Stanley Mills fires United into the lead (photo: Steve Daniels)

Yesterday, Oxford United thrashed Derby County 1-0 thanks to Stan Mills’ first goal of the season midway through the first half.

It was the least the U’s deserved given their, quite frankly, embarrassing dominance over a Rams side that looked League Two worthy, at best.

Given that Oxford had yet to break their home duck and that before the game they were in the relegation zone, they could have been forgiven for succumbing to a bit of pressure But from the first whistle, they looked composed, calm, and up for the fight.

Mills himself had already had a golden opportunity to score, through one on one with Derby keeper Jacob Widell Zetterstrom, who will feature several times in this report and so, to save time, we’ll call him Zetts in future. Set up by a wonderful long diagonal ball from Cameron Brannagan, Mills tried to beat Zetts with a shot with the outside of his right foot, when other options may have proven more fruitful. However, the stopper still did well to divert the shot wide.

This was followed shortly afterwards with a spell of three attempts on goal within a minute, with Zetts making two saves, both from Brian De Keersmaecker (set up both times by Siriki Dembélé), before Craig Forsyth blocked Jack Currie’s goalbound shot.

To give Derby their due, they started strongly, and for the first ten minutes or so they were arguably on top, without really forcing Jamie Cumming to do anything more routine than catching a deflected shot that looped into the air before dropping into the goalie’s hands.

Before the goal, Brannagan had a long-range effort that swerved just wide, while after the deadlock was broken Nik Prelec did well to make room for a shot that he should probably have done better with, shooting over from 12 yards.

There was still time before the break for Michał Helik to force Zetts into his best save yet as the Polish defender smashed a half volley goalwards following Prelec’s clever knockdown. There were many saying that, but for Zetts, United would have been out of sight by half time and, as hypothetical as that statement is, it’s difficult to argue with them.

This season, it has been rare for Oxford to have two good halves in the same game, so many were perhaps expecting bad things to happen in the second period given that United had just that one-goal cushion and had squandered so many chances.

However, United’s resilience, coupled with Derby’s ineptitude, meant that one goal was, eventually enough to secure the side’s first home win of the season, with the Rams again grateful for Zetts’ agility to keep the scoreline down.

First, Prelec did really well to bulldoze his way past two Derby defenders to work a shooting opportunity for himself that Zett’s got down well to push the ball aside. It would have been a wonderful individual goal had Prelec managed to force the ball past the keeper, and maybe going for the near post was the wrong option (easy for us to say, sitting in the stands with the luxury of watching others make the decisions).

It was then Brannagan’s turn to be thwarted by the zinging Zetts after substitute Przsemysłav Płacheta found the skipper in space on the edge of the box, his low drive again not finding its way past the Derby stopper.

Given the narrowness of Oxford’s lead, it would have been naive not to expect Derby to mount some sort of comeback, and so it proved as, with the game nearing its conclusion, the visitors forced a succession of corners. The only one from which they looked like scoring came when De Keersmaecker headed the ball onto the roof of his own net, coming closer than any visiting player to levelling the score.

Given how poor the opposition undoubtedly were (and although some credit can be given to the U’s for making them look rubbish, it was mostly self-inflicted by the Rams), it is difficult to read too much into this game.

Certainly there’s merit in the argument that you can only beat what’s in front of you, and Oxford have failed to win these types of games on numerous occasions. Perhaps we’ll get more of an idea of whether this is the start of a turnaround in form after the next two games, both away, to Wrexham and Sheffield Wednesday, two sides that are around United in the table.

It certainly looks like a midfield three of De Keersmaecker, Brannagan, and Will Vaulks allows the side to dominate the middle of the park and gives some solidity in front of the back four while also allowing the front three more licence to get forward. But maybe that will only work against a side that is as unadventurous as Derby were.

Given that was the first of three games in a week, it would be unreasonable to expect Wednesday’s and Saturday’s lineups to be the same, but with some strength in depth given the return from injury of most of the side’s sicknotes, there is the option to rotate personnel without necessarily weakening the team.

And talking of players that have recovered from injury, let’s spare a word for the man-mountain that is Ciaron Brown. The man seems to operate with a forcefield around him that prevents opposition players getting anywhere near him. After a shaky first few minutes, he was back to his imperious best, winning everything in the air, winning everything on the ground, measuring his passing to the nth detail, and – when all else fails – not being afraid to put a reducer on any forward brave enough to try and get past him. What a guy!