The Matt Bloomfield era so far: Two games, two clean sheets, no goals.

It’s obviously too early to judge the new manager (although plenty are already doing that) with just two games under his belt and about a similar number of days on the training pitch with the players.

There were some (faint) signs that things are different to Gary Rowett’s tenure. The side are playing a few yards further up the pitch, they’re playing more on the front foot, with a more aggressive press, and the midfield is clearly tighter than it was, preventing the opposition from carving through it at will.

However, some things will take time to change. Especially at the back, where it remains a familiar dance of Jamie Cumming passing to Ciaron Brown, who plays the ball across the penalty area to Michał Helik, back to Brown, back to Helik, back to Brown, back to Cumming, back to Helik, across to Brown, back to Helik, back to Brown, back to Cumming, punt, lose possession, regain possession with a goalkick. Rinse and repeat.

Things changed in the second half, when Helik was taken off as a precaution after feeling his hamstring and Sam Long took up the right-sided centre-back position, with substitute Brodie Spencer replacing Long at right back. This had the dual effect of preventing Long being ripped to shreds at will by Paul Smyth, and stopping the metronomic passing between the back three, with Long more prepared to get the ball to Spencer, who is a much more forward looking player.

It wasn’t all bad. Well, maybe it was in the first half, when Rangers could have gone ahead through Smyth but for an excellent stop by Cumming, but after the break Oxford were clearly prepared to be more adventurous, sensing that QPR were equally inept and there were points to be won. Indeed, but for one outstanding save by Joe Walsh and one horrendous miss by Stan Mills, United could well have come away with an elusive victory.

The Walsh save came after a Brannagan free kick was recycled into the box, with the ball falling invitingly to Long 16 yards out. His snap shot had Walsh diving to his left to palm the ball away when it looked goalbound.

The Mills miss came from a superb left-wing cross from Myles Peart-Harris, finding the United winger goalside of the defence, five yards from goal. For the second time in two games, the winger spurned the opportunity to earn the U’s all three points, this time firing over an open goal, although to be fair the ball came at him with pace and I doubt he was expecting it to reach him.

So Bloomfield starts with two points when it could easily have been six. Football is a game of such fine margins that those Mills misses might make a huge difference to United’s fortunes this season and beyond. Not that I blame him for spurning either opportunity. He was under huge pressure from a defender for the Bristol City miss and did well to get his shot away early, and you have to credit the City keeper for getting his foot to the ball.

However, given the nature of United’s predicament, the players have to start putting away these chances. QPR were marginally more threatening than the Robins, but neither were particularly dangerous and Oxford again showed that they are a match for sides in mid-table. The real test for Bloomfield will be getting points against sides that the team has struggled against this season: those in and around the danger zone.

The next three games are against sides in similar positions to Bristol City and QPR (namely Leicester City, Birmingham City and Sheffield United), before the big test comes with a visit to Coventry City. Hopefully by then Bloomfield will have had enough time on the training pitches to stamp a more adventurous style on the squad and remove those last annoying vestiges of Rowettball that still linger.

Ever the optimist, I still believe we’ll be watching Championship football next season.

Games without a penalty: 80