06/09/07 - Things Can Only Get Better

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the trust.

OK, last week I was in a positive frame of mind. This week it is not going to be so easy. Two draws snatched from the jaws of victory over the last seven days have seen the level of unrest amongst United fans rise considerably. The voices of the dissenters are getting louder and it is hard to know where the negativity will cease.

As I mentioned in a previous article, OUFC seems to have an unhappy knack for producing players whose confidence levels are so low they would make a shy teenage kid seem like Robbie Williams. Even more alarmingly, this trend seems at its worst when we are in a position where confidence should be going up. This was fully evidenced in the games against Halifax and, even more so, Exeter, where the team had got a good lead and did not particularly look in any danger until someone hit the big red button marked 'PANIC - DO NOT PRESS'. All of a sudden the defence and midfield are at sixes and sevens and the football might as well be a massive hot potato because nobody wants to touch it for more than a second and the only option seems to be to kick it wildly into the air.

What Smith and Patto now have to address is the reasons for this. Are the substitutions/change in formations to blame? Certainly, the double substitution against Halifax seemed to swing the game in the away team's favour as we could no longer hold the ball up front so the midfield was suddenly overrun which in turn meant we defended deeper and the pressure mounted which resulted in Corcoran upending Campbell (who, amusingly, was given 'Key Man' status in the Non-League Paper). Similarly, against Exeter, bringing on Yemi for Standing seemed a very odd decision. Admittedly Yemi was a good outlet down the right for a few minutes but as soon as the second goal went in we were being overrun in midfield again. No-one could get a foot on the ball and once again the defence was playing on the six yard line which resulted in the inevitable equaliser. You can argue all you like about the ref playing 5 or 6 minutes of injury time but the 4 that were signaled are a minimum and we should be able to defend properly until the ref has had enough. Of course, I have not even mentioned Marvellous Marvin Robinson yet but to be honest I'm not sure there is any point. The truth is that he is simply not good enough and I just wish I could see what Smith sees in him. A knackered Duffy is twice as useful as a fresh Marvin.

What else could be causing these problems? Lack of self-belief? Maybe we are just not good enough? It seems that no matter what the reason is, it is something the management must address quickly and resolve. We are now stuck with this squad and, whilst it has many good points, the alarming tendency to not finish off teams, particularly at home, must be stopped.

Moving on from armchair management and back to supporter based issues, I am looking forward to the new Ultimate Yellows movement. Although it does sound slightly cringeworthy, and I've never liked the idea of having to organise singing at football, I'm willing to try anything once. Therefore it is highly likely you will see me in the North Stand on 15 September 2007 waving my Banbury Yellows flag and generally hopping about like a deranged lunatic. I'm also hoping we can indulge in some Eastern-European style bouncing in unison for long periods! Does anyone know where we can get yellow flares?! My only reservation about the whole thing is moving the passionate support from behind the goal. There could also be a the problem where a lot of the singers will not want to move from their seats in the OM even for one game which would cause a even bigger division between the singers than usual. I also think that if this is going to be a regular occurrence then it might be worth asking the club to set aside a large section of the North Stand for the UY just to make sure that everyone will be together and not randomly dotted about as we all currently are in the OM. Overall, I think it is a good idea and I hope it can be a success but I also hope that at some stage it can happen at every match in the OM.

So, a mix of positivity and negativity this week. I'm a bit like OUFC really, sublime one minute, panic stricken the next. Perhaps we should all go on a self-esteem course?!

COME ON YOU YELLOWS!