The Memorial Stadium Saturday 13th August 2022
Bristol Rovers 1
Marquis (34)
Oxford United 0
Referee: Oliver Langford Attendance: 8,297
Following the Carabao Cup performance at Crawley, manager Joe Barton made two changes to his starting lineup for this game; out went Alfie Kilgour and Ryan Loft and in came Glenn Whelan and Harvey Saunders.
New signing Lewis Gibson was named on the bench along with Jordan Rossiter, who was returning to the squad after being injured on the opening day.
The 59th league meeting between the clubs kicked off at 12.30pm in sweltering conditions and the two evenly matched sides created very few openings in the first half an hour.
Sam Long rattled the crossbar, with James Belshaw beaten, from a 15th minute corner and almost immediately Rovers might have taken the lead but Sam Finley was denied by a superb Simon Eastwood save.
The two former Rovers players in the Oxford side, Billy Bodin and Matty Taylor seldom featured for the visitors. Bodin was anonymous and the only time you realised that Taylor was anywhere near the ball was when he was booed by Rovers’ supporters!
The goal, when it arrived, was a thing of beauty, no doubt after hours of practice on the training ground.
Rovers won a free kick out on the right following a foul on Saunders and up stepped Antony Evans who, we all thought, would swing a cross into the back stick where it would be attacked by central defenders Hoole and Connolly.
However, the midfield maestro fooled us all as he squared the ball inside to Finley who lifted the ball over the Oxford defenders and as Eastwood came off his line to avert the danger in nipped Aaron Collins who touched it on to John Marquis and he gleefully knocked the ball home to register his first league goal for the club.
As half time approached Oxford could, and probably should, have been reduced to ten men after Marquis was pushed in the back by giant central defender Elliott Moore. With the Rovers striker flat on his back it looked as though Moore slapped him in the face.
Referee Oliver Langford was only yards away from the incident and decided a yellow card was sufficient punishment for the Oxford man, though from the stands it looked like a certain red.
Eight minutes into the second half Oxford should have equalised when the unmarked James Henry headed over the bar with only Belshaw to beat. That, in all honesty, was the only time they really troubled Rovers in the entire second half and Barton’s side put in a determined performance to deny the visitors.
Even the use of five substitutes, for the first time ever in a league match, didn’t upset the balance of the side and there was almost a second goal when one of those substitutes, Ryan Loft, won possession deep inside the Oxford half and set off for goal, though he could only prod a tame effort into the arms of a grateful Eastwood.
In truth, it was a masterclass in game management from Barton’s side who have now matched their 2015/16 start to the season by taking six points from the first nine available.
Bristol Rovers: Belshaw, Anderson, Hoole, Connolly, Gordon (Gibson, 79), Finley (Coutts, 70), Whelan (Rossiter, 59), Evans, Saunders (Grant, 79), Marquis (Loft, 79), Collins.
Substitutes: Jaakkola, Kilgour.
Oxford United: Eastwood, Long, Muir, Findlay, Seddon (Jones, 89), McGuane, Brannagan, Henry (Bate, 64), Browne, Bodin (Goodrham, 73), Taylor (Joseph, 64).
Substitutes: Rodriguez, Brown, McGinty.
ALSO
Former Rovers players Billy Bodin and Matty Taylor were in the Oxford United starting XI
Yellow cards were issued to Harvey Saunders and Josh Grant
Sam Finley began the game as skipper and the armband passed to Paul Coutts when he was substituted
Debut for Lewis Gibson
Five substitutes used for the first time in a league match
First Rovers goal for John Marquis
Nine added minutes
(Photos courtesy of JMP)
Keith Brookman