Oxford United Youth 1 v 0 Rushden & Diamonds Youth

Saturday 29^th July 2006

The Youth Team continued their pre season matches with a trip to Oxford and were defeated by the odd goal which came from a very dubious 75^th minute penalty .

The game started at a very fast pace with Oxford looking to move the ball forward quickly and press the Rushden defence at every opportunity with the ball in the our half for the main part of the first ten minutes.

As the game settled down, we started to be more composed on the ball and begun to play around the pressing players.This was highlighted well when a quick flowing six pass move beginning with Callum Reynolds in central defence ended with a Laurence Lambley shot striking the bar.

The remainder of the half saw few chances for either team although Martyn Margerson was called upon to make a sharp stop on 35 minutes.

As the second half began, Oxford changed their formation to cope, primarily,with the threat posed by Sean O'Keefe in the withdrawn central midfield role and the ability of our central defenders to move forward from the back. Tthis had the effect of breaking the game up and the two sides cancelled each other out.

Our best chance came from a set piece on 67 minutes which ended with a glorious opportunity for triallist Antony Weston but his header bounced back off of the bar and was cleared to safety.

The deadlock was broken following the award of a penalty in the 75 minute from what did not appear to be a foul which was certainly a number of yards outside of the box.

Despite pressing hard, we were unable to force an equaliser to get the draw that our overall performance warranted at the very least but, result aside, this game against a strong and well organised Oxford outfit was another good one in terms of our preparation for the coming season and there were a number of positives to take from the overall performance as well as some areas to work on.

I was particularly encouraged by the way we coped with their pressing game in the first half and how they had to chang their tactics to deal with our style of play. Also, I was pleased with the performance of George Cox, an Under 15 player, who came in at right back during the second half and showed quality on the ball and is certainly one to keep an eye on.

Rushden and Diamonds: Martyn Margerson, Ugo Udoji, Ben Reynolds (Captain), Dominic Langdon, Callum Reynolds, Sean O'Keefe, Alex Bolt, Jake Beecroft, Andrew Tidswell, Laurence Lambley, Antony Weston (Triallist).Subs: Lee Nevin, Lee Watts, George Cox