Oxford United ended the season with a defeat this afternoon as Accrington Stanley hit back to claim a win on their farewell to League 1.
A Billy Bodin goal after eight minutes was cancelled out by a fine strike from Korede Adedoyin and a header from Aaron Pressley after the break to send Stanley away with smiles, even if United had done all the hard work with wins over Cheltenham and Forest Green to make the result all but academic.
In glorious spring sunshine, Accrington needed an improbable cricket score to have any chance of staying up, so the last thing they needed was to effectively go a wicket down in the first over. Sadly for Stanley, it took just eight minutes for their defenced to be breached.
Bodin has been instrumental in United’s survival and joyfully smashed them into the lead after Tyler Goodrham’s subtle flick allowed him to muscle past a trailing defender and drill the ball beyond the dive of keeper Lukas Jensen.
Bodin, Tyler Goodrham, Marcus Browne and Kyle Joseph all squandered chances as United exploited the gaps in a porous visiting defence, not helped by both centre halves having to go off before the half hour mark. Some of the football was very easy on the eye, although as usual Simon Eastwood was on hand to spare blushes with an excellent save from Nathan Butler-Oyedeji just before the break.
There was a familiar story after the break as United carved out chance after chance. Accrington, returning to the fourth tier after five seasons, struggled to keep the rejuvenated U's at bay. The unplayable Browne was denied once again by the overworked Jensen, the Danish keeper repeatedly saving his side's bacon, and it looked like one-way traffic until just after the hour when sub Adedoyin let fly from distance and saw the ball fly past the diving Eastwood for an unlikely equaliser.
United threw men forward, Sam Long and Elliott Moore both close to giving their side the lead again with back post headers, and Josh Murphy sending in a viciously swerving effort that Jensen just about beat away, but Stanley had stuck at it and with five minutes left Pressley was unmarked to head home at the back post to give the visitors the win.
It matters little in the bigger scheme of things. Accrington will take on Wrexham and Swindon while the U's tackle Reading and Derby. Both clubs will reflect on a long, challenging season. United have showed their true colours in the final two months and have given their superb fans - over 10,000 there today - something to look forward to despite this setback.
Thank you for the support all season. Enjoy your summer, we'll be right here when it all kicks off again...
Att: 10,499
Away: 265
Polythene UK Fifty/50 number 82377 wins £1,222
Report by Chris Williams, picture Steve Daniels and Steve Edmunds