Oxford United's under 18s made progress in the League Cup on Tuesday with a 3-1 win at Southend United.
Tuesday 12th September
Football League Youth Alliance
League Cup
Southend United 1
Oxford United 3
Leon Blackmore Such told us:
“This was the League Cup Second Round- we had a bye in the first and it was exciting to face a different side from a different league- Southend are in the South East division and we are in the South West. We had our game against Bristol Rovers called off because of the rain in Bristol so we were well up for this match and started very well with lots of possession in their half but then it got a little bit scrappy with shots from distance rather than any real clear chances.
Southend maybe edged it in the first half hour, just a bit more know how maybe, and then they got the opener in a bit of a mad moment. Owen James cut across the area and was brought down for what looked a pretty clear penalty for us, but it wasn’t given and from that incident Southend went up the other end and scored. The ball was worked to the right and even from where we were standing you could see the ball went out: I have never seen a photographer have to duck to allow a cross to go into the box before! But they put the ball in and the ref gave the goal so it was up to us to overcome that and show the character to get back into the game.
At half time we could see us taking control if we were just that bit smarter and dealt with second balls better. We changed to 4-4-2 to try and exploit the opposition’s shape and in the second half, from the very first whistle we were just attack after attack. Kyran Lofthouse came on at the break and made a massive difference, Owen James ran the defence all over the place and Aaron Heap won every second ball and our wide men did great.
It finished 3-1 to us. The first came when Heapy played a ball for Owen to run on to and Kyran tapped it home after 53 minutes to make it 1-1. Then we broke out again and Albie Hopkins finished first time to make it 2-1.
There are two Jack Stevens at the club now- the goalkeeper who fans know about and our own one and he came on as a sub, played a one two and put the ball in to make it 3-1 and kill the game off.
It was all about progressing to the next round but this was also a very good performance and we are through to the third round now and playing well.
United
Clayton, Carr (Rogers 80), Berry-Hargreaves, Niblett, Chilcott, McCreedy (Lofthouse 46), Cowan, Heap, Hopkins, James (Lopez 82), Crooks (Stevens 70)