Matt Bloomfield happy to start Oxford reign with clean sheet

Oxford’s new head coach Matt Bloomfield was pleased with his team’s first clean sheet in 16 games as they drew 0-0 with Bristol City at the Kassam Stadium.

The Us remain five points from safety in the relegation zone of the Sky Bet Championship but Bloomfield felt there were plenty of positives from his first match in charge.

He said: “I thought we were excellent. In the second half we created multiple opportunities, we had the momentum, it just felt like a matter of time before we got that goal.

“Stanley Mills had one saved, we had one cleared off the line – we came close so many times.

“Unfortunately for us, it wasn’t to be but in terms of performance, endeavour and that all-in togetherness with our supporters and the atmosphere they created when we were attacking that end, there were a lot of good bits for me.

“It was our first clean sheet in a long time, so we have to retain that and get more clean sheets to get the wins we need.

“Bristol City are a team that have been in good form, a fine Championship team, scoring goals for fun in recent games and we’ve limited them to very little.

“There wasn’t much happening first half. I took off Yunus Konak to protect him because he was on a yellow card. It was hard for him because he’d been in the building only two days and was thrown into his first Championship start but Yunus did fine – he’s a young player of huge potential.

“The training we’ve done this week has been really good and the welcome I’ve received from all the players, the staff and the supporters has been great.

“The only way you win football matches is if you’re all in it together. If we can keep putting that kind of performance out, I have full belief in what we’re going to do.”

Bristol City boss Gerhard Struber was not happy with the level of his team’s performance and felt it was a missed opportunity to bag a win.

Struber said: “The expectation was so different today but in the end we have to be super happy with a point because the performance was really bad, especially after our performance against Watford last week in the FA Cup.

“The difference in levels between this and then was too big, but of course we could see that they have a new manager and every one of their players was out of their comfort zone, and we could feel that – and we couldn’t deal with it.

“We lost so many second-ball fights, we were not good in possession or in transition – we could find no control in our game.

“When we won the ball, we then lost the ball. It was not our standard and that made me very unhappy.

“We were not strong enough, we were not right with the diagonal balls, we were too stressed in our decision-making – this was not Bristol City, and the players said in the dressing room afterwards we were rubbish. They are an honest group.

“It is the same story about inconsistency. We can’t stay on the higher level from game to game.

“At least Radek Vitek gave a good performance. He is reliable and good with his decisions and we were happy with him.

“I was also happy with how we defended our box. It’s a nil goals against, which is something to be pleased with, but our overall performance today was not the level we expect.”