There was a proud moment for Shandon Baptiste last night when the 20-year-old midfielder was handed the captain’s armband against Manchester City. As Manager Karl Robinson told us, it was the senior players’ choice to give the responsibility to a young man who has made a big impression this season.
“I thought he handled it brilliantly” Karl said. “He was outstanding in the middle of the park and wore that armband with massive pride. He was the choice of the players- John Mousinho wasn’t playing but I spoke to him and to Curtis Nelson as well as a few other senior players. They all said the same thing; give it to Shandon for the night. He did it really well but I thought all of the lads were outstanding and I hope the fans enjoyed their night as well.”
“It’s a big achievement for me” Shandon told iFollow after the game. “To do it for such a big club like Oxford is a proud moment for me and for all of my family. Things have been going really well and I just hope everything keeps going in the same direction.
“Manchester City are the best team in the world so to think we could beat them was always going to be a tall order. But I think we matched them in a lot of areas.
“People who weren’t at the game but just look at the score won’t know the true story but I think on the whole we played well and now we just need to take that in to the league games coming up and start to show what we are really about.
“Now this game is gone, and it was a great night for the whole club, now we have to concentrate on Wimbledon on Saturday. We are second bottom in the league so now we need to kick on and our season really needs to start now.”
See interviews with Shandon and Karl in iFollow right now.