Oxford United remain unbeaten in the league under Gary Rowett after a 1-0 win at home against Blackburn.
Cameron Brannagan netted the only goal of the game in the second half to ensure Rowett has maximum points from his three home matches in charge.
Here are three talking points from the game.
Oxford United Win Against Blackburn
Attacking Fluidity
Rowett has lined up with a ‘defence first’ mentality in the last three aways games but this was an attacking line-up from the off.
Siriki Dembele and Przemyslaw Placheta were the wide men from the start while Ruben Rodrigues kept his place behind Mark Harris.
Oxford attacked in numbers, the wingers caused plenty of problems with their direct runs at the defence and the U’s created plenty of goal-scoring opportunities.
Dominant Spells
Oxford started the game brightly and looked lively in the opening 20 minutes. Rodrigues had an early effort saved before Harris also saw an attempt stopped when the U’s were on top. Rowett’s side also had the ball in the back of the net only for it to be controversially ruled out for offside.
However, Blackburn got back on top after the opening encounter but were unable to make that pressure count, with Jamie Cumming untested between the sticks.
But after the restart, Oxford resumed their dominant spell and maintained it for much of the second half.
There was a five minute spell where Rowett’s side had three decent changes. First, Placheta saw an effort saved before Harris was one-on-one with the goalkeeper but smashed it straight at him, before Dembele struck wide from range.
But shortly after, Dembele won a free kick following another mazy run which Brannagan rifled into the top corner.
From there, Oxford saw the game out in a professional manner and were worthy of the three points on the balance of play.
Clean Sheet
In six league games, the U’s have now kept three clean sheets and once again it was a change in personnel at the back.
Ben Nelson, Elliott Moore and Sam Long are all absent through injury so Michal Helik made his debut alongside Ciaron Brown at the back with Peter Kioso and Greg Leigh as the full backs.
Helik but in a solid debut and showed his experience at this level throughout. It was all the more impressive given that he is yet to have a training session with his new teammates but looked comfortable alongside an ever-consistent Brown.
Both full backs got forward well but their defensive management was spot on yet again.
