ALL THE GOALS IN GIFS: BUXTON SPRING A LEAK IN 9-GOAL TROUNCING

In a statement victory for recently-appointed coach Jon Collins, the Centaurs romped home to a 9-0 demolition of Derby Buxton 2nds at Iffley today.

The side came into the match sans prolific front-man Fred Howell due to injury; his place was taken by Edward Mole, making his first start for the Centaurs after several substitute appearances.

Mole would be the focal point of the attack all day, and soon started repaying the coaches’ faith – a knock-on in the box allowed Rowland Carter to swoop in with a diving header to make it 1-0 inside 7 minutes.

Oxford 1- 0 Buxton

A couple of minutes later, fresher Michael Feeney made it two, capitalising on a perfect touch from Rich Lloyd with a left-footed strike.

Oxford 2 – 0 Buxton

A third came at the 20-minute mark – Rowland Carter lead the breakaway, and a perfect ball through three defenders met Feeney for a carefully-placed shot past the hapless keeper.

Oxford 3 – 0 Buxton

The game settled down after this, with Oxford firmly in control – Derby Buxton were able to come up with a couple of long-range efforts, but keeper Jeremy Ogunleye was in good form, and the Centaurs entered the break firmly in control.

After a relatively slow start after half-time, the Centaurs started to produce some real magic to breathe life into an already-won game. Mole showed patience and finesse to get on top of a through ball, take it around a desperately-sprinting centre-back, and slot it past the Buxton keeper at close-range.

Oxford 4 – 0 Buxton

A few minutes later, Mole got his second; a high, looping shot from Rowland Carter completely escaped the keeer and bounced back into the penalty area, leaving Mole open to run in on the rebound at the far post.

Oxford 5 – 0 Buxton

Following that, the floodgates well and truly opened. Dan Hirons came up with the sixth – a low shot from the edge of the box was too far for the keeper to get to…

Oxford 6 – 0 Buxton

…minutes later, Dan Ginger fired from nearly 40 yards into what might as well have been an empty net…

Oxford 7 – 0 Buxton

…Tom Phelan bundled in the rebound off a free-kick from similar range for the eighth…

Oxford 8 – 0 Buxton

…and Ed Mole came up again to complete his hat-trick and finish the rout with the ninth.

Oxford 9 – 0 Buxton

Today’s win marks the third straight for the Centaurs; they’ll next be in action on University Parks next week as they take on Worcester 3rds (surprisingly, a real university, and not actually the college team).