Defeat for the Valiants this afternoon at Vale Park
The Valiants made a bright start, winning a corner in the first minute. The set piece was played to Funso Ojo on the edge of the area, but the midfielder steered his effort over the bar.
Despite not seeing much of the ball in the early stages, the visitors came close on six minutes when Billy Bodin curled a strike goal bound which was crucially hooked away by Dan Jones.
Ten minutes later the U’s opened the scoring. Following a Cameron Brannagan corner, the ball fell to Ciaron Brown in the Valiants’ box who fired low into the bottom left corner.
Oxford nearly doubled their lead in the 25th minute when Elliott Moore shot powerfully from six yards out, but a strong hand from Connor Ripley kept the ball out.
It was a near perfect opening to the second half as we created a huge chance immediately from the restart. James Wilson latched on to a loose pass and darted goalwards past the U’s defence but couldn’t convert from a tight angle.
The visitors responded by finding a second in the 49th minute. Josh Murphy’s cross missed everyone on its way through the Vale area and rather fortuitously crept in at the back post.
The Valiants almost halved the deficit three minutes later. Wilson drove once again at the Oxford back line and created space to strike from distance, but he fired to the wrong side of Jamie Cumming’s near post.
On 69 minutes Baylee Dipepa teed up Wilson in a similar position where, this time, the striker aimed for the far corner, but dragged his attempt just wide.
With 12 minutes to go, the Valiants had our best chance of the game. The same combination of Dipepa and Wilson linked up again, but on this occasion Wilson found the teenager in space in the box who saw his shot blocked by a scrambling U’s defender.
Port Vale | Connor Ripley, Dan Jones (Ryan Loft 74’), Nathan Smith, Mitch Clark (James Plant 39’), Ben Garrity, Alex Mighten (Baylee Dipepa 61’), Funso Ojo, Jason Lowe (Ethan Chislett 39’), Gavin Massey, Jesse Debrah, James Wilson
Unused Subs | Jayson Leutwiler, Kacper Lopata, Jack Shorrock
Oxford United | Jamie Cumming, Sam Long, Ciaron Brown, Elliott Moore, Cameron Brannagan, Billy Bodin (James Henry 73’), Joe Bennett, Ruben Rodrigues (Josh McEachran 73’), Josh Murphy (Marcus Browne 79’), Will Goodwin (Mark Harris 46’), Owen Dale (Greg Leigh 90’)
Unused Subs | Simon Eastwood, Tyler Goodrham
