Oxford United’s multicultural midfield provides the blueprint for success in the second half of the season

An inspired opening twenty-five minutes from Oxford United’s unconventional midfield trio helped the Yellows’ to a 2-0 victory over a battling AFC Wimbledon side in one of the few League One fixtures to survive a spate of Covid-19 related postponements.

Oxford manager Karl Robinson described the first-half performance of Alex Gorrin, Marcus McGuane and Liam Kelly as ‘exceptional’.

Gorrin, the Spaniard who began his professional career in New Zealand, anchored the trio, dropping between the centre-backs to provide another layer of protection at the back, but also moving Wimbledon’s defensive block around with his metronomic passing.

Kelly, an Irish youth international who is on loan at the Kassam Stadium from Feyenoord after following his former Reading manager Jaap Stam to the Dutch giants, was industrious and innovative in equal measure, winning back possession in the Wimbledon half on three separate occasions and he also set up the second goal with a quickly taken free-kick.

McGuane, the England youngster who has played for both Barcelona and Arsenal already in his fledgling career, was magnificent as his combination of physicality and trickery allowed him to skip past would-be challengers at will, drawing fouls or driving Oxford up the pitch in the process.

After some exciting early combinations between the trio, it was in fact striker Matty Taylor who was the architect of the opening goal against Wimbledon after only 13 minutes. He dropped deep to collect the ball before feeding it wide to left-back Josh Ruffels who picked out Jordan Obita in the box, and the winger took a touch to set himself before placing a shot beyond Connal Trueman in the Dons’ net.

The second goal followed less than ten minutes later, as after McGuane was scythed down mid-Cruyff turn by Terell Thomas, Kelly cleverly lofted a free-kick over the Wimbledon wall and into the path of Taylor who slammed home his eighth goal of the season.

The Dons looked all at sea as they struggled to get to grips with the tempo of Oxford’s passing, with Thomas fortunate to not receive a second booking for clattering into Taylor in a similar fashion to his challenge on McGuane only minutes before.

A chance to kill the game fell to McGuane on the stroke of half-time, as marvellous interplay between Taylor, Obita, Kelly and James Henry set the man on loan from Nottingham Forest up for a shot that he blazed into the car park behind the goal with no stand at the Kassam.

It would be wrong to suggest that the midfield triumvirate did not rely on those behind them on this windy afternoon in rural Oxfordshire.

Jack Stevens, a 23-year-old goalkeeper who only made his league debut for Oxford at the start of December, was awarded the man-of-the-match award after making a remarkable double stop from Wimbledon forwards Jack Rudoni and Ryan Longman in the first half, before going on to make save after save in the second period.

The complexion of the game changed massively in the second half, as Oxford became content with sitting back and countering, whilst Wimbledon gained greater control after the introduction of Brentford loanee Jaakko Oksanen during the interval.

The Dons huffed and puffed in search of an equaliser, and a one-on-one missed by Ryan Longman is likely to leave the man on loan from Brighton with a sleepless night, but with each attack repelled by Stevens, the more belief ebbed away from Glyn Hodges’ men.

They ultimately could not find a way through, and will be hoping the return of top-scorer Joe Pigott next weekend, combined with the absence of Stevens in the opposition goal, will see them return to winning ways as they have now gone five games without a victory.

Both McGuane and Kelly were withdrawn by Robinson in the closing stages as he looked to shore up his side defensively, but even his goalkeepers’ heroics could not overshadow the impact they had already had on the game.

Gorrin picked up a booking for illegally halting a Wimbledon break in the second half, showing this Oxford midfield has aggression to go with its artistry, but it does mean he will miss the trip to Plymouth on Tuesday as it was his fifth of the season.

Oxford’s win sees them leapfrog Wimbledon in the League One table and climb to 15th as last season’s beaten play-off finalists look to make up for a slow start to the season.

If their atypical midfield trio continue to perform so well, they will only continue to climb the standings.

Robinson on the first-half performance of his midfield:

“They were exceptional, Kells (Liam Kelly), Marcus (McGuane) and Alex (Gorrin) were outstanding. I thought Marcus was unplayable at times, the problem is we need to protect him because some of the kicks he gets are incredible.”

Hodges on the need for his side to remain positive despite their win-less run:

“This is a team in Oxford who should have gone up last year, they were the best team in the play-offs. We had more shots than them, more shots on target, so you look at that and say we’re doing stuff right and that’s how we work.”