S25/26 | The Official Match Thread | Oxford 0 Swansea 1 |Att: 11,413 | 29/12/25 | The EFL Championship | The Kassam Stadium

[Londonlisa2001]

Oh yeah, we’re fine now. 12 points from 6 games in December has transformed our season. I doubt we’ll keep this up but we are showing enough for relegation to not be a worry any more.

Oh God, take that back will you. We had more points than this last season after 24 games.

 

[Vetchonian]

those two plus Widell have been our best players tonight.

surely not 3 players brought in during that rubnish summer window by the Worthless head of recruitment

 

[J_B]

That so called useless side have beaten Ipswich and Southampton recently.

Yes. Sometimes you play as well as you're allowed to play.
I've said it a few times but for me the biggest impact Matos has made has been improving us massively without the ball.

 

[NWJack]

Matos has turned us into a press hungry, cohesive unit and we are enjoyable to watch again. Yes it could be better and we had brain farts (particularly in front of goal) but some of that passing today was excellent. We are working much harder with and without the ball.

 

[Londonlisa2001]

surely not 3 players brought in during that rubnish summer window by the Worthless head of recruitment

You’re mistaking me for someone who’s ever said that.

 

[monmouth]

Great three points. Thank God for that. Really vital win.

Oxford are the worst team I think I’ve seen this season.

We could have easily thrown those points away tonight though, I mean, we created chances, but our finishing was unbelievably awful. We have to try to find a way to finish teams off as better teams than that (of which there are 22) would have punished us.

I felt we were comfortable enough, but any team can score a goal from nothing, and so our lackadaisical attempts when the other chances came had me chewing the furniture. We seemed to have a few chances to just whack it in the net, only to look like we’d never kicked a ball before. It’s baffling.

 

[Londonlisa2001]

I felt we were comfortable enough, but any team can score a goal from nothing, and so our lackadaisical attempts when the other chances came had me chewing the furniture. We seemed to have a few chances to just whack it in the net, only to look like we’d never kicked a ball before. It’s baffling.

They were pretty close with that free kick.

 

[LeonWasTheDogs]

Oh God, take that back will you. We had more points than this last season after 24 games.

Good point, I don’t want to temp fate! We’ve had our meltdown early this season and seem to be over it. This time last year we still had falling apart at the end of Williams’ time to ‘look forward’ to. We won’t be doing that again I hope, so it’s mostly up or at worst level from now on. We’re playing ok, just have a few issues infront of goal.

 

[Blackpooljack]

Any half decent forward line would have scored about 4 by now.

And the rest.

 

[bakajack]

Matos has turned us into a press hungry, cohesive unit and we are enjoyable to watch again. Yes it could be better and we had brain farts (particularly in front of goal) but some of that passing today was excellent. We are working much harder with and without the ball.

The cohesion in the press is sometimes still not quite there
A few times for example Widell went to help Vipotnik in the press but Eom and Inoussa didn't join them leaving the center halves or goalkeeper with easy out balls to the full backs

But thats the kind of thing that will come with time on the training ground and recruitment

Vipotnik has 3 goals in 4 games now after his barren patch which is always encouraging signs for the club

 

[NWJack]

The cohesion in the press is sometimes still not quite there
A few times for example Widell went to help Vipotnik in the press but Eom and Inoussa didn't join them leaving the center halves or goalkeeper with easy out balls to the full backs

But thats the kind of thing that will come with time on the training ground and recruitment

Vipotnik has 3 goals in 4 games now after his barren patch which is always encouraging signs for the club

Yeah not getting ahead of myself, but it's a hell of a lot better than that clueless mess pre-Matos

 

[Swans Jack]

I was highly impressed by his energy tonight. When he was involved in an attack in their box which broke down, he sprinted after their player who had 15 yards start on him and was pelting down the right wing. Widdell caught up with him half way into our half and forced the ball into touch. Outstanding.

I did worry he was gonna get another Yellow (Widell), but to his credit he kept steady mind and kept pressing. Franco did really well as well and added to that. Key, still shouldn't be near the team and gave it away, which could of lead to something and still looks clueless. Yes we want clinical, but feel Oxford though not great did well to put pressure on us. As they was coming off a big win. There home crowd wasn't great though. 11k. Maybe that's why? Or they have lost belief. Who knows. We sounded the loudest through out the game.

 

[Londonlisa2001]

Good point, I don’t want to temp fate! We’ve had our meltdown early this season and seem to be over it. This time last year we still had falling apart at the end of Williams’ time to ‘look forward’ to. We won’t be doing that again I hope, so it’s mostly up or at worst level from now on. We’re playing ok, just have a few issues infront of goal.

We did, but we also had that run under Sheehan which looks a stretch for us this season.

I think we’ll be ok, but I’m always surprised by how quickly things can fall apart with a bad three games or so.

The main worry I have is that we are not picking up any points at all against teams around the top. Even Oxford have done that.

 

[Whaleoilbeefhooked]

You obviously haven't watched us for very long

Just the last 50 odd years!

 

[bakajack]

Yeah not getting ahead of myself, but it's a hell of a lot better than that clueless mess pre-Matos

Oh I agree on that entirely
The pressing (or lack thereof) during the Sheehan reign (especially towards the end) had me wanting to burn the house down lol