Parker's First Half Strike Seals First Win in Two Months

Oxford City 1

Parker 24'

Wealdstone 0

Josh Parker’s 24^th minute goal earned Oxford City a first National League win in over two months as Wealdstone were left beaten at the RAW Charging Stadium.

The striker grabbed his 14th league goal of the campaign midway through the first period with the Hoops pushing forwards, to seal a first win in two months.

The win puts a bit of pressure on Wealdstone who would have hoped for points to push clear of the relegated fight, but sit just three points above the drop zone.

Selection

Ross Jenkins made four changes to the line-up at AFC Fylde.

Giles Phillips and Andre Burley returned to the defence in place of Brooklyn Kabongolo and Mitchell Roberts, while Lewis Coyle came in for Jacob Roddy, and Latrell Humphrey-Ewers made way for Ernaldo Krasniqi, who made his first league start for the club.

First Half

The opening 20 minutes saw the visitors start brighter but were unable to test Tom Watson with Tarryn Allarakhia’s deflected shot the best of the opening opportunities.

But City grew into the contest and started to force chances of their own. Firstly, Harvey Greenslade was played through on goal, and tried to lob Marcus Dewhurst, but his effort flew over the bar. The hosts quickly regained possession on the restart and Josh Ashby’s shot from the edge of the box went wide.

The Hoops continued to push forwards and eventually forced the game winning moment on 24 minutes. A fine Lewis Coyle cross from the left found Parker, whose initial header saw the ball drop to his feet and was able to poke beyond Dewhurst to give the hosts the lead.

It could have been two within a couple of minutes when Josh Ashby’s free-kick from wide was met by Giles Phillips, whose powerful header went just wide of the mark.

The Stones still had threat, and a Max Kretzschmar free-kick from the edge of the box had Watson beaten, but passed just the wrong side of the crossbar.

Both keepers were forced into fine fingertip saves in the latter part of the half when Watson tipped Micah Obiero’s shot over, before an almost identical save from Dewhurst saw him tip Ernaldo Krasniqi’s shot over.

Second Half

City managed the second-half well, and the Hoops defence gave little to the Stones. It was the 70^th minute before the visitors had a clear shot on goal in the second period, as Jack Cook’s fierce shot from the edge of the box forced a great diving same from Watson.

The Hoops still forced chances of their own, with Giles Phillips seeing a header blocked at the far post, and Lewis Coyle also seeing a shot saved from a tight angle at the near post.

There was nearly a moment of magic from Josh Ashby as he managed to run from a wide position along the by-line, but his cut-back was blocked before it could reach Parker for a tap-in.

There was to be one heart in mouth moment for the Hoops, however. In the fourth minute of added time, Watson’s clearing punch only came to the edge of the box, and as Charlie Barker tried to loop a header over the stranded keeper, the ball was cleared off the line by the City defence, to preserve their well earned clean-sheet.

Next up sees the Hoops travel to promotion chasing Barnet at the Hive, a 3pm kick-off on Easter Monday, 1st April.

Attendance: 833

Line-Ups

Oxford City Starting XI

Watson; Burley (Birtwistle 65), Phillips, O’Connell; Moore, Fleet, Krasniqi, Coyle (Kabongolo 90’); Greenslade (Roddy 83’), Ashby; Parker.

Subs not used

Roberts, Humphrey-Ewers 

Wealdstone Starting XI

Dewhurst; Cesay, Cook, Barker, Mundle-Smith; Dyer, Bowen, Kretzschmar (Adeyemo 65), Allarakhia, De Silva (Duku 45), Obiero (Mason 65)

Subs

Ferguson, Henry