{"id":658604,"date":"2025-08-24T13:11:25","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T17:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=658604"},"modified":"2025-08-24T13:11:25","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T17:11:25","slug":"oxford-united-ben-davies-peter-kioso-birmingham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2025\/08\/24\/oxford-united-ben-davies-peter-kioso-birmingham\/","title":{"rendered":"Oxford United Weekly Round-Up: Experienced Defender Joins, Loan Departure and Loss at Birmingham"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oxford United<\/a> had another busy week with the arrival of a new defender and a loan departure, but it ended with another league defeat.<\/p>\n

Read More<\/strong>: Three Talking Points as Oxford United Lose at Birmingham<\/a><\/p>\n

Oxford United Weekly Round-Up: Defensive Reinforcement, Loan Departure and Birmingham Defeat<\/h2>\n

U’s ‘Battling It Out’ With QPR for Rangers Defender<\/h3>\n

On Tuesday, Pete O’Rourke claimed that Oxford and Championship rivals QPR were “battling it out” to sign Rangers defender, Ben Davies.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old, who spent last season on loan at Birmingham, joined the Scottish side in 2022.<\/p>\n

The former Preston man also joined Liverpool in 2021 but failed to make an appearance for the Premier League outfit.<\/p>\n

Snowden At the Double<\/h3>\n

Leo Snowden netted a brace for Oxford’s U21 side, who won 2-1 against Derby.<\/p>\n

It was a first ever Central League game for the young U’s, who also handed first minutes to summer signing, Nik Prelec.<\/p>\n

But it was Snowden who stole the show with two first-half goals, while Peter Kioso and Owen Dale weren’t involved in any capacity.<\/p>\n

International Call-Up<\/h3>\n

On Thursday, summer signing Brodie Spencer was called up for the upcoming Northern Ireland World Cup qualifiers.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old, who has 13 caps for the Green and White Army, could be in contention to face Luxembourg and Germany.<\/p>\n

Oxford United ‘Keeping an Eye’ on Hungarian Midfielder<\/h3>\n

Oxford are “keeping an eye” on ETO FC Gy\u00f6r midfielder, Rajmund T\u00f3th, according to reports in Hungary.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

However, the report claims that Dutch side Groningen are also keen on the 21-year-old, who is a Hungarian youth international.<\/p>\n

Kioso Joins Former Club on Loan<\/h3>\n

On Friday, U’s defender Peter Kioso returned to his former club, Peterborough, on a season-long loan.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old, who joined Oxford last summer from Rotherham, has turned out 33 times for the U’s since their return to the second tier.<\/p>\n

However, the DR Congo international is yet to feature for Gary Rowett’s side this season so a move away is good for all parties.<\/p>\n

Davies Signs<\/h3>\n

Ahead of their trip to Birmingham, Oxford confirmed the signing of Rangers defender Ben Davies on a season-long loan.<\/p>\n

Speaking after joining, Davies said<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019m delighted to be here. As soon as I heard of the interest I was sold. I spoke to the head coach, and I got the feel that this is a football club which can take a step forward this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt this is a great chance for me to play Championship football. I\u2019m really grateful for the opportunity the club have given me, and I will do everything to have a strong season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve played a lot of football, and I hope I can bring those experiences to the team. I\u2019m really looking forward to getting started and helping the club achieve its ambitions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Head coach, Gary Rowett, said: \u201cBen is a very experienced and strong defender with a great ability to play forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has played at a very high level in extremely pressurised environments where he has demonstrated his qualities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are delighted to welcome Ben to the club and feel he can be a significant addition to our group this season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defeat in the Second City for Oxford United<\/h3>\n

Oxford ended the week with a 1-0 defeat at high-flyers Birmingham.<\/p>\n

The U’s were on the back foot for much of the game but the only goal of the match came five minutes before the break.<\/p>\n

Gary Rowett’s side were reduced to just a handful of chances, with Cameron Brannagan seeing a first-half effort tipped wide in what was the best chance.<\/p>\n

It’s the first time since the 2018\/19 season that Oxford have lost their opening three league games.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oxford United had another busy week with the arrival of a new defender and a loan departure, but it ended with another league defeat. Read More: Three Talking Points as Oxford United Lose at Birmingham Oxford United Weekly Round-Up: Defensive Reinforcement, Loan Departure and Birmingham Defeat U’s ‘Battling It Out’ With QPR for Rangers Defender […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":335,"featured_media":647577,"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],"tags":[1506,1318,4702],"class_list":["post-658604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oxford-united","category-championship","category-league-football","tag-ben-davies","tag-birmingham-city","tag-peter-kioso"],"modified_by":"Dale Ventham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658604","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=658604"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":658605,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658604\/revisions\/658605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}