Oxford United’s under 18s enjoyed an emphatic 4-0 win over Plymouth Argyle on Saturday.
Saturday 27th January 2018
Football League Youth Alliance
Oxford United 4
(Heap, Lofthouse, Hopkins 2 (1pen))
Plymouth Argyle 0
Leon Blackmore-Such told us:
"Plymouth have had a good season. They got a lot of publicity from the FA Youth Cup, and have had some good results in the league since then so we knew it was going to be tough and we asked the lads to press and be on the front foot straight away. To be honest when a team has travelled a long way for a morning kick off you always want to test them early on as well.
So we were really happy to go in front after just two minutes, especially with a training ground routine from a free kick. James Cowan took it and Aaron Heap put it away to make it 1-0. We played well, especially in the first half and Kyran Lofthouse, Albie Hopkins and Ryan Crooks all pressed the opposition while doing well for us and we had a lot of crosses and corners into the box.
The second goal came when Kyran got the ball on half way and ran at the defence and then shot from about 25 yards. The ball flew over the keeper for a really good goal and a 2-0 lead and it was 3-0 before the break when Owen James crossed, Ryan Crooks set it up and Albie Hopkins made it three.
We knew Plymouth would come at us and be better after the break and stressed to the lads to defend well for 15 minutes and don’t let them back into it. Our game management was spot on all game really and on 55 minutes it was 4-0 when Kyran made a run and Owen had a shot blocked but the ref did well and decided there had been no advantage from the previous foul and pulled play back for a penalty which Albie put away nicely.
A good result then and some very encouraging performances once again at both ends of the pitch. A lot of the lads will be involved in the Senior Cup game at Ardley on Tuesday night and then we are in action again in the League cup semi-final when we play Exeter City away."
United
Clayton, Carr, Baker, Berry-Hargreaves, Trialist (Stevens 75), Crooks (Chilcott 75), Cowan (McCreadie 65), Heap, Hopkins (Mannings 70), James, Lofthouse