Oxford United vs Swansea City. Sky Bet Championship.
The Kassam StadiumAttendance11,454.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Oxford United and Swansea City at the Kassam Stadium on Saturday; Zan Vipotnik and Florian Bianchini end Swans goal drought as U's finally beaten at home this season.
Saturday 2 November 2024 15:57, UK
Swansea scored their first goals in more than nine hours as they beat Oxford 2-1 at the Kassam Stadium.
It was Oxford's first home defeat of the season and they have now gone eight Championship matches without a win.
After failing to find the net throughout October, the Swans eventually ended their barren run in the 38th minute when Zan Vipotnik turned in Ronald's cross from the right.
Substitute Florian Bianchini sealed victory for Swansea in the 80th minute when he ran on to Goncalo Franco's pass and finished neatly from 16 yards.
Dane Scarlett halved the deficit for the U's with a low drive two minutes from time but it was not enough.
Looking to bounce back after their 2-0 defeat at Sunderland, Oxford made three changes which included a full debut for summer signing Louie Sibley in midfield.
The Swans gave Wales international Joe Allen his first start of the campaign.
It was the visitors who forced the game's first corners and from the second of them, on 16 minutes, Harry Darling had a free header which struck the back of an Oxford defender.
From the next one, delivered by Matt Grimes a minute later, Myles Peart-Harris's header came back off the bar.
And after a positive run down the right by Josh Key, Franco then fired over from 20 yards.
The Welsh outfit were doing most of the pressing and the U's had hardly mounted a meaningful attack in the opening half an hour.
Key's runs were keeping Swansea on the front foot and he was instrumental in the move that ended with Slovenia international Vipotnik breaking the deadlock seven minutes before half-time, with United left-back Ciaron Brown crucially slipping as he failed to cut out a pass.
The goal goaded the U's into some urgency and Tyler Goodrham twice went close, seeing a 20-yard shot saved and another goal-bound effort striking the top of Darling's head.
Oxford also struck the woodwork just before the break when Ruben Rodrigues headed a right-wing corner against the top of the bar.
United brought on Idris El Mizouni to replace Sibley for the second half and it almost paid immediate dividends as El Mizouni fired in a left-wing cross that Mark Harris scooped over from eight yards at full stretch.
At the other end it needed a brilliant reaction save by Jamie Cumming to keep out Vipotnik's close-range snap shot.
The home side had much more possession in the second half and two subs combined to give them a real opportunity to equalise on 72 minutes.
Scarlett released Malcolm Ebiowei in space to his right but Ebiowei sliced high and wide.
Bianchini's smart finish provided some breathing space for Luke Williams' men, but the away fans still had some nervous moments.
After Scarlett pulled a late goal back, Greg Leigh's glancing header just evaded the far post.
Oxford's Des Buckingham:
"I didn't think we were very good at all today, for large parts of the game.
"Yet despite being poor, we have still created three very good chances before Dane scored his at the end.
"That's the most disappointing thing because we are so much better than what we have just shown.
"We need to start the game a hell of a lot better than we did, and make sure that we believe we are good enough to perform at this level - that's what I want to see and we will need to see on Tuesday.
"We have had a really good six to eight months. We knew this season was going to be a challenge, we need to be sure that when we hit these challenges we are clear on what we need to do and how we do it."
Swansea's Luke Williams:
"There's some relief but I think we deserved to win today and that's important for me.
"Oxford threw absolutely everything at us and we could have dealt with that a bit better but I still think we were value for the victory.
"I think we played football how we wanted to play football from the beginning.
"I'd tried to convince the players that if we kept playing as we want to play then goals would come.
"It's probably our best away performance for 90 minutes. I think we have performed at a similar level at home but today we were more clinical in front of goal.
"We should take confidence from being the first team to win at Oxford this season because I can see why they had that record."
