Karl Robinson hails players after Oxford end winless run with Exeter thrashing

Posted Sunday, October 16, 2022 by PA

Oxford manager Karl Robinson paid tribute to his players as they ran riot to beat Exeter 4-1 and claim their first league win in five matches.

The U’s stormed into a three-goal lead at the break with goals from Cameron Brannagan, Sam Long and Kyle Joseph, who then added a fourth early in the second half.

Exeter did pull two goals back through Jevani Brown and Sonny Cox, but their injury-hit team were well beaten by an impressive Oxford side.

“Exeter were eighth before the game and got a wonderful result at Barnsley,” Robinson said. “It is so inconsistent this league because of the level of quality. No one above us or below us has a divine right to win a game of football.

“We spoke about how much we believe in each other. People have every right to question us, one thing you can never knock us on is our togetherness.

“We came out after the break with the impetus to get the fourth and then we sat back a bit and played within ourselves. The game became too stretched for our liking. But it’s not something I am going to moan about.

“We are a good team and the players are excellent. We had a tremendous travelling crowd. To turn out the way they did was excellent.”

It was a tough day for Exeter, who are struggling with a lengthy injury list right now and after long trips to Barnsley and Charlton, caretaker manager Kevin Nicholson felt this was a game too far for his small squad.

“I think that everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong,” Nicholson said.

“We lost Josh Key this morning through illness, Pierce Sweeney has been ill the last three days and hasn’t trained and unfortunately, he couldn’t continue, but I have respect for him for giving it a go – it all meant we were light on bodies.

“That said, we have to look at ourselves first and foremost. I think we did everything we could to get the players ready, but when the game started, we looked a little bit flat, the free-kick (goal) goes under the wall, which is a disappointing way to concede and it just seemed to hit the group and they didn’t really gather themselves.

“I give them credit for the last half an hour. The lads didn’t go under, they kept competing and tried to play and I am not going to ‘go’ for them because I think they have given me everything physically this week. It was probably a game too far for them after Barnsley and then Charlton and there’s been a lot going on.

“I thought Ed James did very well for a 17-year-old making his League One debut in very difficult circumstances and it was nice for Sonny Cox to score his first goal for the club.”