Oxford United 2
Rose 33, Mullins 80
Bury 1
Soares 70
Goals from Danny Rose and Johnny Mullins helped Oxford maintain their 100% start to the 2013/14 season with victory over Bury.
Rose, making his home debut in his second spell at the Kassam Stadium, scored a wonderful free-kick to put Oxford in front.
A strike from Tom Soares put Bury level before Mullins, who too was starting a second spell at the club, fired home to put Oxford top of League Two.
Bury also saw defender Nathan Cameron sent off for a second bookable offence.
Bury boss Kevin Blackwell was left reeling by some of the refereeing decisions.
“The award for the first free-kick was absolutely pathetic” said an exasperated Blackwell. “It’s hard when you work all week and see something like that. It was a nothing foul. As a manager, you want decisions to be equal. If someone gets something one way, it needs to go the other way. That’s not what happened today.”
“[Nathan] Cameron just lost his cool. It’s the frustration that builds up in players. I’m not knocking the referee for booking him twice, but there was no consistency. Cameron had elbows in his face all afternoon.”
Oxford boss Chris Wilder had a different view.
“There were a lot of fouls being committed out there. I’m not surprised somebody got sent off” said Wilder. “We took advantage of two fouls. I didn’t see a problem with either foul and I don’t think the referee got many major decisions wrong.”
The U’s made the breakthrough when Deane Smalley was impeded on the edge of the area. From the resulting free-kick, Rose floated the ball over the wall and into the bottom left hand corner.
Bury were rejuvenated in the second half and were rewarded with an equaliser. Craig Jones dribbled his way through the Oxford defence and crossed for Tom Soares who volleyed into the roof of the net.
But disaster struck for Bury with ten minutes remaining. Cameron was booked for a foul on Deane Smalley. From the resulting free kick, Johnny Mullins fired past Rob Lainton to put Oxford back in front.
Amid the celebrations, Cameron was shown a second yellow card for arguing with the referee. In the end, the man advantage proved too much as Oxford made it two wins out of two in the league.
“We couldn’t have asked for two tougher games and two better starts” said Wilder.
“We’ve made a lot of changes this summer. The players are still getting to know each other.
“Our quality wasn’t as good as the first half and they took advantage of that and deservedly got back into the game. Then we started playing, getting on the ball and came alive again. We need to have a solid home record and we’ll attract a few more punters if we keep winning at home.”
Referee: James Linington 5/10
Att: 5,774
Match rating 3/5
Star man: Danny Rose (Central Midfielder – Oxford United)
Oxford United (4-4-2) Clarke 6, Hunt 6, Mullins 7, Wright 5, Newey 6, Potter 7, Whing 6, Rose 8, Rigg 7 (Hall 90 N/A), Kitson 5 (Constable 86 N/A), Smalley 6 (Davies 90 N/A)
Subs not used: Crocombe, Raynes, Ruffels, Williams
Bury (4-4-2): Lainton 6, Beeley 6, Hinds 5, Cameron 3, Roberts 6, Soares 6 (Jackson 85 N/A), Procter 5, Holden 6, Jones 7, Rooney 6 (Sinnott 63 5), Harrad 5 (Forrester 62 5)
Subs not used: Charles-Cook, Lockwood, Sedgwick, Grimes