Oxford United eased past Tottenham Hotspur PGA in their FAWNL Cup group game at the MGroup Stadium on Sunday, beating the north London team 3-1.
Oxford took an early lead through Emma Thompson in the third minute, and Nicole Barrett doubled the score before the break. In the second half, Holly Turner pounced on a goalkeeping error to put the game beyond Tottenham, who earned a consolation goal through Jhanaie Pierre in stoppage time.
Knowing that a win would give them a great chance of progressing into the knockout stages, United went at their visitors from the off and were rewarded when Thompson arrived at the near post to convert Turner’s cross to open the scoring.
United continued to dominate, and after a shot from Turner cleared the bar, Thompson had the ball in the net again but was denied by the offside flag. Turner had the next chance, but Spurs keeper Erin Radbourne did well to dive at her feet to collect the ball.
Just before the half-hour, Radbourne had no chance as Player of the Match Barrett raced into the area and placed her shot into the corner of the net.
The Spurs keeper then produced a fantastic fingertip save to keep out a goalbound header from Oxford skipper Naomi Bedeau, while the U’s had the ball in the net again, only for it to be pulled up for offside.
There was no let-up from the Yellows in the second half as they sought to put the game to bed. Thompson and Ruby Sealey both made good runs into the box as the Spurs' defence found it difficult to cope with Oxford’s pace up top. Oxford were denied by the offside flag for a third time before further extending their lead after an hour.
Not for the first time, Radbourne dallied with the ball at her feet. On this occasion, though, she was punished as Turner nipped in to dispossess the hapless keeper and give herself a simple tap-in.
With a quarter of an hour remaining, Spurs forced Beth Wookey into her first meaningful save as they looked for a way back into the game, and Oxford were also thankful to Bedeau for a superb block to deny an almost certain goal.
Tottenham’s perseverance was rewarded in the second minute of stoppage time as Pierre broke through and angled her shot past Wookey to give the visitors something to cheer.
After the game, manager Sam Rose said, “It was a little bit more end-to-end than maybe we would have liked, but we’ve won the game, created lots, and played some good football.
“It was important that everyone who was available to play today played and got minutes. That’s two wins out of two in the cup and now we’re looking forward to getting back into it against Exeter at the weekend.”
United are now top of Group M, ahead of Luton – who beat MK Dons 2-1 – on goal difference. Oxford welcomes the Hatters to Oxford on 28 September (2:00pm) to decide who will win the group and go through to the knockout stage.
The U’s are next in action this Sunday when they welcome Exeter City to the MGroup Stadium in a league fixture (2:00pm kick off).
UNITED: Wookey, Gibson, Bedeau (Trinder 78), Barrett, Legg, Turner (Manders 64), Thompson (Wiseman 64), Jenkins (Provan 54), Lindbaek, Palmer, Barker (Sealey 46)
