Div 3 action

An injury time goal by Lee Jones gave Wrexham a 2-1 victory at Shrewsbury tonight and lifted Denis Smith's team into third place, four points ahead of Oxford and still with one game in hand. Shrewsbury remain third from bottom having now played the same number of games as Carlisle, but still two fewer than Exeter. Last night Bristol Rovers climbed above Shrewsbury and Carlisle and out of the relegation zone following a 1-1 draw at Rochdale.

Da dog's Bolla

An excellent performance from Oxford's reserves saw them pull off a 1-0 win against a highly experienced Norwich team through a late goal from debutant Mark de Bolla. On trial from Charlton, Da Bolla had looked lively throughout and fully deserved his goal fired home from a Chris Hackett cross.

A 3-4-3 formation saw the surprising appearance of Jefferson Louis at centre-back alongside Roy Hunter and Simon King, with Paul Powell, Dean Whitehead, Dwight Ciampoli and Hackett across the middle and Da Bolla, David Oldfield and Manny Omoyinmi as a front triangle. The Norwich XI had all featured for the first team at some point this season and included star names such as Iwan Roberts, Phil Mulryne, Alex Notman, Neil Emblen and David Nielsen.

As is often the case, the presence of Oldfield helped channel Oxford to play decent football, with Da Bolla a threat through the middle and Chris Hackett making a series of great runs on the right. Manny and Powell also showed some good touches and turns, while Whitehead and Ciampoli were playing some good balls through from the middle.

If Oxford shaded the first half, they ran riot in the second, with Hackett beating three players on a great run and cross which Ciampoli just failed to clip home just after the re-start. A series of flowing moves followed featuring Oldfield and Da Bolla while Hackett continued to cause problems down the right. Even when Whitehead and Manny went off, presumably with Saturday in mind, things continued as Dexter Blackstock and Michael Alexis coming on.

Dexter didn't disappoint the scores of familiar faces that had come to watch him, including Malcolm Crosby and a certain Mr J Smith, with a couple of decent runs, notably one round the full back and along the by-line. A brief revival saw Norwich piece together a couple of chances with ten minutes to go, but Oxford finally claimed a deserved winner with three minutes remaining.

At the back Simon Cox had little to do, but what he did he did well, while Simon King was his normal impressive self. Only playing due to injuries to Sam Ricketts, Rob Lovegrove and Adam Garner, Jefferson did not do too badly on the right of a back three alongside Hunter.

Interestingly, the watching Ian Atkins also talked of playing Jefferson in that position to give him the opportunity to learn by seeing up close the movement of such an experienced centre forward as Iwan Roberts.

All in all, a good performance, with Oldfield showing all his class, King, Whitehead and Hackett doing well and De Bolla the pick of the bunch.