Gary Rowett suffered a first home defeat as Oxford United head coach with a 2-0 loss against Portsmouth.
The U’s fell behind just after the restart and conceded a second deep into stoppage time.
Here are three talking points from the game.
Oxford United Lose Against Portsmouth
Poor in Attacking Areas
Having now scored just one goal in their last five games, it’s clear as to where the problems facing Rowett are on the pitch at the moment.
Mark Harris was once again starved of any opportunity in front of goal with service from the wide players very limited.
The one change to the starting lineup saw Ruben Rodrigues replace Alex Matos, but the Portuguese had a quiet game and offered little.
Oxford did have late chances, which we’ll get to in our next point.
Subs Made Impact
While it was a frustrating afternoon for Oxford, there were some positives to take from the majority of Rowett’s changes.
Ole Romeny and Stan Mills came on along with Tyler Goodrham in place of Siriki Dembele, Rodrigues and Harris, and it was the former who made a defence-splitting pass from the touchline through to Placheta, who saw his attempt well thwarted by the Pompey goalkeeper.
Then in the final ten minutes, Mills made his way into the box but was unable to convert his header on target from six yards.
Matt Phillips also came on in place of Peter Kioso as Rowett looked to attack late on, but like Mills, he also missed a header from close range, with both players guilty of missing a golden opportunity.
Medical Emergency
It was going to be an emotional afternoon at Grenoble Road as they paid tribute to Joey Beauchamp, who passed away three years ago next week, along with what would have been the 60th birthday of another legend in Mickey Lewis.
And emotion quickly turned into grief shortly after the minutes applause on 11 minutes when an Oxford fan suffered a cardiac arrest in the North Stand.
Fortunately, that person was quickly taken to hospital before the club later reported: “they are now in a stable condition and receiving further treatment in hospital.”
The game was only 13 minutes old but the trio of events just show that sometimes, there are things far more important than the 90 minutes spent on the pitch.
