Siriki Dembélé smashes home the opener (photo: Steve Edmunds)

If you’re the type of person that leaves a game with 15 minutes to go, you would probably expect to get home and, on checking the score, see a goalless draw flash up, or maybe even a single goal defeat for United. I very much doubt you’d have considered that Oxford would have beaten Burton by three goals without reply.

And yet, looking back after the final whistle, the eventual result had a feel of inevitability about it. The visitors, for all their huffing and puffing, rarely tested Simon Eastwood in goal, while United’s rapid wingers always had the beating of the Burton back line.

But before we get into the nitty gritty of what was, eventually, a comfortable win (albeit a bit less comfortable than the final scoreline might suggest), let’s step back a bit, into the sunny beer garden at the Golden Ball, and the reaction to the team news.

I think that Aaron Ramsey had little choice other than to keep with the same line up that had performed so well at Leicester the previous week. Maybe a little harsh on one or two of the lads that came off the bench to such good impact, but to have dropped any of the starting XI would have been unfair on the players who had done so much to put the Foxes to the sword.

There was some surprise that Luka Lunch, the Aston Villa typo, wasn’t in the squad, apparently due to fatigue rather than injury, but otherwise everyone seemed satisfied with the team news, with the slight caveat that it was highly unlikely for a similar level of performance two games running.

And so it proved. The way Burton – winners at Leicester themselves just a few short weeks earlier – set themselves up was to press high while leaving a solid bank of players in front of their penalty area, preventing Oxford from doing the same.

They were direct, if not Stevenage-style direct, and were happy to use their physicality to break up play. Arguably they should have been down to ten towards the end of the first half after Joe Lewis, already on a yellow for an earlier transgression, decided to body slam Peter Kioso. Referee William Davis, taking charge of his first League One fixture, showed leniency, which I personally felt was the right decision.

Jamie McDonnell, whose fouling was more an accruing of misdemeanours rather than a couple of poorly judged moments, can feel similarly relieved that he didn’t see red after receiving an earlier yellow for an accumulation of fouls.

That was the ugly side of the game. The bad side was, in the first half especially, an overall lack of quality on show from both sides. Misplaced passes have become the norm this season, although fortunately not leading to any serious damage (yet).

Similarly, it was noticeable that, against a more defensive opponent, United’s build-up play was laboured and the ball was retained for too long in the defensive third. Burton’s press and positioning made it difficult for Oxford to move the ball quickly and decisively, the key to the win at the King Power.

The second period started in much the same fashion. Eastwood, having made one decent stop with his feet in the first half, could only watch as the ball rolled narrowly past his left-hand post shortly after the restart. Meanwhile, the Burton forwards displayed an astonishing reluctance to shoot, instead passing the ball around the edge of United’s penalty area without any penetration.

And Oxford took full advantage. Maybe the Albion players tired early, or maybe United’s Championship experience started to tell, or maybe it was AzzerRazzer’s substitutions, or more likely a combination of all three, but the U’s started to get a foothold in the game and all of a sudden it was Burton desperately defending the edge of their box.

There were three players key to the Yellows’ turnaround: substitute Tyler Goodrham has at last started to display the sort of form that caused a lot of transfer speculation a couple of seasons back, and it was his threaded through ball for young winger Mo Missanga that opened up the Brewers’ defence.

Missanga is possibly even more of a prodigy than Tyler was, and he started his run for the pass even before Goodrham played the ball. His first touch took him past the covering defender and his cut-back was perfect for Siriki Dembélé to smash the ball into the roof of the net for his first goal in over a season.

Dembs revival has come at a great time for both him and the club. Yes, he can be frustrating, although his mazy runs into blind alleys appear to happen less this season than before, and his final decision making can leave one flustered. But when he’s at the top of his game, as he was against Burton, he can be almost unplayable. When you have Goodrham splaying pinpoint defence-splitting passes (as he also did for the fourth goal at Leicester), and wingers like Mo and Dembélé causing panic, it’s going to be only a matter of time before the side takes advantage.

It was another decisive pass from Goodrham to allow Dembélé to set up another substitute, Louie Sibley for Oxford’s second goal. A lot of left-footed players have their foot described as a wand. Sibs’ left foot is more of a jackhammer, and his early shot from the edge of the area gave goalie Corey Addai no chance – the ball was striking the side netting at the far post before Addie was even aware that Sibley had got his shot away.

Alongside Mo and Tyler, another academy graduate who has been influential with the team’s renaissance is striker Gatlin O’Donkor. His presence is enough to unsettle defences already rattled by Mark Harris’s workrate and physicality. Not afraid to get stuck in, GOD (the one and only) is often to be found smiting the opposition this season, and it was little surprise that he scored the third goal, having already hit the bar with a shot on the turn.

Again, the key pass to set Gats free came from Goodrham, following a flowing team move reminscent of prime 1970s Brazil (I accept that’s probably a bit over the top, but forgive me, I’m quite excited by what I’m seeing on the pitch at present). It was GOD’s finish, truly a divine moment, that impressed as he calmly passed the ball past Addai to add to the scoring.

While this was a more than acceptable result the analysis isn’t necessarily straightforward. Burton were a decent side (as any team in the top six is likely to be) but were suffering from a surfeit of injuries and without a recognised striker in their squad. And, unlike with the Mighty Yellows, their substitutions seemed to weaken them rather than strengthen them.

I fully expect the Brewers to be in a bit of a dogfight this season, despite their decent start. Oxford, however, are looking good in these early stages. Who knows what’s going to happen when pitches start tearing up in November and injuries to key players stretch the squad? Provided Ramsey can keep the side on a steady course and continues to get the best out of both the academy players (Goordham, O’Donkor, Missanga, Snowden, and maybe more to come) and those who were seemingly surplus to requirements last season (Kioso, Sibley, Dembélé, even Eastwood) then we should be in and around the contenders come January.

Then, it’s up to the powers that be (not including GOD) to have the will and/or the means to get the embargo lifted and strengthen in the next transfer window. A lot will be revealed about their intentions in the next three months or so. Let’s hope they’re still invested in the club.