{"id":658333,"date":"2025-08-18T00:00:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T04:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=658333"},"modified":"2025-08-17T15:01:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T19:01:15","slug":"three-talking-points-oxford-united-lose-hull","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2025\/08\/18\/three-talking-points-oxford-united-lose-hull\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Talking Points as Oxford United Lose at Hull"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oxford United<\/a> conceded a stoppage-time goal in a 3-2 defeat on the road at Hull.<\/p>\n

The U’s came from behind twice in a frantic opening 25 minutes but were unable to hold out in the end.<\/p>\n

Here are three talking points from the game.<\/p>\n

Read More:<\/strong> Oxford United Weekly Round-Up: Stadium Approval, Cup Win and League Loss<\/a><\/p>\n

Oxford United Lose at Hull<\/h2>\n

Static Defence<\/h3>\n

Gary Rowett kept to the same starting lineup as the one that played against Portsmouth last weekend but there seemed to be a lack of organisation between the back four in the early exchanges of the game.<\/p>\n

The Tigers took the lead inside the opening two minutes with Leeds loanee Joe Gelhardt twisting and turning inside the box before beating Jamie Cumming at his near post.<\/p>\n

Oxford got themselves back into the game shortly after but the second goal made the U’s defence look like statues with a quick one-two before Matt Crooks slotted home.<\/p>\n

The was more unity after the break when Sam Long replaced Mark Harris as the U’s switched to a back three.<\/p>\n

Character to Come Back<\/h3>\n

Having conceded so early, it could have been easy for heads to drop but the U’s kept to the task at hand and showed real character to get back.<\/p>\n

Stan Mills crossed in before Tyler Goodrham recycled the ball into the path of Will Lankshear to fire home his first Oxford goal.<\/p>\n

But the U’s conceded again, although Cameron Brannagan fired home a 25-yard volley from a Will Vaulks long throw.<\/p>\n

That confidence grew into the second half display and despite having a lot less of the ball, Oxford were arguably the better side in the second half.<\/p>\n

And they had chances after the restart, with both Matt Phillips and Vaulks forcing the Hull goalkeeper into making important saves.<\/p>\n

Lack of Energy<\/h3>\n

Despite the second-half improvements, the U’s looked leggy throughout the game, and Rowett even said in his post-match interview that his side lacked energy.<\/p>\n

This was highlighted defensively with all three goals, but also in attack with the gap between the midfield and front two too expansive.<\/p>\n

Whether this is down to the pre-season tour of Indonesia or something else, the players need to up their fitness in the coming fixtures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oxford United conceded a stoppage-time goal in a 3-2 defeat on the road at Hull. The U’s came from behind twice in a frantic opening 25 minutes but were unable to hold out in the end. Here are three talking points from the game. Read More: Oxford United Weekly Round-Up: Stadium Approval, Cup Win and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":335,"featured_media":658185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_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":[8430,33,32,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-658333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oxford-united","category-championship","category-league-football","category-hull-city"],"modified_by":"Dale Ventham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658333","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=658333"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":658336,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658333\/revisions\/658336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}