Oxford United’s under 18 side enjoyed a 2-1 win away at Newport County on Saturday.
Leon Blackmore Such told us:
“It was the second in a run of five away games for us which is an interesting challenge. The under 17s beat Birmingham 6-0 in midweek so we were in good spirits for this game and we started very strongly again.
Newport always work hard and have a lot of spirit so we knew we would have to match that and our new shape worked really well with Aaron McCreedy just behind James Cowan and Aaron Heap in midfield.
We moved the ball well and create chances and took the lead when Dan Carr had a shot saved to force a corner. Freddie Niblett met it well and Aaron Heap was there to get the ball home and make it 1-0.
We played some good stuff after that for ten minutes or so but then Newport had one or two set pieces and started to cause trouble. They hit the post and missed a one on one so we were paying for not keeping up the early pace. We were still dangerous and made that count when Owen James got away down the line and lifted the ball over the keeper to make it 2-0 .
It was a decent scoreline but we asked the lads to step things up in the second half and for ten minutes or so we did that and looked dangerous, but then Newport got a goal back to make it 2-1 and we started to drop deeper to try and defend the lead rather than keep doing what had got us in front in the first place.
Credit to the lads though because they were determined not to throw it away and we defended our lead and showed a bit of determination as well as composure. We worked really hard again, got a positive result and we move on to a game away at Bristol Rovers on Saturday on the back of a good win.
United
Clayton, Carr, Baker, Niblett, Chilcott, McCreedy, Heap, Cowan (Stevens 75), Hopkins (Lofthouse 65), James, Crooks (Berry-Hargreaves 85)