Oxford United suffered a second defeat of the week with a 3-1 loss on the road at Bristol Rovers.
The Gas raced into a two-goal lead and while the U’s reduced the deficit with a fortuitous effort, Rovers added a third late on.
Here are three talking points from the game.
Formation Not Working
Clearly, Des Buckingham wants to play a back four but with several wingers out injured, the head coach has been forced to play with a back three. However, this result highlighted that the formation isn’t working.
The system has removed width, despite attacking full-backs in either Greg Leigh or Joe Bennett on the left and Fin Stevens on the right, while the pace in the middle of the park in terms of building attacks has also declined.
Defensively, the U’s have an extra man but when the Gas attacked, they looked like it was them that had the extra body.
Goalkeeping
It was a tale of two goalkeepers, and that wasn’t a good thing for Oxford. Jamie Cumming had a solid debut and showed glimpses of his quality despite the defeat against Barnsley last time out.
However, he could have done better with all three goals. For the first, he was beaten at his near post from an acute angle while a long-range effort sizzled past him for the second.
The third saw him produce a save from a long distant effort but he only parried into the path of the Gas attacker.
At the other end, Jed Ward made just his second Bristol Rovers appearance of the season and he put in a solid display.
He made an easy save from Ruben Rodrigues and tipped a powerful effort over from Cameron Brannagan.
The 20-year-old also parried a Greg Leigh header and got down low to push another effort from Rodrigues past the post as Oxford looked to get back into the game.
Out of the Playoffs
Oxford began the season with defeat at Cambridge before a win over Carlisle. Victory on the road at Derby on matchday three saw the U’s move into the playoffs.
Since then, they have dropped out twice – following a defeat at home against Port Vale and after this loss against the Gas.
With matches against league leaders Portsmouth and a Thames Valley derby against Reading coming up, Buckingham will need to get his side back into the top six before the playoffs become out of reach.
