United lost their first home pre-season friendly of the summer this afternoon, as Third Division Chesterfield proved too strong for the Yellows. The 3-1 scoreline was a fair reflection of the level of play, but Oxford will be disappointed that all three of the Spireites’ goals were soft ones to concede.

The visitors took the lead as early as the 6th minute, when Caleb Folan dispossessed Barry Quinn as the Irishman tried to shepherd the ball back to Chris Tardif. Folan took the ball past Tardif before slotting it into the empty net. However, Oxford didn’t panic, and played some good passing football to ensure they stayed in the game. This paid dividends just before the half hour, when Andy Burgess set Gavin Johnson free. The bald wing-back’s pin point cross found Rob Duffy who had no problems shooting home from the six-yard box for his first goal for United.

Parity only lasted ten minutes, though, as slack defending from the Us allowed Chesterfield to regain the lead. Alan O’Hare was somehow allowed to reach a hopeful cross and, despite being some distance out, his fairly tame header drifted past Tardif and into the goal, off the post. New signing from Portsmouth, Matt Day, who only signed this morning, will have to hold his hands up for this one.

Surprisingly, Jim Smith made no changes to the line-up at half-time. Two minutes into the second half, though, Burgess appeared to pull up with an injury, and he was replaced by Yemi Odubade. Although this gave United some much-needed pace up front, it also denied them of their most creative player, and the second half was half an hour old before Oxford had their first shot on goal in the period: a long-range effort from Dempster that failed to trouble Michael Jordan.

With 20 minutes left United found themselves 3-1 down when a routine corner was headed home from on the line by Aaron Downes. Tardif should probably have come to claim the ball, but Dempster should have been marking Downes, who had a free header.

Smith should have learned a lot from this game, and he will have some cause for concern at the manner of the goals conceded. Although as a unit the defence looked strong, they did suffer from a lack of pace, noticeable in the second half when Reuben Wiggins-Thomas especially caused Johnson some difficult moments. Additionally, the midfield looked bereft of creativity, and although Dempster had a better game than he did last Wednesday at Eastleigh, neither he nor Chris Hargreaves looked comfortable going forward. Hargreaves had a poor game, and his distribution let him down too often. Eddie Odhiambo-Anaclet didn’t make such a good impression going forward as he had in the previous two friendlies, but defensively he looked a lot stronger. Duffy had his best game so far for Oxford, but it was clear that he isn’t the prolific striker that the side needs, while unfortunately Yemi failed to make the impact that he had in the other two games.

There is still some way to go before the season starts in a fortnight, and it wasn’t all negative by any means today. However, with the only two remaining first-team friendlies both against Premiership opposition, Smith and the players will need to work hard in training to iron out the glitches that were evident today.