David Oldfield says ‘collective effort’ key to Oxford City beating Northampton

Oxford City boss David Oldfield hailed “a great collective effort” from his part-timers after they dumped League One Northampton out of the FA Cup with a 2-1 victory at Court Place Farm.

Josh Ashby’s 68th-minute penalty earned National League South City a trip to Shrewsbury in the second round after they came from a goal down, despite missing a spot-kick earlier in the second half.

Sam Hoskins had given Northampton an early lead but Oxford replied swiftly through James Roberts.

Oldfield said: “The boys worked their socks off. It was a strong collective effort and we’re very proud of them.

“The boys have all got jobs, so they all came here after working today.

“We felt we started quite well and were disappointed to go a goal down.

“But it shows the character of the lads – it was a fabulous effort to come back from that, and from the first penalty not going in.

“We’re just sorry the fans are not here to celebrate with us. This is a real community club and it was such a collective effort from all the staff, and the entire squad.”

Oldfield had a special mention for Aaron Drewe, who made a remarkable goalline clearance from Mark Marshall’s drive.

“It was a staggering clearance. It have no idea how he did it, and it epitomised the never-say-die spirit of the lads,” he added.

Northampton boss Keith Curle was fuming with his team.

Curle made seven changes but insisted he expected a lot more from those players brought in.

“They say that’s the beauty of the FA Cup, but there was nothing beautiful about our performance,” he said.

“This was a good opportunity for them to showcase what they could do. But collectively and individually, our basics we were nowhere near good enough. We had no personality out there on the pitch.

“All credit to Oxford City, they competed all over the pitch, and played the ball around well.

“Some of my players have let themselves down.

“I take responsibility for picking the team, and we were prioritising the league, but it was still nowhere near good enough, and my players will be in at 8.30 in the morning to go through the video of this at 9am.

“Too many players in the modern game hide under the umbrella of it being ‘unlucky’. That was not unlucky. We were just nowhere near good enough.”