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Admitting your side put in a perfect performance is widely seen as a cardinal sin for a football manager.
The potential to create complacency or satiate the hunger of the group of players under your command, or to even believe your own hype to the extent that you stop looking for ways to improve them creates a hesitancy to admit just how good your team can be when everything goes right.
It was therefore no surprise that Oxford United head coach Karl Robinson came nowhere near claiming perfection as he reflected on his side’s imperious first-half performance in their 3-0 win over fellow Play-Off contenders Doncaster Rovers on Tuesday night at the Kassam Stadium.
“I’d probably say Gillingham and Doncaster away were probably better than that (performance) at certain stages, we just didn’t take our chances when they came along.
“When you’re 3-0 up against a team in the top six at half-time, you go some way to beat that but we still feel that there is more in us.
“I think there is more to come, It’s all about getting that timing right.”
– Oxford United head coach Karl Robinson
It is of course a rare occasion that you can even suggest to a manager that their side has been flawless, it takes a well-executed game plan combined with individuals willing to both buy into it and use it as a platform to express themselves from, along with a healthy serving of luck on the side.
In Oxford’s first 45 minutes against Doncaster, a brave tactical decision paid off handsomely, a set-piece move straight from the training ground resulted in a goal, their pressing became tiring just to watch, a striker without a goal in two months scored a brace, and the opposition’s danger man was shackled throughout – if it was not a perfect night, it is hard to know what is.
Oxford’s luck came in the fact that the visitors were missing a host of players through injury and are still coming to terms with the surprise departure of manager Darren Moore at the start of the month.
Reece James, Scott Robertson, Josh Sims, Jon Taylor and Omar Bogle were all absent for interim boss Andy Butler, and it resulted in a disjointed performance that was a shadow of the Doncaster side that ended Oxford’s club record winning run in February.
Donny did start relatively brightly though, with Brighton loanee Taylor Richards, who Robinson described as the ‘the outstanding player in League One ‘ post-match, finding enough space to keep the Oxford defence on their toes with elusive dribbles and delicate passes.
However, Alex Gorrin soon got to grips with Richards as the game progressed and ensured he would not have the same game-defining impact on proceedings as he did in Donny’s 3-2 win over the Yellows just 37 days beforehand.
The game pivoted on the opening goal.
Wingers Brandon Barker and Olamide Shodipo were starting together for Oxford for only the second time, and it was their pace and directness that made the Yellows such a regular attacking threat throughout the first-half.
The two wingers have similar abilities, perhaps indicating why they are often rotated for one another rather than started together, yet it was their shared capacity to consistently beat their full-back that played a massive part in Oxford’s forward play.
Rangers’ loanee Barker created the opening goal as he raced past Doncaster right-back Brad Halliday and sent in a cross that eventually fell to Matty Taylor for the striker to turn home his first goal in almost two months.
The U’s number nine offers more than just goals to the team, but his return to goal-scoring form was clearly a relief. It had been 13 games since he had last found the back of the net, and the roar of either delight or relief that he let out as he wheeled away very nearly drowned out the fake crowd noise being pumped out of the PA system at the Kassam.
Taylor secured his second of the evening before the interval, and this time he had Shodipo to thank.
The Irish youth international was thrust into a less familiar role on the right, and although it was Barker who caught the eye in the opening stages, Shodipo soon began to give Doncaster’s left-back Daniel Amos a torrid evening.
As the winger raced down the right flank during an Oxford counter-attack, Amos had little option but to bring him down on the edge of the box.
Set-pieces have become a far more potent aspect of the Yellows’ attacking arsenal this season, going from scoring only seven goals from them last season to eleven already in this campaign, and they made it twelve with a clever move that Taylor put down to the work of Oxford’s backroom team.
Liam Kelly chipped the ball to the back-post to find Josh Ruffels unmarked but rather than head towards goal, the full-back nodded the ball back into the path of Taylor who brilliantly flicked the ball into the corner of the net as he turned.
“I’ve not been on the scoresheet for a while, it’s been frustrating. I’ve snatched at a few chances and then we’ve not been that creative in a few games so it’s been a bit frustrating on my part.
“You just keep going, keep getting in the box and keep shooting and eventually they (goals) come back, and it was nice to see a few go in tonight.”
– Oxford United striker Matty Taylor
Oxford’s pressing was as intense and effective as it has been all season, with midfielders Liam Kelly and Cameron Brannagan particularly impressing with their boundless energy and intelligent closing down.
After surviving an early scare when rookie goalkeeper Louis Jones passed the ball straight to Kelly due to the pressure he was under, Taylor’s opener seemed to completely drain the confidence out of Doncaster’s backline.
Centre-backs Tom Anderson and Joe Wright began to play dangerous passes into midfield as they lost the confidence to take their time on the ball and Manchester City loanee Matt Smith was regularly robbed of possession in his own half.
This culminated in Oxford’s third goal on the stroke of half-time that ended the game as a contest and ensured the home side would be moving within two points of the Play-Off places.
After initially picking up a loose ball on the edge of his own box, Smith took far too long to pick a pass and subsequently lost out to Taylor who fed Barker to set up Shodipo for a composed finish that nicely encapsulated Oxford’s relentless pressing, the return to form of talisman Taylor and the bravery to play both wingers in the same starting eleven.
The second-half was seen out comfortably on the type of night where the Man of the Match award should have been broken up into eleven tiny pieces to serve as an individual token of a memorable collective performance.
Of course, every time one side has a night such as this it is often the case that the opposition have one to forget.
As good as Oxford’s pressing was, Doncaster were sloppy and unimaginative in possession. As intelligent and deceptive as Taylor’s movement was, the marking of Anderson and Wright left a lot to be desired. Whilst Gorrin, Brannagan and Kelly provided a platform for Barker, Taylor and Shodipo to win the game from, Smith and Anthony Greaves in the Doncaster engine room gave Richards little to work with.
The win at Swindon last week in the A420 derby was perfect in the eyes of Oxford supporters but this was an altogether more finely crafted performance. For once their finishing was clinical, their control of proceedings practically total, and there was no need for any miracles from Jack Stevens in goal.
Robinson of course could not claim to be completely satisfied as this is only the beginning of the charge for the top six, although this could quite feasibly be the night that he looks back on as one of the season’s most crucial should it end in glory.
After weeks of looking like nearly men as the battle for the Play-Offs intensifies, his side provided their most convincing display of the season to ensure they should be taken seriously as contenders – some may even say it was perfect.
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