let our presence known, superb atmosphere in the away end tonight and tbh it was great to be part of such a huge crowd in a big ground as well, even if the home support only really got going once they'd scored.

[rushandd]

Like i said in another post, i hope Justin makes a formal complaint based on the weak assed so called "refs" bad decision. Was told that when Constable started shouting his mouth off at the ref, it looked like he was having the upper hand ffs...why didnt the ref just book the prick !!! Instead, he later gives him a penalty for lying about being pulled down......cheating aholes dont deserve to go up...they never in a million years, deserved that penalty. A point each wouldve been fair play. We deserved nothing less. Poxford club, Poxford decisions......least we can win unaided !!!

[StaceyH]

Totally agree with you Pigman, it was our own fault and oxford were helped by the ref. We had two golden opportunities in the first half even before Tommo was brought down. We didn't take them and the team didn't really create much else. I saw 2 teams who cancelled each other out pretty well and didn't really create much at all from open play....if we'd taken those 2 opportunities, who knows how the game would have ended up.

I was very disappointed with Tommo, he's only been out for a couple of weeks not a couple of months I'd have to question exactly what he's been doing in that time. That said, he was well marked out of the game and the ref got that decision totally wrong, it should have been a red, I wonder if he would have gone on to score though...

There's nothing I can add to what's already been said about the ref but I'd like to make special mention of the lino who ran the line in front of us. He not once made his own decison, looked to the ref all the time, nearly slipped over on numerous occasions, dropped his cards - comedy at its best!!

It was a good team performance last night, no-one stood out for me, JE must be pleased with that. Great support from us too, it's almost like the good old days ;)

[jimbobjaw]

Yeah agreed with all of these, although i would add that i was surprised that the Lino on our side didn't bring his teddy or comfort blanket out for the second half, as he was not at all happy about doing anything on his own was he?

As said, we should have taken our chances, and if we had, the game would have been much more interesting. The referee made all of the big decisions incorrectly, and was just generally overawed by the situation. I know it wouldn't make much difference as pretty much every single referee in football is useless, but i wonder if it would be sensible for Oxford home games to be officiated by refs from a higher league, where they may be more used to 7000+ fans. Would be a little unfair i guess, as you would assume they would get better refs! Thoughts anyone?

[rudolph_hucker]

There's nothing I can add to what's already been said about the ref but I'd like to make special mention of the lino who ran the line in front of us. He not once made his own decison, looked to the ref all the time,

It was the same on Saturday, they NEVER make any decisions and stick to them.