Monday, 7 October 2013

Oxford United 0 Southend United 2

Conor Clifford is determined to keep scoring - if only to keep his old man out of the poor house.

Midfielder Clifford celebrated his 22nd birthday last week by opening his Southend account  with a long range strike in the fourteenth minute and then joked:

"Dad usually puts a few quid on me to score. It's about time I did - I must've cost him a fortune over the years."
Conor Clifford's opener

And former Chelsea youth team skipper Clifford believes boss Phil Brown's ability to mix fun and hard work will pay dividends. He revealed:

"He will join in if we're playing table tennis and beats us all at pool. In fact he's so good at pool he must have a table to practice on at home. He's not aloof like some managers, but you still know who's in charge. You can tell he's managed at the top level."

Central defender Luke Prosser, 25, nodded in Kevin Hurst's free kick on the half hour before making a beeline for first team coach Graham Coughlan and explained:

"That's the first goal we've scored from a set piece. It's been a long time coming and Graham's put in a lot of hard work so if was right to celebrate with him."
Luke Prosser seals the win

Brown was delighted with his team's first win in seven games and said:

"It's long overdue. People get scared of 2-0 score lines, but I'd rather be 2-0 up then 2-0 down! We're after consistency now and we need to compound this with a win on Tuesday night and then another in the league against Burton next weekend."

"We matched them in every department. It was a good day at the office.

"You have to win your individual battles and that’s exactly what we did. We scored two good goals and kept a clean sheet."

Oxford were jeered by their fans at the final whistle and manager Chris Wilder admitted:

"It was individual errors that cost us. Southend didn't really have to work that hard for their goals. It's so disappointing to give away daft goals, like we have done. Both goals gave them a massive lift. The second one was a great ball in, but we defended it badly. It's a tight competition though and there are no mug sides."

No comments:

Post a Comment