Bristol City’s unbeaten start to the Championship season came to an end against Gary Rowett’s Oxford United at Ashton GateGary Rowett and Oxford picked up their first league win of the season against Bristol City(Image: Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)

Oxford United boss Gary Rowett has praised the Bristol City crowd for creating a “really nice momentum” after Anis Mehmeti’s second-half goal, with the U’s head coach admitting the Albanian’s strike created “an uncomfortable moment” for his side at Ashton Gate.

Rowett’s team ended the Robins’ unbeaten start to the Championship campaign and secured their first three points of the season as they ran out 3-1 winners in BS3 on Sunday afternoon. First half strikes from Nik Prelec and Prezemyslaw Placheta had the U’s two goals to the good at the break before Gregory Leigh put the result beyond doubt in the 90th minute.

Though in the end Oxford were deserving winners, they found themselves under pressure when, early in the second half, Mehmeti rifled in his fourth goal of the season, via the underside of the crossbar from outside of the penalty area.

READ MORE: Gerhard Struber shares Max Bird latest after midfielder absent from Bristol City’s Oxford loss

OPINION

The Albanian’s impressive strike lifted the home support inside BS3 and started a spell of City pressure, with Adam Randell coming the closest to a leveller. While Gerhard Struber’s side were unable to make their dominance in that moment count, Rowett was pleased with the way in which his players dealt with everything thrown their way.

“We obviously had to ride a sort of uncomfortable moment,” the U’s boss explained post-match. “But you’re going to get 10, 15 minutes of that second half at some point where they score the goal, and it’s a great goal.

“But I thought first half, we were outstanding. We’ve obviously started the season poorly, but I think we’ve built on. Second half against Coventry, we were outstanding against a good side; first half against Leicester, we were outstanding against Leicester, even 11 versus 11, and I think we’ve taken that into today.

“We’ve shown a little bit more confidence, created some really good moments, and had to ride a few moments defensively. I just felt we gave them one or two moments too easily, but we managed to get blocks in and whatnot.

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“I’d have been quite happy with 1-0 at half-time, but I felt we probably had some big moments to go and score another. You go in at 2-0 and it’s a nice little buffer, isn’t it? It just gives you that little bit of breathing space.

“I’ve played here, I’ve managed teams here that have been ahead and then we’ve been pegged back and get goals, and it seems they create a really nice momentum, the fans,” Rowett continued. “Like I said, it was an uncomfortable moment for us for about 10 minutes.

“We managed to just about defend those actions, and I don’t think they had too many clear-cut chances. I think they had a lot of territory and a lot of balls wide, coming into the box, but they didn’t create a lot from it.”

Although Oxford were able to ask a fair few questions of City in open play, all three of their goals on Sunday afternoon came directly from, or shortly after, set-pieces.

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Prelec’s opener was a header from a free-kick, Placheta’s superb strike was from the second phase of a corner, and Leigh’s late header came from another Brian De Keersmaecker dead-ball cross.

Naturally, Struber was left frustrated post-match by the way in which his side had dealt with the U’s’ corners, free-kicks, and long throws. Rowett, on the other hand, was happy to see his players back to their best in such situations.

“I thought we looked very dangerous today,” he said on his side’s threat from set-pieces. “I thought we were absolutely outstanding from set-pieces last year.

“The guys do a lot of good work; Pricey does a lot of the set-piece work, and I leave that sort of down to him. I would say, we were back to that dangerous good delivery, consistent delivery, getting our heads onto things, and attacking things.”

OPINION

READ MORE: Gerhard Struber shares Rob Atkinson update as Bristol City’s unbeaten start ends against Oxford