Oxford United's under 18s were beaten by a late goal at Swindon on Saturday.
Saturday 13th January
EFL Youth Alliance
South West Division
Oxford United 0
Swindon Town 1
Leon Blackmore Such writes
“This was a derby and the players on both sides certainly knew it because there was that edge to it, a bit of aggression and lots of passion. Nothing wrong with that provided you use it properly and I thought we dominated a lot of the game. It was a bit of a contrast in styles because we looked to play through the thirds and keep the ball while Swindon were a bit more direct. Our centre halves Matt Berry-Hargreaves and Nathan Baker stood up to that well and dealt with it comfortably to keep it at 0-0 at half time.
We might have been in front by then because Owen James had a couple of chances, we had set pieces and Aaron Heap had a shot from the edge of the box but at the break we just asked for a little bit more quality around the box and to try and overload the wide areas if we could.
We made a lot of chances in the second half and their keeper made two or three good saves as well as Ryan Crooks almost scoring but the ball hitting one of our own players from six yards out. We ended up having 14 shots on target to their three, but that doesn’t matter because on 85 minutes they capitalised on a mistake to tap the loose ball home and win the game 1-0.
It’s hard to be too critical after this game and the one against Bournemouth in midweek because over the course of those games we have had 30 shots for us and only 7 against so we have been a bit unlucky to come away with just the one point. But that’s something you have to learn too; play well, put in the good performances, but you need to get the results as well.
We will be saying that again this weekend when we travel to Portsmouth.”
United
Harris, Carr, Baker, Berry-Hargreaves, Heap, Hopkins, Cowan (McCreadie 77), Mannings, Bryan, Crooks, James (Lofthouse 60)
Subs not used
Chilcott, McDonnel, Stevens