ROBINSON: VICTORY IS A STATEMENT
OXFORD United boss Karl Robinson said his team’s resounding victory over Doncaster gave him even more pleasure than normal because of the quality of the opposition.
It was a third successive 3-0 victory at home in League One for the U’s. James Henry scored twice, the second with a late penalty, with Cameron Brannagan also on target as Oxford closed in on the play-off positions, while stretching their unbeaten run to eight games.
Robinson said: “The result was an emphatic one when you consider the quality of the opposition. Against a team like that it was a real big statement.
“There’s a lot more to come from us when you think about all the players that are out injured.”
The U’s have half-a-dozen players sidelined through injuries, and striker Matty Taylor had to miss this match through illness. “It was a late shout with Matty – and Jamie Mackie didn’t know he was playing,” said Robinson.
“But it just shows how much Mackie cares for Oxford United, this performance was probably his best of the season. He absolutely worked his socks off.”
“The players fight for each other and we have a lot of togetherness. The amount of injuries we have had we wouldn’t have been able to cope with last season. But it shows how far we have come with the depth.”
The U’s had done all the pressing early on when Mackie saw a close-range shot saved, Henry fired wide from 20 yards and Tariqe Fosu curled a right-footed effort against a post.
Rovers almost broke the deadlock when Kieran Sadlier directed Brad Halliday’s cross over the crossbar.
However, in first-half stoppage time, Henry unleashed a stunning drive past Timothy Dieng from 23 yards.
And two minutes after the restart, Brannagan turned in Chris Cadden’s pass for his seventh goal of the season.
Henry wrapped up the win by converting a penalty 13 minutes from time after Tom Anderson handled Shandon Baptiste’s cross. It was Henry’s eighth goal in his past nine appearances.
Doncaster Rovers manager Darren Moore said: “Goals change games and today was a game where they got the goals at crucial times. The first one was deflected, he must have thought he’d won the lottery – but if you don’t shoot, you don’t score.
“It was a bad day for us, but at 1-0 and 2-0 we had chances to get back in the game, we just couldn’t get on the end of things.
“We needed to show as bit more aggression in our play.
“We’ll analyse the game and then it’s back to the drawing board. We’ve got all week to look back on it and see what we should have done better Credit to Oxford, they’re a good side and were a bit too strong for us really.”