The wrap - Oxford United 1 Doncaster Rovers 0

Last time we played Doncaster Rovers was Graham Rix’s first game in charge. He’d taken over from the pragmatic Ian Atkins who had stropped off to Bristol Rovers after a fall-out with Firoz Kassam.

Rix’s first decision was to drop Andy Woodman in place of debutante teenager Simon Cox in goal, he brought in the apathetic Courtney Pitt from Chelsea, but most alarming of all was his insistence that a team built on physicality and direct football play an intricate passing game, even on our own six yard line.

Atkins understood the constraints he was working within and built a team accordingly, although it had suffered a dip in form, it was on the verge of the play-offs as a result. Rix’s philosophy was a volte face of epic proportions, he seemed to believe that he could simply switch the players' approach like turning on a light-switch. He ignored the foundations Atkins left behind and tried to change them over night. Following a hairy 0-0 draw with Doncaster, we won one (the last game when all was lost), drew two and lost five of our last eight games and fell away from the play-offs. It was the start of a slippery slope which ended with us in the Conference two years later.

Rix’s failure was to impose a philosophy on team it was ill equipped to deal with.

Fast forward to Saturday’s meeting with Doncaster; a disjointed affair in a disjointed season. Pep Clotet, like Rix inherited a successful formula, some of it was wrecked for him – Lundstram, Johnson and Maguire leaving, other bits have been cruelly ripped from his hands – Hall, Ribiero and Nelson’s injuries – but he’s broadly tried to keep things stable. An evolution in comparison to Rix wreckless attempt at revolution.

The effect is uncomfortable, but hardly the failure Rix instigated. We’ve created chances and scored goals, we’re a very creditable eighth, but at no point have we hit anything resembling a groove.
The club’s summer was disrupted by Michael Appleton’s departure, Clotet, like Appleton when he started, had to piece together a squad when time was against him. He called on a rag-tag bunch of contacts from around the world, people he knew he could rely on to at least stabilise the club.

With the injuries we’ve had, that sense of the squad being a ramshackle bunch of desperadoes, battling for every point while taking heavy blows has intensified. A sort of Rebel Alliance. Whether this is Clotet's envisaged end-state is anyone's guess. Most managers don't get the opportunity to get to reach a stable state, but Oxford under Darryl Eales is different and you suspect, given his Michael Appleton experience, he will be patient.

In the meantime, it does look like this is it; the January transfer window may help bolster resources, but it's not going to turn us into a ruthless unit. This year, may well be more about 35 yard pile drivers in the sixth minute of injury time than a unrelenting march to promotion.