Oxford United’s Under 23 side battled hard but came away from Swansea with nothing to show for their efforts after losing 2-0 in the Premier League Cup on Saturday
Coach Chris Allen told us:
“I thought the lads acquitted themselves very well. The game plan involved being a bit patient because we knew Swansea would have a lot of the ball and we were going to have to be clever in terms of winning it and then use it well when we had it. At times that worked really well and we got into their final third a fair few times but it was just that final ball that was missing. There was good endeavour but just missing that bit of quality on the cross. And then when we made mistakes we got punished with two goals.
“But the result wasn’t all-important by any means. A number of the under 18s rightly got their chance because they have been doing so well and had a point to prove. They have done so well in their league and in the FA Youth Cup and they deserved a chance and they showed that they are more than capable. The next few years look very bright indeed.
“But there is a gap from 18s to regular under 23 football against the teams of the quality we are playing in this competition, and then a gap again to regular first team football. Our goal, and this game was part of that, is to close that gap.
“We have two games left in the competition against Hull and Wolves and we are far from out of it, but we do need to learn from this game and believe in ourselves a little bit more.”
The next home game in this competition is against Hull City at Thame United’s ASM Stadium on Tuesday 12th February.
United
Agboola, Lofthouse, Berry-Hargreaves, Jones, Taylor, McCreadie, Heap, Dai, Lopes (Crooks), Noel-Williams (Taverner), O James (R James)