Aaron Ramsey happy to credit his players after first win as Oxford boss

Aaron Ramsey was happy to put the praise on his players after picking up his first victory as Oxford boss, winning 2-1 away to Stevenage.

The former Arsenal man made a double change in the 65th minute, bringing on Stanley Mills and Gatlin O’Donkor, and the pair combined two minutes later to put the U’s in front.

O’Donkor got that goal and was then brought down three minutes from time, Cameron Brannagan slotting home the penalty to leave Jordan Roberts’ strike with almost the last kick of the game a mere consolation.

“It’s not about me at all,” said Ramsey about that influential double change. “It was the players and you could sense it was coming. I felt like we had control in the second half and we were causing them a few problems.

“We know how difficult a place this is to come. It’s a test, they only conceded 12 goals at home last season, but we stood up to that, particularly in the first half.

“We knew we were going to have to be on it from an out of possession point of view and I thought we were brilliant. We defended the box superbly, our distances were brilliant and that gave us the platform to take the game to them in the second half.

“We were in control of the game then.”

And there was praise for the scorer of the first too.

Ramsey said: “I’ve been super impressed with (O’Donkor) in pre-season and going into the season.

“Again, he’s come on to the pitch and made a massive impact, scoring the first and getting the penalty.

“He’s a real threat and we’re delighted to have him here.”

The late consolation from Roberts aside, it was a frustrating afternoon for his opposite number Alex Revell, with Stevenage still searching for their first win of the new term after the high of reaching the play-offs last season.

He said: “I thought we played some really good stuff at times in that first hour, we were strong, well-organised and we moved the ball well.

“There was an intensity and a purpose about us and then, as soon as they scored, the performance became a bit desperate. We were desperately trying to score and playing too many balls long.

“It became a bit one-dimensional, and that comes down to the desperation of wanting to replicate what we achieved last year.

“I can feel there’s a frustration and an expectation, and there absolutely should be because of what we did.

“But we’ve just got to manage that a little bit because when we went 1-0 down, I saw that desperation, and that’s not us.”