Oxford United 4 City 1

City out of the FA Cup after loss to Oxford.

City suffered back to back defeats for the first time under Gary Caldwell, as a strong Oxford United side beat a lacklustre City 4-1 in Oxfordshire.

A goal early on from Matty Taylor and then three goals in the final ten minutes from Billy Bodin and Cameron Brannagan led to an emphatic 4-1 loss in the second round of the FA Cup for The Grecians, with Oxford venturing into the third round.

Back to FA Cup action after the crazy last-minute win over Port Vale in the first round, City were welcomed to a gloomy Kassam Stadium by Oxford United. Gary made two changes to the team who lost at home to Ipswich in the previous game with Cheick Diabate and Sam Nombe coming in to the starting XI to replace Harry Kite and Jay Stansfield.

An early chance for Oxford United in the fourth minute saw Djavan Anderson in behind Jack Sparkes on the right-hand side but his effort across the six-yard box only found the returning Diabate who cleared away the trouble.

Straight down the other end came a City attack, spearheaded by none other than Josh Key, who found himself in a much more attacking position than usual. After some lovely play by Key, the ball found its way to Jake Caprice, but his effort wasn’t enough to cause Ed McGinty any trouble.

After some end-to-end football, Oxford were able to open the scoring in the eighth minute with Matty Taylor latching onto an uncharacteristic lapse of judgement from Diabate to slot the ball past an on-rushing Jamal Blackman from 25 yards out.

With just over 20 minutes played, City were really starting to feel the attacking pressure from Oxford with the combination of Taylor, Jones and Browne linking up well between the city defence and midfield. All of that pressure led to Alex Hartridge finding his way into the book after upending Browne on the edge of the City penalty area.

Following Hartridge into the book 15 minutes later was Sparkes who lazily kicked out at an Oxford player on the halfway line, the referee played advantage but came back to take Sparkes name only a few moments later. That was two defenders in the book before half time.

With less than five minutes left to play in the first half Blackman made an incredible triple save to keep the score at 1-0 to the hosts. City very much under pressure but thanks to the excellence of Blackman they only went in 1-0 down.

Coming out for the second half, Gary decided to make only the one change with Jack Sparkes making way to be replaced by Jay Stansfield. That change led to a move around in position with Key moving back to right wing back and Stansfield taking up his natural attacking position.

City’s first big chance of the game came in the 52^nd minute with the newly introduced Stansfield picking up the ball on the edge of the area. With his back to goal, he span 90 degrees and let loose, but his shot which looked destined to nestle in the top right-hand corner went just wide.

With Oxford in the lead, Karl Robinson decided to make a triple change on the 60^th minute with Tyler Goodrham, Lewis Bate and Sam Long called into the game in place of Jodi Jones, James Henry and Djavan Anderson.

A flurry of corners around the 70^th minute mark for City kept the ball in and around the Oxford penalty area for quite a few minutes. After the third corner Oxford were able to hit City on the counterattack, Key took it upon himself to stop said counterattack with a rugby like challenge, in doing so earning himself a yellow card, taking City’s tally to three for the game.

Key with 13 minutes left to play almost made it 1-1 with a dolphin like diving header after a peach of a cross from Caprice found him waiting at the back post, but McGinty matched Key's strike with a fantastic blocking save.

Straight from Key's effort came Oxford’s second of the game, a well-timed ball across the box eventually found its way to Billy Bodin at the far post who slotted the ball into an empty net. Only moments later and with Oxford still celebrating their second, the home side made it 3-0 with Cameron Brannagan getting in on the act.

The goals kept coming. Only three minutes after their third, Oxford made it four with Bodin getting his second making it 4-0 to the home side. From the next kick off, City were able to grab a consolation goal with Jay finding the back of the net, Caprice's cross into the box led to the forward touching the ball past McGinty in the Oxford goal. 

The next game for The Grecians is a long away trip to Morecambe on Friday 2^nd December.

City: Blackman, Caprice, Sweeney, Diabate (Chauke), (Hartridge) Grounds, Sparkes (Stansfield), Dieng, Collins, Key, Brown, Nombe (Jay)

Subs not used: Sowden, Harper, Kite, Beardsmore

Oxford: Mcginty, Findlay, Moore, Brannagan, Taylor, Browne, Jones Brown, Henry, Mcguane, Anderson

Subs not used: Eastwood, Long, Gorrin , Golding, Seddon

Referee: Will Finnie

Attendance: 3599 (427 away)

Under-18 Report:
FLYA
Portsmouth 0 City 0

Derek Baker reports on Saturday's draw! 

Exeter City’s Under-18s maintained their forward momentum with a goalless draw away at Portsmouth U18s in the Youth Alliance South West division last weekend.

Both teams enjoyed a fairly even first half, with the Grecians posing more of a threat from their aggressive press and quick transitions, while the opposition caused trouble through some menacing crosses.

City dominated for large periods after half-time, and they came closest to a breakthrough courtesy of chances for Pedro Borges, Ed James and Alfie Cunningham.

