Oxford United picked up the best win under Des Buckingham with a 4-0 victory over strugglers, Fleetwood.
A brace from Mark Harris and goals from Cameron Brannagan and Owen Dale sealed a comfortable victory at Grenoble Road.
Here are three talking points from the game.
Variety of Shots and Goals
Oxford scored four times against the Cod Army but they battered their opponents in front of goal.
Brannagan and Harris both fortuitously saw efforts deflected in but Harris pounced home from inside the side yard box from a low Josh Murphy cross.
Dale took his goal well, too, by tapping home the rebound following Joe Bennett’s parried shot.
Oxford took shots from outside the box, worked balls into the box from wide areas and saw close-range efforts blocked. It was promising to see so many different chances created.
Full-Backs Helping Wingers
There has been some talk about team selection in recent weeks with the omission of wing-backs, Greg Leigh and Fin Stevens. However, the more defensively-stable duo of Joe Bennett and Sam Long have helped the wingers in those recent games and that was the case against Fleetwood.
In Leigh and Stevens, they like to attack and if the move breaks down, it would leave the wingers in Murphy and Dale needing to cover defensively.
However, with Bennett and Long often sitting back, the wingers aren’t as reliant on their defensive duties and can carry out more threats when in the opposition half.
That was the case against Fleetwood with the duo causing problems all game, and it continued when Marcus Browne replaced Dale and Leigh came on for Murphy.
Clean Sheet
It’s not often we are able to bring this point up so it’s well worth mentioning when it does happen.
In 41 league games, this was just a ninth clean sheet for the U’s. Jamie Cumming has made the odd error while the change to personnel in the back four has allowed inconsistencies to creep in.
But, as mentioned in the previous point, the introduction of Bennett and Long alongside Ciaron Brown and Elliott Moore provides a more stable backline and they were worthy of their clean sheet against Fleetwood.
