Oxford boss Karl Robinson: Fleetwood draw was a point in the right direction

Posted Wednesday, November 02, 2022 by PA

Oxford boss Karl Robinson was not too unhappy with a point from the 1-1 draw at home to Fleetwood after teenager Gatlin O’Donkor scored his first goal for the club.

Carlos Mendes Gomes had put Fleetwood in front after just 65 seconds with his fifth goal in the last seven games.

But 18-year-old O’Donkor, who came on as a half-time substitute for Marcus Browne, levelled less than five minutes into the second half.

Robinson said: “For me it’s a point in the right direction and now we need that bit of a break because we’ve been relying on the same players week in, week out.

“We have to take responsibility and in the first half that was way off the mark.

“I think the last three games have caught up on us, for the first time.

“But the players showed fight and grit and determination in the second half.

“If we’d been offered a point away from home and three at home we would have taken that, but it came the other way around.

“People expected three points here because of how good we have been in the last three games.

“For the first time we were too deep and we looked lethargic in our play in the first 25 minutes and we have to take responsibility for that.

“But that was 100 per cent the right team we put out in the first half.

“Defensively for the goal we were poor but the players have shown tremendous fight.

“It wasn’t the wrong team we put out at the start, it was the wrong mentality, and fatigue kicked in.

“O’Donkor was good – he will get better with time. When he’s tight he’s effective, when he drops off, he still needs to learn that guile, when to stop and shoot from distance or when to take players on with his pace and power – that decision-making comes with games.”

Fleetwood manager Scott Brown said: “We started off sharply. We possibly went a bit more direct than we’re used to.

“But I was very happy with our play – I felt our only problem was with set plays.

“We don’t get tight enough at set plays and we give opposing players too much space.

“But we’ll work on that, as a team, in the next few days.

“It was obviously a great start and we silenced the crowd, which we had wanted to do.

“Oxford are a fantastic team and they struggled to break us down.

“So from my point of view the first half was successful. They came at us more in the second – but we were always in the game, even in the 89th minute.”

Shaun Rooney was stretchered off near the end of the match with what looked like a bad leg injury, but Brown was unclear as to how bad it is.

“I haven’t had a chance to see him and I didn’t see an injury, so I just can’t comment,” he said.