Matt Bloomfield’s first game in charge of Oxford United ended in a goalless draw at home against promotion hopefuls, Bristol City.
In what was an even game at Grenoble Road, both teams will probably be happy with the point.
Here are three talking points from the game.
Read More: Team News, Form and Predicted Line-Up as Oxford United Welcome Bristol City
Oxford United Draw Against Bristol City
Decent Debuts
There was a home debut for Myles Peart-Harris and a full debut for midfielder, Yunis Konak.
The latter started alongside skipper Cameron Brannagan in the middle of the park and was effective at both winning the ball and covering positions. Despite being just 20, his knowledge of the game was impressive. However, he did like a tackle and picked up a booking as a result, and was replaced by Will Vaulks at half-time.
As for Peart-Harris, he began on the left of a front three and looked Oxford’s most dangerous attacking outlet. The youngster was direct, quick and dangerous, although sometimes lacked a final ball. Despite that, the duo will be pleased with their performance at Grenoble Road under the new head coach.
Clean Sheet
It was a first clean sheet in 17 games and just the third in 27 games across all competitions, which is certainly a promising sign.
Sam Long replaced Brodie Spencer at right-back, probably due to fitness rather than selection issues. At the same time, Ciaron Brown made a surprise return from injury to start the game, which was timely as Ben Davies missed the game with injury.
Bloomfield will be hoping this will be a platform in which to build and it’s certainly an improvement from a defensive point of view.
Late Chances
Oxford weren’t free-flowing in the final third, which has been a problem for the majority of the campaign, but they had some decent chances late on to win the game.
First, Jack Currie played a wonderful ball into the path of Stan Mills but the winger, who was one-on-one, was denied by the goalkeeper.
Then from the resulting corner, Brown saw a header flicked off the line by the Robins defender.
At the other end, Jamie Cumming didn’t really need to make any substantial save of note, so it was pretty pleasing all around.
Featured image courtesy of IMAGO / PA Images
