Three goals in both halves saw Oxford United thrash Crewe Alexandra at the Alexandra Stadium yesterday afternoon thanks to goals from Josh Ruffels, James Henry and Elliott Moore in the first half and Brandon Barker, Cameron Brannagan and Sam Winnall in the second. This result was the first time that Oxford had scored five or more against the hosts while it was Crewe’s heaviest home defeat since the 1970s.
Manager David Artell made two changes from Easter Monday’s 2-0 win at MK Dons with Donervon Daniels returning at right-back and Callum Ainley came into midfield as Luke Offord dropped down to the bench and Tom Lowery was missing through injury.
The opening chance of the game came in the 13th minute with Will Jaaskelainen saving from Sykes as he burst through the midfield and past Olly Lancashire before the Alex’s next chance came on 28 minutes with Owen Dale firing wide from Luke Murphy’s through-ball.
The opening goal came in the 36th minute with Lee getting in behind on the Oxford right with his cross flicked on to Ruffels who headed home before the second was added 4 minutes later after a goal-kick was taken short between Jaaskelainen, Olly Lancashire and Daniels saw the visitors regain possession with Barker’s cross picking out Henry to finish from 12 yards. The third would come in stoppage-time with Moore getting on the end of a free-kick to finish into the bottom corner.
After a double change which saw Nathan Wood replace Lancashire at the back and Chris Porter come on for Ainley as we went 4-4-2, it made little difference to the flow of the game. The fourth came within 90 seconds of the restart with Barker winning the ball in his own half, cutting in from the left before finishing into the bottom corner through the legs of Omar Beckles with the fifth coming a couple of minutes later as Beckles conceded a penalty by pulling back the Oxford forward. Brannagan would have his penalty saved before scoring at the second attempt. The final goal came with 5 minutes to play with substitute Dan Agyei crossing for fellow substitute Winnall to head home from close range.
The next games for the Alex see us host Portsmouth on Tuesday before a trip to Wigan Athletic next Saturday.
What can we take out of this game?
It was a game that we were shading before the opening goal which saw us defensively collapse like a playing card tower that has its base removed. After conceding that goal, it was important not to let a second in but we shot ourselves in the foot with a defensive mistake which was followed by more mistakes.
The interesting thing is the team selection for the Portsmouth game, whether Artell sends the same side out to try to put that ‘performance’ behind them or he makes wholesale changes – I wouldn’t be surprised to see 4 or 5 changes myself.