Youngsters beaten by Cheltenham
Cheltenham Town 3
Oxford United 1
Oxford United’s under 18’s were beaten 3-1 at Cheltenham on Saturday to end their recent winning run. Having taken the lead through Luke Hastings the U’s were pegged back before the break and then left empty-handed after two second half goals gave the Robins all three points.
Leon Blackmore-Such told us:
“We started well in the first half and were 1-0 up inside five minutes when some good build up opened the way for Luke Hastings to score for us.
“We dominated that first half in terms of quality and possession and made chances but didn’t take them. Shandon Baptiste came back after injury and did really well in midfield. There was a warning on 35 when Manny Agboola had to make a great save but not long after it was 1-1 when a set-piece was whipped in and scrambled home so it was 1-1 at half time.
“We were still pretty positive at the break and told them to keep doing what they had been and we would win the game but instead we went the other way and were poor mentally, letting Cheltenham come back into it.
“They scored two goals that could have been prevented and our energy levels dropped. Cheltenham probably scored with their only two efforts on target but that doesn’t matter because as we said afterwards, when you make the next step up from youth team it is all about results and winning games and we have to learn that side of things.
“Playing pretty football doesn’t always win you games so we will have to work on that.”
United
Agboola, Welch-Hayes, Tuttle, Baptiste, Diaz-Benitez, Ricketts, Hastings (Bryan 55), Humphries, Jeacock (Hartley 70), Napa (L Graham 75), J Graham