13 April 2021

Karl Robinson hails Oxford’s achievement of having 10 goalscorers in two games

13 April 2021

Oxford boss Karl Robinson hailed the remarkable achievement of having 10 different goalscorers in two games after his side’s 4-1 win over Shrewsbury at the Kassam Stadium.

There were six different scorers in United’s 6-0 victory at Crewe on Saturday, and another four completely different ones against the Shrews.

Rob Atkinson headed in his first goal for the club, and his effort was followed by others from Elliot Lee, Matty Taylor and Sam Long, with Harry Chapman on target for Shrewsbury.

Robinson said: “The scoreline flattered us to an extent.

“The first 15 minutes of both halves they were probably better than us.

“But we rode out the storm, and from the 15th minute to the 45th minute it was the most complete performance of the season from us.

“To have 10 different goalscorers in two games is some achievement.

“It’s about time for Rob Atkinson to get a goal.

“And the last two performances from Mark Sykes have been two of his best for us.

“I’m delighted for the players.

“We’re in there fighting for a place in the play-offs with some big football clubs who over the last 20 years have been much bigger clubs than us and been much higher than us.

“But what we have is that we fight for each other, when you turn your back there is no-one looking to stab you in the back, it is a special football club here.

“We’ve now got some big games coming up with Gillingham, AFC Wimbledon and Plymouth, and two of them at home.

“We’ve found some sort of momentum and when you have that you don’t know where it can take you.

“A certain calmness is needed.

“We reduced the length of the grass and heavily watered it to quicken it up, and when it’s quick we’re good.”

Shrewsbury boss Steve Cotterill, who is still recovering from Covid-19, watched the match at home.

Shrews assistant manager Aaron Wilbraham reflected afterwards: “It wasn’t a 4-1 game.

“It was a strange one because the first and third Oxford goals came at vital times when we were at our strongest, and knocked the wind out of our sails.

“The third goal was a real blow just after we had scored and we were looking to take it on from there.

“The lads really started the second half strongly.

“There are a lot of positives we can take from the game because we did a lot of good passing, a lot of good switches of play and we were getting plenty of players in the box. It just didn’t really fall for us tonight.

“And they scored from a couple of freakish set-piece goals. That’s not like us, we’re normally very strong at set plays, but that happens in football sometimes.”

The best videos delivered daily

Watch the stories that matter, right from your inbox