{"id":588833,"date":"2021-04-11T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-11T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=588833"},"modified":"2021-04-11T02:47:33","modified_gmt":"2021-04-11T06:47:33","slug":"oxford-beat-crewe-lose-accrington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/04\/11\/oxford-beat-crewe-lose-accrington\/","title":{"rendered":"Oxford United Weekly Round-Up: Oxford Beat Crewe Alexandra But Lose Against Accrington Stanley"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was a busy week for Oxford United, both on and off the field. Simon Eastwood penned a new three-year deal, Marcus McGuane has been linked with a return to the club and Jack Stevens has been linked with a move to Middlesbrough. On the pitch, Oxford beat Crewe Alexandra 6-0 on Saturday but suffered a disappointing loss against Accrington Stanley on Easter Monday.<\/p>\n<h2>Oxford United Weekly Round-Up: Oxford Beat Crewe Alexandra But Suffer Loss Against Accrington Stanley<\/h2>\n<h3>Oxford Beat Crewe With 6-0 Win at Gresty Road<\/h3>\n<p>Last season, Oxford United won 6-0 at Lincoln City to secure a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2019\/09\/22\/oxford-united-secure-record-breaking-away-day-at-lincoln-city\/\" target=\"_self\">club-record away win in the Football League<\/a>. On Saturday, the U&#8217;s matched that result with a win at Crewe.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike the victory at Sincil Bank, Saturday&#8217;s result was achieved with six different goalscorers. Josh Ruffels opened the scoring ten minutes before the before quickfire strikes from James Henry and Elliott Moore respectively.<\/p>\n<p>After the restart, Brandon Barker added a sensational solo effort before Cameron Brannagan netted from the rebound after his penalty was saved. Sam Winnall added a sixth late on to complete the rout.<\/p>\n<p>The result was the perfect response to a dreadful Easter weekend, which included two defeats. As a result, the U&#8217;s are now four points off the top six with six games remaining.<\/p>\n<h3>Defeat to Accrington<\/h3>\n<p>On Good Friday, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/04\/04\/oxford-against-sunderland-controversy\/\" target=\"_self\">Oxford lost at Sunderland<\/a> in what was a controversial afternoon. The U&#8217;s needed to bounce back on Easter Monday against Accrington Stanley but failed to pick up any points.<\/p>\n<p>Stanley had lost 7-0 to Peterborough United and drawn 0-0 with Burton before the meeting at Grenoble Road but were unfortunate not to score when the ball appeared to cross the line. However, it took just a matter of minutes to take a deserved lead.<\/p>\n<p>Oxford did level through Elliot Lee but the U&#8217;s were outplayed by John Coleman&#8217;s side and the visitors added a second in the second half. The U&#8217;s were unable to find a way back into the game and began the week six points off the playoffs.<\/p>\n<h3>Goalkeeper News<\/h3>\n<p>It has been a busy week for both of Oxford United&#8217;s goalkeepers. On Monday, Robinson confirmed that <a href=\"https:\/\/oxford.vitalfootball.co.uk\/us-goalkeeper-targeted-by-middlesbrough\/amp\/?__twitter_impression=true\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jack Stevens had been targeted by Championship outfit Middlesbrough<\/a>. The 23-year-old, who <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/02\/26\/jack-stevens-contract-extension-signals-intent-from-oxford-united\/\" target=\"_self\">recently signed a contract extension<\/a>, has been in sensational form since taking the number one spot from Simon Eastwood in November, so it comes as little surprise that he has piqued interest from a Championship club.<\/p>\n<p>On the subject of Eastwood, the 31-year-old <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oxfordmail.co.uk\/sport\/19219403.oxford-united-goalkeeper-simon-eastwood-signs-three-year-contract\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">penned a new three-year deal this week.<\/a> The goalkeeper was out of contract in the summer and many expected him to depart in the summer, but he has decided to remain with the U&#8217;s and battle with Stevens for the number one spot.<\/p>\n<p>For Oxford, it leaves them in a strong position having two top-class League One goalkeepers. Both players could quite easily fit in at many other clubs in the division so for the U&#8217;s to tie them both down to long term deals is certainly beneficial.<\/p>\n<h3>McGuane on the Move?<\/h3>\n<p>Another piece of transfer news emerged this week after Robinson revealed the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oxfordmail.co.uk\/sport\/19213817.oxford-united-boss-karl-robinson-eyes-marcus-mcguane-signing\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">club are looking to bring Marcus McGuane<\/a> back next season.<\/p>\n<p>The 22-year-old, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/08\/15\/marcus-mcguane-joins-oxford-united-from-nottingham-forest\/\" target=\"_self\">who joined the U&#8217;s on a season-long loan from Nottingham Forest in the summer<\/a>, hasn&#8217;t played since January after picking up a thigh injury but has impressed during his loan spell.<\/p>\n<p>The midfielder provided four assists from 15 League One outings and the U&#8217;s are looking to bring him back to the club on a permanent basis. He is yet to feature for Forest, having only joined in February 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"1lJoOW8GSGRJd1nbFg-Q4Q\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1309309044\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'1lJoOW8GSGRJd1nbFg-Q4Q',sig:'7d9Quypk3DG_roMlJaYIH09f3FR04YMCcqqtPg9J0vM=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1309309044',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was a busy week for Oxford United, both on and off the field. Simon Eastwood penned a new three-year deal, Marcus McGuane has been linked with a return to the club and Jack Stevens has been linked with a move to Middlesbrough. On the pitch, Oxford beat Crewe Alexandra 6-0 on Saturday but suffered [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":335,"featured_media":588836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8430,32,34,7188,28],"tags":[550,655,3702,6397,3891],"class_list":["post-588833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oxford-united","category-league-football","category-league12","category-rumours","category-transfers","tag-accrington-stanley","tag-crewe-alexandra","tag-jack-stevens","tag-marcus-mcguane","tag-simon-eastwood"],"modified_by":"Dale Ventham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/335"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}