Oxford United under 18s' unbeaten run continued despite letting a 2-0 lead slip at home to Bristol Rovers on Saturday.
2-0 up at half time through Michael Elechi and Slavi Spasov- his 19th of the season- the U’s were undone through two set pieces that allowed Rovers to turn the game around and make it 2-2
Coach Leon Blackmore-Such told us:
“We played well again and obviously it is so disappointing to only get one point when you were 2-0 up but it’s so hard to be critical after the run we have been on, and even at 2-0 we went looking for a third and kept trying to play our own game so there were so many positives despite letting the lead slip.
"The first goal came from a James Cowan free kick which Freddie Niblett slid in to keep alive at the back post and it hit Michael and went in - he will tell you he guided it goalwards but I’m not so sure! Then Fabio Lopes got free on the right and put in a great cross for Slavi to make it 2-0.
“At the break we said to keep our standards high because we knew Rovers would get at us and we have had some really good battles against them in the past. They got back to 2-1 from a free kick that few past Max Harris, who had earlier made a good save one on one, and then their keeper launched the ball forward, there was a good header and it was back to 2-2. Maybe we were too deep but it was still a good finish and it set up an end to end finish to the game where we did have chances to win it
“That takes a bit of character to get back on the front foot under those circumstances, and when Rovers had a man sent off with ten minutes to go we fancied our chances, but ultimately a point keeps us six clear with five games to play so we remain in a really good position.”
United
Harris, Lofthouse (Trialist), Sampford, McCreadie (Tjim) Niblett, Elechi, Cowan, Chambers-Parillon, Crooks (Stevens), Sapsov (Edwards), Lopes.