Oxford boss Aaron Ramsey defends team selection for FA Cup defeat to Stevenage

Oxford head coach Aaron Ramsey defended his decision to ring the changes following his side’s 1-0 FA Cup defeat to League One rivals Stevenage.

Ramsey initially changed all 10 outfield players from the midweek win over Reading, although that became nine when
Louie Sibley withdrew just before kick-off through illness.

Stevenage captain Carl Piergianni’s header in the fourth minute settled the tie, with Oxford goalkeeper Simon Eastwood making three good saves to keep the score to one.

The hosts had one good chance to equalise, but Tommy Setford brilliantly denied Gatlin O’Donkor, turning his powerful header over the bar in the second half.

Ramsey said: “It was a really proud moment for us as a club to give so many young players opportunities. Today we had a lot of academy graduates coming through and being involved.

“There were four debuts today, but they’ve trained with us the last few months and have earned that opportunity.

“The schedule has been very demanding for us too and a few players picked up knocks in what was a really intense game
against Reading. You have to rotate and use the squad and I have rotated all season.

“In the first half there was a lack of structure which meant we weren’t as consistent as we would have liked, added to the
fact that there were some players coming back from injury and some players who haven’t played for a while as well.

“In the second half we then had a positive reaction and we looked like were creating more problems and asking more
questions of them and we got into our structure a lot better.

“We had moments where we looked a lot more threatening, but it wasn’t to be. There’s plenty of learning from this game.”

Stevenage boss Alex Revell was delighted with his team’s display but felt they should have had more goals.

He said: “The most important thing for us was to get through to the next round and I was really pleased with the win, but I thought the performance from us in the first half was immense.

“In fact, we were outstanding from start to finish.

“The only negative was just that there were not more goals. In the first half we could have had three.

“In the second half we showed resilience as they came into it but still created more great chances.

“It was a top performance from us today.”