Youth team beaten at home by Grecians
Football League Youth Alliance, South West Division
Saturday 15th October
Oxford United 0 Exeter City 1
Leon Blackmore-Such writes:
In the first half we had talked a lot about keeping our shape and playing a lower-pressure game than usual to set traps and then pressure the ball in certain areas and we did that OK. We won the ball back a fair amount as a result of that but weren’t good enough on the regain and couldn’t get far enough forward. We were a bit penned in, Exeter got good crosses in and Manny Agboola in goal needed to make a save or two to keep us in it.
We had chances of our own. From one on the left Joe Hartley crossed and Dejon Noel-Williams put it over the bar with perhaps our best chance. Canice Carroll had a header go close from a set piece but we fell behind when they whipped in a decent free kick and Dan Carr headed into his own goal under pressure as he tried to clear.
At half time we tried to change things and start pressing higher up the pitch. That worked and we were much better in the second 45 minutes. We looked like we had goals in us and were on top but things didn’t quite click. Rex Mannings had a shot go wide after 80 minutes but there weren’t any other clear chances to speak of.
The whole performance was OK but not great, and we learn from that and move on.
United: Agboola, Carr, Carroll, McDonnell, Hawtin (Hopkins 59), McCreedy (Berry-Hargreaves 80), Hartley (Mannings 60), Napa, Baker, Bryan, Noel-Williams