Oxford United’s promotion hopes took a massive blow on Tuesday with a 5-0 defeat at Bolton.
The U’s were two goals down by half time before conceding a further three in the second half.
Here are three talking points from the game.
Unchanged Team But Different Results
For the third successive game, Des Buckingham kept the same starting line-up.
While the game at Portsmouth ended in defeat, it was arguably the best performance since the head coach came in.
A win over Cheltenham followed, albeit with a lesser performance, meaning it could make sense for Buckingham to go unchanged heading into a game against a side that had had an inconsistent run of form of late.
However, the result was massively different and it looked like a completely different set of players.
Buckingham Lost the Fanbase?
With that, how can the same starting lineup go from going toe to toe and deserving something against the league leaders to struggling to get past a relegation-threatened team to getting absolutely battered against Bolton?
There have been small groups of the fanbase that have been calling for the manager to go, but this result seems to have made those groups all the more vocal, with further support.
It was a catastrophic display from start to finish. Defensive errors, no shots on target and no clear identity on a style of play. Maybe he has finally lost the fanbase.
No Shots on Target
Oxford failed to have a single shot on target throughout the 90 minutes. Mark Harris, who is now without a goal in six games, having scored six from his previous seven, was provided with nothing.
The wingers in Owen Dale and Josh Murphy have been arguably the best players in recent weeks but were unable to get on the ball.
The midfield duo of Cameron Brannagan and Marcus McGuane were unable to get any passes together going forward, while Ruben Rodrigues yet again failed to make any sort of impact.
Oxford spent £400,000 on a striker in January in Will Goodwin. Yes, he hasn’t really hit the ground running, but he probably needs a run in the team.
With a lack of attacking impetus and major errors in defence, it was only going to go one way against the Trotters.
