{"id":668681,"date":"2026-04-19T01:30:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T05:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=668681"},"modified":"2026-04-18T11:30:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T15:30:58","slug":"three-talking-points-oxford-united-lose-at-derby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/04\/19\/three-talking-points-oxford-united-lose-at-derby\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Talking Points as Oxford United Lose at Derby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oxford United<\/a> suffered just their second loss in nine games, but defeat at Derby felt like a huge blow to their survival hopes.<\/p>\n

The Rams only scored once and Oxford, despite a poor first half, squandered some good opportunities during the match.<\/p>\n

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

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

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

Too Slow<\/h3>\n

For some reason, Matt Bloomfield’s side were disastrously slow in the first half, both on and off the ball.<\/p>\n

The U’s laboured in possession, failed to press the Derby backline and generally just bumbled around the pitch.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, there was a significant improvement after the break, but given the position the U’s find themselves in, the first-half display was unacceptable.<\/p>\n

Lack of Physicality<\/h3>\n

Ironically, we highlighted that Oxford were firm but fair in their approach against Watford<\/a> but they were out-muscled against the Rams.<\/p>\n

The U’s looked lightweight, lost several 50\/50 balls and were beaten far too easily.<\/p>\n

Like the first point, it could be a worrying trend with Bloomfield’s side edging closer to relegation.<\/p>\n

One-On-One Chances<\/h3>\n

Despite the negative display, Oxford were presented with two wonderful one-on-one opportunities in the game.<\/p>\n

First, Jamie Donley fed Myles Peart-Harris and the winger burst through but was denied by a last-ditch tackle when he may have taken a touch too many.<\/p>\n

Shortly after, Yunus Konak intercepted the ball, burst clear and with Jeon Jin-woo to his left, opted to go alone but blasted the ball over from the edge of the box.<\/p>\n

If either of those opportunities had gone in, the game could have turned but once they were missed, the fate looked sealed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Oxford United suffered just their second loss in nine games, but defeat at Derby felt like a huge blow to their survival hopes. The Rams only scored once and Oxford, despite a poor first half, squandered some good opportunities during the match. Here are three talking points from the game. Read More: Team News, Form […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":335,"featured_media":668386,"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":[695],"class_list":["post-668681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oxford-united","category-championship","category-league-football","category-news","tag-derby-county"],"modified_by":"Dale Ventham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668681","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=668681"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":668683,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668681\/revisions\/668683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}