Oxford United 0 Brighton & Hove Albion 6
(Carabao Cup 2nd round)

This is the Fans View that no one wanted to write, least of all me.

A quick pint of Camden Pale in the Golden Ball and then the 10-minute walk to the stadium, the throng of Oxford fans gradually getting larger until we were en masse in the overflow car park, heading past the club shop and eventually to the ground.

I swapped from the East Stand to the North Stand for this one, to see the game from a different vantage point, but in the end I think I’d rather have stayed in the pub, where the last home Aunt Sally game of the season was about to take place.

Whichever way you look at it, to get drubbed 6-0 at home by anyone means that you have to have played a bit shit, whether your opposition is a Premier League second string or not. The fact that Oxford also largely played a second-string side is neither here nor there. Certain players who you’d expect Moore from underperformed badly. That’s the Long and short of it.

There were, if you can believe it, some positives. To go in at half-time just 2-0 down was perhaps rather fortunate, but there were chances (notably for Stan Mills and Mark Harris) and Brighton keeper Jason Steele made a couple of decent saves. In fact, despite the final score, you wouldn’t get too many people disagreeing with Steele being nominated the Man of the Match, considering he also made a number of good saves in the second period.

There was a spell, admittedly when we were already 5-0 down and Brighton could have been forgiven for taking their foot off the gas, when Oxford started to apply some sustained pressure and Steele did well to save from Nik Prelec, making his United debut as a second-half sub, Louie Sibley, and a couple of others, as well as one goalbound effort being cleared off the line by a Seagulls defender.

Jason Steele saves from Louie Sibley (Photo: Steve Edmunds)

But that’s all we’ve got really. Prelec looked like he could grow into the team, Brian De Keersmaecker tried valiantly to do what Will Vaulks and Cameron Brannagan couldn’t and impose himself on the midfield, while Luke Harris showed some nice touches. But, taken as a whole, this United side looked more like rabbits in headlights than oxen running down the Pamplona streets. Maybe if Brighton had been wearing red…

And, to cap it all, two of United’s most promising defenders – Brodie Spencer and Jack Currie – both had to limp out of the game, and neither withdrawal looked precautionary. Just when you thought the side’s injury crisis was starting to heal, two more join the queue for the treatment room. Hopefully, neither are as bad as they looked.

Optimistically, this defeat will have the same galvanising effect that the 5-0 drubbing at Bolton had a year and a half ago. That thrashing became the impetus for United’s charge to the play offs and, ultimately, promotion (beating Bolton in the play-off final for a nice bit of payback). This time round, I’d settle for a couple of wins in September.

On the way back to the pub after the game, I reflected on how difficult it is to beat a Premier League team with their huge resources. I got to the bar just in time to watch Grimsby’s penalty shoot-out victory over Manchester United…

For the record:

This is only the fourth time that Oxford have conceded six goals or more at home

This is United’s heaviest League Cup defeat (previous worst was the 5-0 home defeat to Nottingham Forest in October 1978)

The last (and only other) time that United lost 6-0 at home was to Bedford Town in the Southern League in December 1956

This is the first time that United have conceded six goals at home (or away) since the 7-0 defeat to Wigan Athletic in December 2017

See United’s 20 heaviest defeats HERE