The ACN Match Review 24/25 – Oxford (h)

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·8 marzo 2025

The ACN Match Review 24/25 – Oxford (h)

How did we play?

We played better than we did on the opening day of the season, when the waft of smells from Oxford’s sewage works provided an apt metaphor for the performance.

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But it was only a relative improvement against that grim day and this 1-1 was another frustrating example of the team being unable to make things click against poor opposition determined to sit behind the ball.

We moved the ball too slowly, didn’t take enough risks when openings presented themselves, and didn’t make any meaningful use of any of the setpiece opportunities.

When we’re up against teams sitting back with a low block, it’s reminiscent of Farke’s first season. When we face teams trying to play and press, we treated to performances like the championship winning season. And if even I can see that, then opposition managers can too.

What was the best bit about the day?

It was lovely to see Reyes make an assured debut, albeit with very little to do.

What was the worst bit about the day?

Turning to my mate in the aftermath of Sarge’s early goal and saying, it’s going to be five or six today. Sorry everyone.

What was the atmosphere like?

Living an 11 hour round trip away from Norwich means home games are very rare for me so it’s interesting to gauge the changes each time I can visit. It was also my first time in the lower Barclay in about 20 years. A few observations:

the light show… I’m a live and let live sort of a person but I have absolutely no idea how that floats anyone’s boat. Bizarre.
safe standing… bewildering it took the authorities so long to sort this out, it’s such a no brainer
the drum… when the atmosphere is up it can be a huge help but for large parts of the game it drowned out attempts by the Snakepit and our side of the Barclay to get things going. Ultimately it has made huge strides in getting the atmosphere up and it’s on the team (and all of us) to make it work. But it hit differently last night than I’ve experienced it at away days.

The atmosphere started brilliantly and it was a rocking first 10-15 minutes but as Oxford dragged us into low block trench warfare and equalised it really tailed off.

Shout out to the Oxford fans. Any of them relying on public transport would be getting home at around 6am if they stayed to the end of the game. They weren’t especially loud but that was an impressive turnout given how much Sky TV hates football fans.

Hero of the match

They say culture eats structure for breakfast so it was great to see Shane Duffy binned from his place in the starting lineup for missing a team meeting. “Mistakes have consequences”, says the Hoff. He comes across as a nice young man full of ideas, but also manifests ‘fuck around and find out’.

Summary in Five Words

Sky TV is fucking shit.