Exeter City fall to Oxford, again
A RAMPANT Oxford United side scored two goals in each half to consign City to defeat in Paul Tisdale’s five-hundredth game in charge of the Grecians.
After a lively start to the encounter Oxford took the lead through a Chey Dunkley header in the eighth minute, before Jordan Bowery doubled the visitors' lead four minutes before first-half stoppage-time. A further two goals followed for the U’s in the second half to put the game out of the Grecians’ reach, but there was still time for City wide-man Alex Nicholls to pull one back with thirteen minutes remaining.
There was just one change to the City side that started against Newport County AFC three days ago, with Joel Grant resuming first-team duties after a watching brief at the weekend. Former St James Park favourite Liam Sercombe was handed a starting berth at the heart of the visitors’ midfield, but regular central midfield partner and U’s’ nineteen-goal top-scorer Kemar Roofe was sidelined due to a groin injury. Striker George Waring, who signed for Oxford on loan from Stoke City only hours prior to kick-off, was named amongst the seven substitutes.
It was the Grecians who crafted the first chance of the rearranged fixture within a minute of kick-off. After Jayden Stockley was brought down on the right-hand side of the Oxford area, Ryan Harley stepped up to take the resultant free-kick to force Benjamin Buchel into a sprawling save to his left.
City’s spritely start to the game was halted, though, as the away side began to find a way into the game. First Bobby Olejnik tipped a Chris Maguire shot around the post and out for a corner, and with the resultant set-piece the U’s took the lead. Alex MacDonald was granted some space on on the right-hand side after the corner was booted clear, and the winger whipped an inch-perfect cross into the path of Chey Dunkley who rose above his marker to head home in the seventh minute. Dunkley’s goal had settled Oxford, and they threatened again ten minutes later as Maguire worked the space for a shot from inside the City area but dragged his effort wide.
Next it was City’s turn to pose some problems with two chances in quick succession. First Joel Grant’s effort from long-range spun wide of the right-hand post, before Buchel was equal to Wheeler’s close-range effort after the City winger had done well to latch on to Ryan Harley’s lofted ball.
It was Olejnik to the rescue for City just before the half-hour mark, as the Austrian rushed off his line to deny Callum O’Dowda a chance to go clear through on goal with the City defence left stranded. The U’s came close again in the thirty-sixth minute, with Troy Brown making a vital intervention to prevent MacDonald from connecting with Maguire’s cross from the edge of the area.
The visitors doubled their lead four minutes before the break, and in truth it had been coming. John Lundstram’s ball pierced the City defence to send Jordan Bowery through one-on-one with Olejnik, and the ex-Rotherham striker did the rest, keeping his cool to slot the ball beyond the keeper.
The visitors were inches away from adding another in first-half stoppage time through a Maguire free-kick, but the twenty-seven-year-old’s effort from the left-hand side of the area flew narrowly wide, and City went in for the interval with a two-goal deficit to overturn in the second-half.
HALF-TIME: EXETER CITY 0–2 OXFORD UNITED
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