Player Ratings: Bristol Rovers vs. Oxford United (RESULTS)

Bonham 7.5 - not a load off work but couple of smart saves.

Partington 7 - some brilliant crosses amongst some poor ones. Good composure on ball.
Lockyer 7 - did a solid job defensively, bit negative with distribution.
Craig 7 - typical solid defending, battled well and let them know he was there. Booking was silly though.
Kelly 6.5 - solid if a bit below rest of defence. Definitely worth persisting with.

Sinclair 6 - wholehearted including great body on line block. Unlucky Nicholls header off bar dropped just behind him. Would rather see him a bit deeper
Upson 7 - composed throughout. Some brilliant cross field balls. If he could get ball out of feet a bit earlier and show more urgency would have been higher. His best game to date.
O. Clarke 4 - nothing really came off for him. Would say the tactics of having too many holding central midfielders made it tough for him to do anything.
Sercombe 5.5 - didn't do much wrong but struggled to influence game like normally does. Played too deep second half, his only? Shot of game was late on and uncharacteristically dragged well wide.

Nichols 8 - showed great movement workrate and strength throughout. Very impressed by how many times got body in front of defenderto win and hold up ball. Very unlucky with header tipped onto bar, did take a touch too many with his best chance being played through from left.
Jakubiak 5 - showed some good battling but not really in game. Victim of poor tactics first half

Subs: Matthews 5 - really not his day, nothing worked out for him. Wasn't able to get any runs going but took up some good positions and helped stretch game.
Bennett 7.5 - influenced the game massively once on. His width creativity and direct running changed the dynamic of the game. Unlucky to not get more reward for his work. Was gradually nullified by Oxford after a brilliant first 20 mins.
Payne N/A - showed good strength in short time on.

Crowd 6 - good support of Nicholls. First half dead (as we're Oxford fans throughout). Turn out ok.
Ref 2 - really ruined the first half by not letting anything go, was way too quick with the early yellows and giving free kicks. Last thing needed when got 2 poor teams struggling to get any flow into play. 2nd half was better, think his assistants must have pointed out at half time that if kept up would end up sending 2 or 3 off...
Oxford 4 - we made them look ok first half by playing a team and formation lacking any width or attacking intent. They are leaking goals and we let them off. 2nd half once we started playing they looked rattled and just booted it forwards losing all composure.
DC 3 - made the right changes 2nd half. First half line-up not acceptable for hone game against a team at bottom of table. Way too negative and should have bitten the bullet earlier and made changes when clear not working. From the terrace was clear to see first half that needed width and playing 4 cms was not going to work (as predicted by everyone pre natch when seeing lineup). He looks flat on touchline and feel needs to focus on how we can get the best out of our team and let them worry about us rather than paying so much respect. Oxford were there for the taking and we effectively reduced the match to 45 minutes

Bonham 8

Partington 6
Lockyer 6
Craig 6
Kelly 6

Sinclair 5
Upson 6
O. Clarke 5
Sercombe 4

Nichols 5
Jakubiak 5

Subs: Matthews 6
Bennett 6.5
Payne NOLE

Crowd 6
Ref 1
Oxford 2 Your going down with the Rovers Down with the Rovers!

Bonham - 8 - consistently solid.

Partington - 6 - nothing spectacular, don't think he's fully fit.
Lockyer - 7.5 - strong and reliable, deserves credit for a good clean sheet.
Craig - 7.5 - not always his biggest fan but had a good game.
Kelly - 7 - encouraging, final ball lacks but can't fault his effort. Would like to see THD sooner rather than later though.

Sinclair - 6 - runs until the pitch gets tired but no real quality, looked uncomfortable playing as the second striker in the second half.
Upson - 5 - thought he was OK second half but poor in the first.
O. Clarke - 5 - Ollie's worst game of the season.
Sercombe - 6 - not much better from Sercs but linked well with Bennett after the break.

Nichols - 8 - solid game, all that was missing was the goal. Desperately unlucky not to score after two great saves from their keeper.
Jakubiak - 5 - very ineffective, a theme I've seen in most of his appearances to date.

Subs: Matthews - 7 - looked lively and never hides, always looks for the ball.
Bennett - 7.5 - easily our most creative player and his introduction changed the game.
Payne - 6 - I'm not sure what he brings to the table. It's not goals, he doesn't win headers and his work rate is questionable at times.

Crowd - 5 - meh. Another underwhelming first half performance hardly put anyone in the sing-song spirit after the interval and who'd blame them?
Ref - 2 - truly awful. Card happy first half but calmed it second half.
Oxford - 4 - set up for the draw towards the end and I didn't feel like they really scared us when they were on top at the start (sounds familiar though). I think they and Plymouth are both worse than us from what I've seen, which gives me hope and optimism haha!

Results in and Jack Bonham is once again Man of the Match with a score of 7.69.

Bonham became the first player to win MotM outright for four games in a row. Ollie Clarke was MotM in four games in a row a couple of seasons ago (Fleetwood (A)- Rochdale (A)) but he shared two of those, one with Lumley and another with Sweeney.

The starting XI average was 6.12.

This was the 7th game against Oxford in these threads, more than any other team. Their rating of 4.4 was slighty better than their worst rating against us, a 4.3 at the start of the 2016/17 season.

This was bidefordgas's 100th rating in these threads (97th league game). His top rated game (after the 10 he gave the Dagenham game) was at Northampton last season (8.0), while his worst rated game was 3.5 at home to Doncaster last season.

Bonham 7.7

Partington 6.4
Lockyer 6.6
Craig 6.5
Kelly 6.4

Sinclair 5.5
Upson 6.4
Sercombe 5.5
O. Clarke 5.0

Nichols 6.5
Jakubiak 4.8

Subs: Matthews 5.8
Bennett 7.0
Payne 6.5

Crowd 5.8
Ref 3.2
Oxford 4.4