Oxford United’s youngsters got off to winning starts as both the under 18s and 21s started pre-season with wins yesterday.
The under 18s took on Woking in a friendly at the Oxford Sports Park and won 1-0 thanks to an Adam Smith goal while the Under 21s made the short trip to North Leigh and won 2-0 thanks to goals from Leon Chambers-Parillon and Slavi Spasov.
Leon Blackmore-Such told us:
“First of all I want to thank our opponents. Woking agreed to travel up to us at what has been a difficult time and that was a really competitive game and then North Leigh were great hosts. Both games were carefully assessed, stuck to the protocols and were safe environments for all the players
“As you would expect after six months without a game there was a lot of energy. In the Woking game we played some nice stuff and looked quite composed. It was the first time a lot of the boys have played together and it will take time to settle but the goal came in the first 30 minute part of the game when Adam Smith finished well having looked bright on the left all game.
“Then later in the day we went over to North Leigh with the slightly older age group and there were a lot of good performances. Kyran Lofthouse captained the side and had a good game up and down the right flank from right-back, Leon took his goal nicely after Slavi rolled past a defender and cut the ball back for him and Slavi looked sharp up front and was good value for his goal as well, heading home a Jack Stevens corner.
“We’ve been back for a week or two now, the first years are settling in and the older lads are all pushing themselves so it has been a decent start all round.”