Well, that was all a bit extra, wasn’t it? 

It was Remembering Joey Beauchamp Day, Mickey Lewis’ Birthday Day, Blue Light Day and Josh Murphy Return’s to The Kassam Day on Saturday. That’s a lot of days to pack into one day. Perhaps after the treacle-like performance against Derby, someone felt the need to bring a bit of colour to proceedings. It probably didn’t need a medical emergency in the stands or an attempted lynching to add further texture.

My general view is that medical emergencies are best dealt with by people who know about medical emergencies. If you’re going to have a cardiac arrest, then a football ground in Oxford probably has more qualified medical professionals, outside an actual hospital, than almost anywhere else in the country.

On the morning of our relegation from the Football League in 2006 I was in the maternity ward of the John Radcliffe hospital, or more specifically on a bench outside, heroically eating a Mars bar. I’d snuck out to update my parents about the progress of our daughter’s imminent and much delayed, birth. Having done my duty after a sleepless night, I thought, ill-advisedly it turns out, I also had the perfect excuse to indulge in some junk food. 

When I came back, the delivery room was full of doctors and nurses. Something was wrong, but nobody would tell me what. Eventually I was told everyone was preparing for an emergency caesarean because the baby’s heartbeat was erratic (it was all fine in the end). Eventually a midwife turned to me and said, ‘Our priority is the baby first, mother second…’ she paused ‘… and you last’.

I don’t mind saying that was a kick in the knackers and a blow to the old ego, but they’d clearly thought it through, which was reassuring. So, I’m happy to defer the actions required in a medical emergency to those who think about them every day.

And then, in the infinite collective wisdom of some parts of the East Stand, a large number of people thought it was wise to help the situation by trying to lynch a cameraman for pointing his camera towards the North Stand. With lots of resources diverting to the North Stand, obviously what was really needed was for things to become more stretched by having to send security to ensure the safety of a man doing his job.

Sky had already cut the feed to the game, so nobody saw anything of the incident. He was taking a wide shot of the stand and not filming the incident specifically, which is apparently quite normal. Third, even if he was filming the incident, every single recorded major incident in the history of the world from 9/11 to the shooting of JFK has resulted from someone pointed a camera at it. There would be far more to gain by capturing it – lesson learned for the future, evidence of good and bad practice, or simply the recording of a noteworthy event. The cameraman would hardly have been filming it to satisfy some personal kink. Did people think it was being broadcast to the nation with Jamie Mackie analysing the application of the defibrillator? Obviously, it’s not possible to know all these things at the time, but it is certainly possible not to over-react. Let the professionals be professional, and stop the performative nonsense you hopeless goons.

What influence this all had over the game is unclear. There’s been a notable shift under Gary Rowett; broadly speaking, the risk envelope has been narrowed considerably. So, where before we’d be more accepting of a three or four goal defeat if there was a chance of a three or four goal win, now we’re a team that’s more likely to win or lose 1-0.

That stands to reason, to survive in the Championship requires an average of just under a point a game, so nicking points is ultimately more productive than going out to swashbuckle your way to a glorious win or a valiant, but heavy, defeat. 

The problem with playing conservatively is that when it works, it’s fine but when it doesn’t it looks absolutely awful. It reminds me of watch Paul Moody, who was a battering ram of a striker. When he scored it was brilliant, but misses made him look like a blindfolded three-legged bull in a China shop.

Narrowing the risk means playing to clear patterns and plans and not deviating. The lengthy delay certainly introduced an unpredictable variable which presumably hadn’t been accounted for. We hadn’t showed much rhythm in the opening 10 minutes, but neither had they, so in many ways we were all still feeling our way in. 

Perhaps if there hadn’t been the delay, we’d have found that rhythm. Instead, the game descended into an ugly League One-style scrap. Timings were all askew – the game was paused at eleven minutes, the clock then re-started at 22 minutes with ten minutes of injury time, which was extended due to injuries to Greg Leigh and Siriki Dembele. It was hard to judge efforts, the first half took well over an hour to complete.

Their opening goal was farcical, there’s really no explaining or excusing it. If the ball comes to your feet in a crowded box, kick it away from the goal as hard as you can, it doesn’t matter what level you’re playing at.

There was no immediate response, Dembele continued his habit of trying to beat both teams and half the crowd, Mark Harris looked lost, Shemmy Placheta threatened vaguely although has a habit of focussing on the space he’s running into rather than the ball he’s supposed to be collecting.

Only the introduction of Stan Mills and Ole Romeny began to change the tide. There were chances, enough to draw or even win the game. I don’t quite agree that Matt Phillips’ chance was easier than Stan Mills’, that view is more a natural bias that’s build up around Phillips this season. In truth both should have scored, although you might excuse Mills, due to a lack of football.

The second was perhaps inevitable, we weren’t particularly stretched, but when you’re in a forward gear, it’s hard to readjust. 

The reality is that we were pulled out of our comfort zone, disrupted by events outside our control, and bullied into submission by a side that looked like they’re still feeling the urgency and threat of relegation.

Should we worry? No. Should we be vigilant? Yes. Teams at the bottom of a table don’t accumulate points quickly and the gap is still comfortable. This isn’t something we’re particularly used to, having spent nearly two decades broadly looking towards the top of a table at teams who win more regularly. There may even be an advantage in that we are reawakened to the realities we still face. Life in the Championship has always required us to occasionally dig in and take some punches. It’s how you recover that proves your worth.