| RESULT | 3 - 0 to the Valiants. |
| TEAM |
Robertson, Richardson, McGuckin, McGowan Murphy, Tait, Fear, Powell Lilley, Omoyinmi |
| SUBS | Anthrobus (for McGuckin, 33) [back
injury]
Beauchamp (for Fear, 68) Cook (for Lilley, 68) Jarman, Wilson (not used) |
| GOALS | 1 - 0 Naylor (28) - Viljanen's shot hit the bar, and Naylor was there
to follow it up.
2 - 0 Bridge-Wilkinson (65) - An unstoppable 12 yard volley into the roof of the net. 3 - 0 Bridge-Wilkinson (67) - Cut inside from the left and hammered it home from 30 yards. Excellent goal. |
| PERFORMANCE | Terrible from Oxford, and Vale, who hit the woodwork four times, could easily have added more goals. |
| MAN OF MATCH | Richard KNIGHT - Pulled off some excellent saves to keep the scoreline vaguely respectable. |
| BOOKINGS | None. |
| ATTENDANCE | 3,814. |
| REFEREE | Michael Ryan (Preston) |
| REPORTS | Oxford sites
From The TerracePort Vale sites One Vale Fan ("Debut day")Football sites Football NewsNewspapers Oxford Mail ("United hit rock bottom ") |
Half-hearted Oxford
stumble
Two wonder strikes
from debut hero Marc Bridge-Wilkinson helped Vale
demolish a lacklustre
Oxford United side.
The 21-year-old Bridge-Wilkinson,
a free transfer summer signing from
Premiership side Derby
County, had the crowd on their feet when he
acrobatically volleyed
home Ville Viljanen's cross on 65 minutes.
Just two minutes later
he doubled his tally when he cut in from the left and
unleashed an unstoppable
25-yard curling effort.
Earlier, striker and
man-of-the-match Tony Naylor gave Vale the lead on 29
minutes. The veteran
forward had the simple task of prodding the ball home
after Viljanen's initial
shot rebounded to him off post and upright.
The score was kept
respectable by Oxford 'keeper Richard Knight, who pulled
off no less than six
fingertip saves.
Oxford were forced
to defend for most of the match but did have a chance as
early as the second
minute, when Paul Powell raced through Vale's defence
but put his shot wide.
Powell came close
again in the 58th minute when he latched onto Peter Fear's
cross, but his header
was saved at full stretch by Vale 'keeper Mark Goodlad.
This page is maintained by James Beard.