Under-18s smash four past Newport County
Newport County 1 Oxford United 4
Football League Youth Alliance, south west
Saturday 9th January 2016
Oxford United’s under-18s made the trip to south Wales last Saturday and came away with all three points thanks to a comprehensive 4-1 win over Newport County.
Leon Blackmore-Such told us:
We started really well and with a good tempo. We had the first chance at the start of the game when Joe Hartley beat his fullback and got the ball to Jordan Graham, whose shot beat the keeper but was cleared off the line. That was the story of the first half: we got down the sides well and had a lot of possession, with Jordan Graham threatening a lot.
We created two or three good chances in the first period while Jack Stevens only had to make one save of note, getting down well to a near-post shot.
Then with the last kick of the first half Jordan Graham smashed a free-kick into the far left corner to give us the lead going into the break.
We had dealt well with the physical side of Newport’s game and competed with them, winning lots of second balls and at the break we told the lads just to carry on playing that way. In the second half we stuck to the same game plan, and Joe Hartley caused Newport lots of problems down the right side.
The second goal came from some good all-round play. Seth Humphries made a run beyond the Newport back four and finished one on one past the keeper.
For the third goal Jordan Graham sent a corner over to the back post where Canice Carroll headed back across goal for Charlie Hawtin to score.
Finally, Jordan Graham had a set piece out wide. It was a great delivery and Graham Bryan ran across the goal for the ball to go straight in.
Canice Carroll and Cian McCormack handled the big Newport attackers really well, Jack Stevens made one good save when the score was 2-0, so that was an important one, and overall it was a good team performance.
The one sour note was in the 92nd minute when Newport pulled a goal back from a free kick; the lad sent in a knuckle-ball which swerved all over the place and hit the bar and they scored from the follow-up, which was disappointing to conceded that late. However, that’s a minor quibble and we draw a line under it.
We’ve now got no league games until February so we’ll play a few friendlies instead, while some of our lads have gone out on loan to get game time.
United: Stevens, Ricketts (Diaz-Benitez 45), McCormack, Carroll, C Hawtin, Hartley (Bryan 60), Baptiste, Humphries, Hastings (L Graham), J Graham, Triallist
Youth team players out on loan:
Welch-Hayes (Banbury United), Jeacock (Farnborough), Hayden (Ardley), Humphries (Abingdon United), Hawtin (Abingdon United), Tuttle (Burnham)