Oxford United made it two wins from two pre-season friendlies this afternoon as a strong second-half performance earned them a 5-1 win over Barnet at the Training Ground.
Goals from Marcus Browne, Stephan Negru, Josh Murphy, Yanic Wildschut and teenager Louis Griffiths saw United come back after trailing to the Bees by a single goal at half time.
With two games against National League opposition on the same day, Liam Manning split his squad to enable everyone to get as much game time as possible. Stephan Negru made his first appearance of the summer, while Mark Harris is expected to play at Eastleigh this evening.
United fell behind after half an hour of an even first half when Ed McGinty was given no chance from close range, but two minutes into the second half Browne flicked home a header at the near post to level at 1-1.
United then began to dominate and on 56 were 2-1 up when Murphy flew past a defender on the right and crossed for Negru to blast his shot into the roof of the net.
On 62 they went 3-1 up through Murphy, who burst through the middle and fired home a spectacular effort from 20 yards to cap another impressive performance.
The U’s then made changes to allow some of their youngsters to get game time with Calum Doyle and Griffiths stepping up from the under 16s. The fresh legs kept United’s momentum going and on 66 minutes they went 4-1 up when Wildschut powered clear on the left and planted an effort across the stranded keeper for another fine goal.
The icing on the cake came on 88 when Wildschut unselfishly set up Wales Under-16s forward Griffiths, who found space and rolled the ball across the keeper for a goal he will remember for a long time.
Another encouraging performance and a game played in good spirit. A similar mix of experience and youth now make the drive down the A34 for tonight’s game at Eastleigh. Full match report to follow plus coverage on Twitter.
UNITED
McGinty, Stevens (McIntyre 73), Negru (Mfuni 73), Golding, Trialist ( Smith 78), McEachran (Doyle 65), Murphy (Griffiths 71), Henry (Brenan 80), O’Donkor, Trialist, Browne (Wildschut 54)