Borges narrowly missed a header in the final stages, but the point apiece has now seen the Devonians stretch their unbeaten run across all competitions to four matches.

Exeter’s youngsters came into Saturday's contest learning who their third-round opponents would be in the FA Youth Cup. Following a 3-1 victory for Oxford United’s U18s over Horndean at Court Place on Thursday, it was confirmed that Brad Miller’s men would face their old adversaries once again.

But while that tie has been confirmed for mid-December, all focus was on league matters at the weekend, as Miller took his youth team eastwards for a rematch with Pompey, just five weeks after their tight contest at the Cliff Hill Training Ground which ended in a 2-0 victory for the Hampshire club.

But, despite a difficult journey to the south coast, it was the visitors who started brightly and got on the front foot, taking the game to the opposition defence despite only half an hour of pre-match preparation.

The Grecians' high press caused Portsmouth some real problems as they were able to steal the ball in dangerous positions, however forwards Cunningham and Joe Wragg were unable to take full advantage of those promising moments.

After that opening period, the match settled and the home team started to create some chances for themselves. Off the back of some territory, a flurry of corners gave Pompey the upper hand, but the City defence stood up well to the challenge, and Harry Lee, in truth, only had one real save to make.

The Devon club came back into the contest once again with another commanding spell just before half-time. As a result of some lovely build-up play, Exeter managed to produce several threatening crosses on the break, however, they were unable to make the most of their promising attacks.

Miller’s message to his players at the break was to be braver in possession and to take advantage of the spaces in certain areas of the pitch. The ECFC coach also made some tactical tweaks to deal with the home side’s press, while Portsmouth also switched things up as they sat a little deeper for the second period.

Thanks to those changes, the away team had better opportunities to play through their opponents to really dominate the second 45. The Grecians were able to sustain long periods of attacking pressure, which produced plenty of sights at goal, with both Aamir Daniels and Max Edgecombe providing the ammunition from the wider channels. Daniels located Borges for the second half's first decent chance, however, the midfielder’s effort was wonderfully kept out by a save from the home goalkeeper.

Moments later, James, up from the back, was next to try his luck. The tall defender though was only able to divert his shot onto the woodwork to keep the scores tied.

Throughout the half, that bombardment on the Portsmouth goal continued, and later on, as the Devonians really cranked up the pressure, Cunningham forced the goalie into another good save.

Up the other end, the home side's chances came on the counter-attack, but all eyes were on the Grecians, who had rather pinned their counterparts back. With Pompey playing with 10-men due to an injury, Miller turned to his bench to freshen things up, and introduced Jacca Cavendish, Alfie Clark and Tom Dean in the hope they could inject more spark into their team’s attack.

With time running out, Exeter’s youngsters carved open one final chance in the dying embers to snatch all three points. Daniels was once again the provider, and the full-back crossed for Borges in a resemblance to their previous combination. In this instance though, Borges’ header fizzed millimetres past the post, breaking the hearts of everyone in red and white, meaning both sides had to settle for a draw when the referee blew for full-time moments later.

Exeter City's Head of Coaching, Brad-Lee Miller: “We created some excellent opportunities, but we just needed to be clinical and ruthless. But overall it was a really good performance from the boys.

“We dominated possession and saw more of the ball, which is good because we want this group to play like that. I am really pleased with their desire and the way they kept going. Portsmouth went down to 10-men, and then started time wasting, but we didn’t get frustrated with all of that, and we stuck to the game plan right until the end.

“George Spencer, unfortunately, fell ill late on Friday and was too unwell to travel, which was disappointing for him. I’m sure he would have thrived on some of those balls into the box. We ended up playing without a natural striker, as Alfie Cunningham is more of a midfielder, and Joe Wragg usually plays off one side. Both were gravitating towards their usual positions, particularly in the first half, so we spoke about that at half-time and that all changed.

“The boys are working hard every day. Across some of the games we have been asking for something different which has caused them a bit of stress and led to us conceding. But, like all things, you have to suffer a dip before you become better, and the players have been working hard defensively. Nicky Ajose and Arran Pugh have been working with the group and they are getting their rewards now.

“These forward steps are just another part of the players’ journeys. Getting these recent results is pleasing for them, and their performances have been excellent too. I’m really pleased we have been able to put this unbeaten run together, and this part of their journey is vital for where they want, and need, to get to in order to gain professional contracts.

“We have no game this weekend, so we are going to give the boys the Saturday off, alongside the Sunday. We will look to work them harder this week in training, and load them up differently, before we have a social event on Friday. They will have the weekend off, before they are ready to go again the following week.”

Exeter City Under-18s: Harry Lee, Sam Joce, Scott Simmons, Ed James, Aamir Daniels, Max Edgecombe, Gabriel Billington, Joe O’Connor, Pedro Borges, Alfie Cunningham, Joe Wragg

Subs: Jacca Cavendish, Tom Dean, Alfie Clark

Table in photos