Oxford United sunk Lincoln City on home turf to climb ever nearer to the play-off spots in the Sky Bet League One. Lincoln failed to take advantage as they had to settle for a loss, keeping them fourth in the league table, still firmly sitting in a play-off spot.
The game unravelled with Oxford immediately on the back foot with Anthony Scully prodding home from close range to give the visitors the lead.
Lincoln continued to look dangerous as they grew into the game threatening from the left in the seventh minute to force a second. Oxford did play themselves into the game and looked to take the clash from the scruff of the neck looking for an equaliser, getting their reward in the 28th minute. A scramble in the Lincoln box following a corner enabled the ball to fall nicely into the path of Anthony Forde, who buried his shot calmly under the Lincoln keeper Alex Palmer.
Oxford continued to play fluid football deep in the first half, passing the ball around nicely. Lincoln looked to break the shackles, exploiting the wide areas nicely, they broke down the right in the 49th minute but to no avail, lacking the end product in the final third. Oxford took the lead in the 57th minute, the decisive goal in the contest grabbing all three points for the hosts. Matt Taylor smashed in the finish after the ball was whipped in from the right hand side, an Oxford player got on the end of it to head the ball towards goal, the ball then parried nicely into the path of Taylor who was there to do the rest.
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Match statistics
Oxford had 20 shots on goal during the game compared to Lincoln's 13, with six shots on target to their four. The possession count for Oxford was much higher with a 52% to 48% ratio at the Kassam Stadium. The total pass count for the hosts was a big 399 to Lincoln's 376. The home side also had the better passing accuracy of 77% to the visitor's 75%.
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Robinson was thrilled with the way the team showed their character right till the end
United now have in form Sunderland on the road next Friday, after this one their boss said:
"We conceded a goal very early on, but I thought our players attitude and mentality was incredible. I thought our fight and ability to work hard for the club and the shirt which was very evident.
”Listen we look back and look at the Hull game, we probably deserved a lot more than what we got out of the game on Tuesday and the players that we rested for tonight did what we expected them to do tonight. We should have scored two or three more in the first half, our dominance against a team who are fourth in the league was top drawer and like I say they have some special players."