Dale edge tight contest in City's first home match of the season.

Oxford City 0

Rochdale 1

Henderson 71'

Oxford City were denied their first points of their Vanarama National League season as an Ian Henderson goal saw Rochdale to their first win of the season.

The Hoops battled throughout, and for large parts of the match limited Rochdale to few efforts on goal, but were ultimately broken down with 20 minutes to play with the visitors taking all three points.

SELECTION

Ross Jenkins opted for the same starting XI that begun the match at Aldershot Town last weekend, with Joe Wilson the only change to the squad as he returned from injury to take his place on the bench.

Marcin Brzozowski was the unlucky player to miss out, whereas Zac McEachran continues to recover from a virus that has ruled him out for much of pre-season.

First-Half

The Hoops started brightly in the opening few minutes, with Aaron Williams-Bushell and Josh Parker both having efforts on goal that required good blocks by the Dale defence.

Up at the other end though, Henderson thought he’d given the visitors an early lead as he poked past Chris Haigh, but saw the offside flag deny him.

City did get forwards in spells in the first period, with the two Josh’s both having efforts, with Ashby dragging a shot wide, before a powerful effort from Parker was straight at Louis Moulden.

Henderson, meanwhile, continued to get closer to his goal, and after 20 minutes he beat the offside trap to poke the ball past Haigh, but was met by a super goal line block from Andre Burley to keep it goalless.

Alfie Potter had two efforts for the hosts late in the half, the first seeing a clever chipped effort as he tried to catch Moulden off his line following a mistake in defence. Just on the stroke of half-time a break forward saw the ball to the midfielder, who could only drag his shot wide.

Half-Time: Aldershot Town 3-1 Oxford City

Second-half

The visitors came out after the break and immediately put pressure on the City backline. Just three minutes in and Haigh made a fine save from point blank range as Kairo Mitchell’s effort from inside the six-yard box was pushed away from danger.

Ten minutes later and a set piece was cleared by the City defence only to the edge of the box where Adam Clayton fired goalwards, requiring the City stopper, with Tom Harrison to block well.

The introduction of new signing Jesurun Uchegbulam injected some pace into Rochdale counter attacks, and immediately he burst down the right, but could not quite pick out Mitchell.

But the only goal of the game came not long after. Tyrese Sinclair squared to Jimmy Keohane who picked out Henderson on the edge of the six-yard box, with the veteran making no mistake to finish.

With this set-back, the hosts did push forwards and try to force an equaliser, but were in the large part met by a resolute defence and were limited to shots from outside of the box, that were comfortably cleared.

This did ultimately leave the Hoops vulnerable to further counter-attacks, and were lucky not to go two goals behind when Uchegbulam once again burst forward and found Henderson, who dragged wide from 12 yards out.

Match Details

Attendance: 784

Oxford City Starting XI: 

Haigh, Burley, Ashby, Kirby (Humphrey-Ewers 88’), Harrison, Coyle (Moore 88'), Fleet (C) , Parker, Potter (Fonkeu 78’), Williams-Bushell, Carroll

Subs not used: Miccio, Wilson

Rochdale Starting XI:

Moulden, John (Uchegbulam 67'), Ebanks-Landell, Nevett, Keohane, Clayton, Gilmour, Afuye (McDermott 67'), Henderson, Mitchell, Sinclair (Oduroh 88')