{"id":666319,"date":"2026-03-12T02:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T06:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=666319"},"modified":"2026-03-12T08:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T12:23:10","slug":"three-talking-points-oxford-united-win-against-blackburn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/03\/12\/three-talking-points-oxford-united-win-against-blackburn\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Talking Points as Oxford United Win Against Blackburn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oxford United<\/a> recorded a third successive win for the first time since returning to the Championship with a 1-0 victory over relegation rivals, Blackburn.<\/p>\n

A first-half goal from Jamie Donley was enough to separate the sides at Grenoble Road but Matt Bloomfield will be pleased with the display from his team.<\/p>\n

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

Read More: Team News, Form and Predicted Line-Up as Oxford United Welcome Blackburn<\/a><\/p>\n

Oxford United Win Against Blackburn<\/h2>\n

Jamie Donley<\/h3>\n

There were standout performances from several U’s players but match-winner Jamie Donley was arguably the pick of the bunch.<\/p>\n

The Spurs loanee was a constant attacking threat and offers a different option in the final third when Oxford go forward.<\/p>\n

With his goal, Stan Mills delivered a cross that was met by Myles Peart-Harris, although the goalkeeper denied him. However, Donley got himself into the right position to slot home his first U’s goal.<\/p>\n

Defensive Solidity<\/h3>\n

Twelve league games into Bloomfield’s tenure, it was a fifth clean sheet under the new head coach.<\/p>\n

He’s settled on a back four that, quite simply, are committed to the cause. The quartet throw their bodies on the line, won several aerial duels and remain a nuisance for the opposition.<\/p>\n

And then there was Stan Mills. The winger, who was a constant attacking threat throughout, often found himself playing on the right as part of a back five out of possession and this epitomised Oxford’s tactical setup.<\/p>\n

For Amelia<\/h3>\n

On the pitch, Oxford have recorded three successive victories and morale is high amongst the players and fanbase but the club have been dealt a huge blow off the pitch in the last week.<\/p>\n

15-year-old academy goalkeeper Amelia Aplin<\/a> collapsed during a girls’ academy game against Fulham on Sunday and, despite the best efforts from the medical staff and emergency services, sadly passed.<\/p>\n

The club paid tribute to Amelia ahead of the game with an impeccably observed minute’s silence while the match officials also stopped play on the 15-minute mark for everybody to applaud.<\/p>\n

Credit to the club, Blackburn, the match officials and the entire football community for their tributes and the performance and victory was a touching tribute to a life lost far too early.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Featured image courtesy of SmartFrame\/Pro Sports Images\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oxford United recorded a third successive win for the first time since returning to the Championship with a 1-0 victory over relegation rivals, Blackburn. A first-half goal from Jamie Donley was enough to separate the sides at Grenoble Road but Matt Bloomfield will be pleased with the display from his team. Here are three talking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":335,"featured_media":666322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":true,"sfio_embed_code":"<\/smartframe-embed>","_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":[238],"class_list":["post-666319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oxford-united","category-championship","category-league-football","category-news","tag-blackburn-rovers"],"modified_by":"Dale Ventham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666319","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=666319"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":666336,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666319\/revisions\/666336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}