Tyrone Marsh bagged
himself a brace as the development squad strolled to a
straightforward 3-0 win at Didcot Town. Triallist Dylan McGlade did
his cause no harm with a fine performance, capping it with an
excellent solo goal.
You could have been
forgiven for thinking that Didcot were still in the changing room
after 15 minutes, such was United's dominance in the opening stages
of the match. Aidan Hawtin was the first to try his luck, shooting
narrowly wide after just two minutes. Moments later Marsh drew the
first save of the game as he connected with a cross from Hawtin. In
fact, Didcot goalkeeper Gareth Tucker was all that stood between
Oxford and a commanding early lead, making an exceptional reaction
save to deny Marvin Ekpiteta who rose to meet another Hawtin cross.
But the goal that Oxford had been threatening came soon enough, as
Marsh darted in to nod home after McGlade had twisted and tricked his
way past his man and delivered a dangerous ball in.
Didcot were stung into
action and finally began to probe the young Oxford defence. Just
minutes after falling behind, the hosts had the ball in the net
themselves when Harry Halls rose to head in a free-kick. However, as
Halls wheeled away in celebration the linesman's flag went up and the
goal was disallowed. It looked a marginal decision which left the
Didcot players and fans unhappy, but having dominated so far it would
have been harsh for Oxford to be pulled back level after Didcot's
first attack of the game.
But having started like a
freight train, Oxford had by now slowed down to more of a slower chug
(sorry, couldn't resist!), though they were still easily in control
of the match. McGlade added a second just before the half-hour mark
after twisting and turning past several challenges before slotting
past Tucker.
Josh Shama was causing all
sorts of problems for the Didcot defence as well and he came close to
giving Oxford a third with a header, but Joel Meade was on hand to
clear it off the line. But Crocombe was called into action shortly
before half-time to palm away a free-kick as the Railwaymen sought a
route back into the match.
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| Picture from @OxfordMailOUFC |
But it was Oxford who
remained on the front foot after the break and Hawtin came
agonisingly close to adding a third as he saw his powerful shot come
thundering back off the underside of the bar. Tucker again had to be
on his toes to turn away shots from David Lynn, Josh Ruffels and
Scott Davies (not all at the same time) but there was only so much he
could do as the chances just kept coming. Marsh got his second of the
night after some good work out wide from substitute Gregg Hackett,
slipping the ball past the keeper for Oxford's third.
The yellows made several
changes to give some of the youth team players some game-time, but
still United's dominance continued. James Roberts came on for the
final ten minutes and came close to grabbing a goal himself as he
burst through the middle of the defence, but was unable to prod it
past the goalkeeper.
Didcot could be in for a
tough time this season, if their pre-season is anything to go by. As
well as being comfortably beaten by United's development squad
tonight, they suffered a worrying 4-0 defeat against an experimental
Oxford City side, as well as troubling defeats against Hellenic
League sides Milton United and Ardley United. Let's hope they're
saving their best for when the season gets underway!
As for us, Marsh, Shama,
Hawtin and McGlade put in impressive individual performances, but
what impressed me most was that they put on such a coherent display
having only been thrust together as a group this summer. Already
there are signs of an understanding between several of these players
and perhaps that bodes well for our development system as a whole.
I'll be very interested to see how they develop over the course of
the season.
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