Oxford United’s under 18s were held to a goalless draw at home to Gillingham this morning in the Merit League

United used the game to again look at a number of under 16s and trialists and will be pleased with the performance against a Gills side who started the day top of the table.

The two teams started brightly in this highly contested fixture, with the game going back and forth for the first 30 minutes. The best chance of the half fell to Gillingham, who enjoyed the majority of the possession, with a clever free-kick dinked to the back post that was narrowly headed wide.

With strong sideways winds, the set-pieces were hard to predict but United’s defence handled them well.

United’s opponents started the second half strongly with their first attack leading to a shot hitting the outside of the post but both teams then had good spells with the best chances of the game coming from free-kicks on a day when defences were on top.

UNITED
Barnsley, Maxwell, Sankoh, Took-Oxley, Franklin, Zabeli, Elliott-Wheeler, *Trialist* (Gerrard), *Trialist* (Bradney), Johnson, Davis-Stephenson (*Trialist*)

Subs:
Gerrard, Giles, Bradney, *Trialist*, Marriott