PREVIEW Oxford United U18 v Stevenage U18

Young U's kick off their Merit League campaign

4 March 2022

Oxford United Under 18s begin their Merit League season with a game at the Bangkok Glass Training Centre this Saturday at 11am against Stevenage U18s after finishing their league season in strong form.

After a good run of 8 games unbeaten in the league last season, Stevenage started their Merit League season with a 3-0 loss to Portsmouth, who United beat in their previous game.

The U’s postponed last weekend’s game against AFC Wimbledon to allow players to pay their respects to Joey Beauchamp, alongside the entire Academy, but midfielder George Franklin said that the team is looking forward to testing themselves in the new league.

“We were really happy with how we finished the season” he said. “With it being a young team heading into the last few games I think we showed our quality to get some really good results against tough teams. It’s exciting and we are all ready for a new challenge with the Merit League.”

Full report to follow right here.

Match Previews

Match Reports

Under 18s beaten By Stevenage

Young U's lose first Merit League game

7 March 2022

Oxford United’s Under 18s kicked off their Merit League campaign with a 2-0 defeat to Stevenage on Saturday.

Stevenage scored with a swift counter attack and then doubled their lead in the last minute of the game to put the fixture to bed.

It was a game that was still very much in the balance with 20 minutes to go but after Will Owens was sent off, United were forced to play without their influential left-back and struggled to chase the game.

“It was a tough game in poor conditions.” Chris Hackett commented, “It was a game we probably dominated but couldn’t capitalise from the chances we had, just lacking a bit of quality today in the final third.”

United
Barnsley, Watt (Nosakhare h/t), Sankoh, Johnson, Franklin, Zabeli, Coe, Anifowose ©, Owens, Tiamuna (Masters 60) , Davis-Stephenson (Trialist 60)