{"id":665510,"date":"2026-02-22T02:00:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T07:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=665510"},"modified":"2026-02-21T15:22:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T20:22:31","slug":"three-talking-points-oxford-united-draw-at-middlesbrough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/02\/22\/three-talking-points-oxford-united-draw-at-middlesbrough\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Talking Points as Oxford United Draw at Middlesbrough"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oxford United<\/a> kept their good form against the top teams intact with a goalless draw on the road against Middlesbrough.<\/p>\n

The U’s also held Coventry to a goalless draw in recent weeks, but while they are big points, they need to pick up wins quickly.<\/p>\n

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

Read More: Team News, Form and Predicted Line-Up as Oxford United Travel to Middlesbrough\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Oxford United Draw at Middlesbrough<\/h2>\n

Vital Clean Sheet<\/h3>\n

Oxford have, for the most part, looked slightly more improved defensively under Matt Bloomfield and have now kept their fourth clean sheet in eight league games.<\/p>\n

And once again, it came with changes to the personnel. Sam Long was a late inclusion after Brodie Spencer pulled up in the warm-up while Michal Helik was only on the bench after his return from injury.<\/p>\n

The defence looked organised and the midfield duo helped screen the back four. Jamie Cumming was tested but the majority of efforts were fairly routine for the Oxford goalkeeper.<\/p>\n

Lacking in Final Third<\/h3>\n

However, as mentioned before, as good as the U’s have been at the back the issue remains up top.<\/p>\n

That said, it wasn’t for a lack of chances against Boro at the Riverside. In the first half alone, Bloomfield’s side had three three-on-three opportunities, but the decisions were poor, with an over-hit pass, an extra touch, or not enough pace in transition.<\/p>\n

Jeon Jin-woo was guilty on a couple of occasions but Stan Mills and Myles Peart-Harris both hit the woodwork before the break.<\/p>\n

Chances have been few and far between in recent weeks but it was promising to see some opportunities arise.<\/p>\n

Jamie McDonnell<\/h3>\n

January signing Jamie McDonnell has been a revelation since he arrived from Nottingham Forest and it could have been his best Oxford appearance at the Riverside.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old made some decent passes, critical interceptions and vital tackles and his stock continues to grow.<\/p>\n

However, he picked up a knock early in the second half and forced Bloomfield into a change so hopefully it’s not too serious.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Featured image courtesy of SmartFrame \/ News Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oxford United kept their good form against the top teams intact with a goalless draw on the road against Middlesbrough. The U’s also held Coventry to a goalless draw in recent weeks, but while they are big points, they need to pick up wins quickly. Here are three talking points from the game. Read More: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":335,"featured_media":665395,"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":[8430,33,32,30],"tags":[347],"class_list":["post-665510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oxford-united","category-championship","category-league-football","category-news","tag-middlesbrough"],"modified_by":"Dale Ventham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665510","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=665510"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":665513,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665510\/revisions\/665513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}