Oxford United came into this fixture looking to maintain their unbeaten home record whilst Morecambe were looking to shirk off their 4-2 demise to Chris Wilder’s Northampton Town.
Oxford started brightly, penning down the visitors deep in their own half almost immediately but could not muster any meaningful threat. The free-flowing football continued with Morecambe struggling to get a foothold in the game – on 22′ the U’s mounted their pressure and after a neat interchange between O’Dowda and Skarz, the former was set scampering down the line. His centre was met by Hylton whose effort was blocked 6 yards out. The first real chance.
The closest either side came in the first half was on 28′. Against the run of play a quick counter-attack caught the U’s off their guard which allowed the wily Kevin Ellison a yard of space. His cushioned header looped over Slocombe but could not beat the crossbar and was subsequently cleared.
The first half petered out and became a very flat affair with neither team able to hold onto the ball.
The second half yet again was controlled by the hosts. Black particularly seemed to have an extra spring in his step and was soon linking up beautifully with O’Dowda and Roofe. The pressure was ramping up ever more, much like the first half and on 64′ Roofe was sent free and after beating his man in the penalty area, was tripped. Penalty.
After an extremely long stoppage with the referee consulting the linesman and a cacophony of Morecambe protests, Roofe was eventually signalled to take the penalty. His tame effort to Roche’s right was easily smothered by the goalkeeper and the U’s penalty woes continued.
The U’s continued the barrage of pressure but still could not muster any out-and-out chances. The fluid football was a joy to watch, but a frustrating lack of urgency was discouraging to the home fans. A moment of brilliance was needed but was never delivered as the final score read 0-0. The 89 travelling Shrimps will be pleased with the point, however it will definitely feel like two points dropped for Michael Appleton’s side.
Oxford United
| Sam Slocombe – Distribution getting better game by game but is still far from the final product. Something to work on in a game where he was largely untroubled. | 6.0 |
| George Baldock – Grew into the game fantastically – seemed a bit hesitant going forward in the first half but thrived in the second. Great link up play with Roofe and O’Dowda but final product could have been better. | 7.0 |
| Johnny Mullins – Engaged himself in a battle with Ellison but came out on top throughout the 90. Good performance from Mullins who played as an unorthodox sweeper at times. | 7.5 |
| Jake Wright – Solid performance from Wright. Coped well with the Morecambe counter-attacking setup and didn’t have too much to do. | 6.5 |
| Joe Skarz – Typically robust and didn’t let a lot get down the left flank. Good performance defensively but didn’t offer an awful lot going forward. | 6.0 |
| Danny Rose – Struggled in the first half wide-right so was shifted to the left in the second half. Kept possession well but didn’t offer enough wing play in his unorthodox position | 5.0 |
| Liam Sercombe – Terrific energy and linked the midfield to the forwards nicely. Allowed Lundstram to have a more free role. | 7.0 |
| John Lundstram – Spread the play nicely and did the dirty work exceptionally well. The former Everton youngster is certainly making an impression at the Kassam. | 7.0 |
| Callum O’Dowda – United’s only real outlet of pace and caused a lot of problems in the second half. A few poor decisions which let him down however and tended to do too much at times as well. | 7.5 |
| Kemar Roofe – Showed glimpses of his ability but was anonymous at times whilst overplaying a couple of promising attacks. Also missed a penalty becoming the third U’s player to do that this season. | 6.0 |
| Danny Hylton – Seems to be on a dip of form of late and that continued on Saturday. Missed a couple of good opportunities and struggled to involve himself in the game. | 5.0 |
Substitutions
| Patrick Hoban – Didn’t bring anything to the game when a presence in the box was needed. | 4.0 |
| Ryan Taylor – Strange substitution when Hoban was already on the pitch. Too similar to his substitution counterpart and struggled when he came on. | 4.0 |
| 0.0 |
Morecambe FC
| Barry Roche – Made a couple of good saves in the first half and pulled of a good penalty save which he did well to keep hold of. | 7.5 |
| Shaun Beeley – Had a relatively comfortable first half but was certainly kept on his toes in the second. He did well to keep composed and focused during long spells of Oxford pressure. | 7.0 |
| Adam Dugdale – More composed than his centre-half counterpart Edwards and was a strong in the air throughout | 7.0 |
| Ryan Edwards – Came perilously close to scoring two own goals with desperate defending. He did well, however, to nullify any aerial presence Oxford had to offer. | 5.5 |
| Laurence Wilson – Didn’t offer too much going forward but defended solidly during his time on the pitch. Substituted early for what seemed to be a hamstring injury. | 6.0 |
| Alan Goodall – Did very well breaking up the Oxford midfield and gave the hosts very little space, forcing the U’s into playing passes. | 7.5 |
| Andrew Fleming – Closed down the opposition well and kept the midfield organised. | 7.0 |
| Lee Molyneux – A lot of energy but not enough control in his distribution. Gave the ball away clumsily at times. | 6.0 |
| Aaron Wildig – Played well on the counter but other than that he failed to get in the game. Perhaps not helped by the way Morecambe were set up. | 5.0 |
| Kevin Ellison – Despite his flicked header in the first half which came off the bar, Ellison struggled to get into the game and make a presence of himself. | 5.0 |
| Tom Barkhuizen – Much like Ellison he was anonymous up front and didn’t seem to grow into the game either. | 5.0 |
Substitutions
| Aaron McGowan – Forced substitution after Wilson’s injury. Didn’t look out of place during his time on the pitch. | 6.0 |
| Jamie Devitt – Morecambe were mostly defending during his time on the pitch so he didn’t have a chance to get into the game at all. | 5.0 |
Man of the Match
| Callum O’Dowda – Tenacious and battled strongly throughout. Superb energy to keep up the tempo he played at performing well wide-right. | 7.5 |
Highlights
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