Oxford United Under-18s returned to winning ways by defeating Exeter City 3-2 in an end-to-end game at the Training Centre.
Goals from Maeson Vaughan, Kesh Purcell and substitute Fiki Adesanya secured the three points for the Young U’s in the Youth Alliance league.
It was the visitors who started stronger, hitting the woodwork and spurning a chance through on goal in the opening ten minutes.
Moments later, United made Exeter rue their missed chances by taking the lead. An inviting ball across the box from Riley Dourish was turned home by winger Maeson Vaughan to continue his strong goalscoring form.
Exeter responded by threatening the Oxford defence and forced Harry Jones into making an impressive save to tip the ball over the crossbar. It was an even contest for the remainder of the first half, and the referee called for half-time with the U’s 1-0 up.
Fiki Adesanya replaced Louis Griffiths at the break and almost made an immediate impact. The winger beat his man and cut inside before his effort was narrowly off-target.
In the 50th minute, the visitors equalised through a powerful effort from Ise Aworinde.
As the game resumed, United went back up the other end and restored their lead. A Vaughan strike was rebounded into the path of Purcell who made no mistake in finishing into the gaping net. The end-to-end nature of the second-half continued, however, as Exeter then equalised once more - this time in the 57th minute through Jack Bellotti.
Adesanya added a real attacking threat down the left-hand-side for United and capped off his impressive performance with a deserved goal in the 59th minute. Chris Chitedze linked up nicely with Purcell before the ball fell to Fiki who fired into the top-corner to put Oxford 3-2 up.
United did well to limit Exeter to minimal chances as they aimed to see out the game, but the visitors could’ve equalised once more as a free header from a corner wasn’t capitalised on. With minutes remaining, the visitors were reduced to ten men for a second yellow card and Oxford held strong to earn a well-fought three points.
Oxford United: Jones, Payne, Chitedze, Collins, Cramond, Andrews, M.Vaughan, H.Vaughan, Purcell, Griffiths, Dourish
Subs: Jackson, Griffith, Osborne, Odhiambo, Adesanya
