Oxford United’s under 18s were beaten in the league for the first time this season when they lost 2-1 at Swindon on Saturday morning.
A Slavi Spasov goal gave United hope after they trailed 2-0, but as Chris Hackett told us, the young U’s were not quite able to complete their comeback.
“ We played them earlier in the season and beat them 3-0 quite convincingly but it was a derby game and as we know anything can happen in them. The boys actually did really well but it was just one of those games where things didn’t go for us.
"We went 1-0 down very early into the game, about four or five minutes in. Credit to their lad it was a great finish and it gave them something to hold on to and they started to get men behind the ball and make it hard for us. They got a second on the breakaway and then there were a couple of decisions that went against us with Kyran Lofthouse, Slavi and Michael Elechi all brought down in the box but nothing given. On another day things go our way but on this occasion they didn’t.
"We got a goal back through Slavi after good build up play and a good run down the left from Michael Elechi then had a goal disallowed and kept going close without that little bit of luck
"We showed great character to come back into the game and get it to 2-1 and we had a goal disallowed for 2-2 and the stats show that we had plenty of the ball, plenty of good balls into the box and shots, so it was just a case of not quite finishing things off for once - which is not like us this season, but does give us something to work on and improve next time.
"We have been on a such a fantastic run and this was out first loss in the league so now we get to see a different side to the lads and it is all about how we bounce back, and how we respond when we play Portsmouth at home on Saturday."
United
Evans, Lofthouse, McCreadie, Niblett, Milton, Elechi, Chambers-Perillon, Cowan, Crooks (Stevens), Spasov, James (Edwards)