Leif Davis scored his first career goal to equalise Yanic Wildschut’s opener for Oxford to leave the scoreline 1-1 between the Blues and U’s at the Kassam Stadium at half-time.
George Hirst was handed his full Town debut, while the three other January signings Harry Clarke, Nathan Broadhead and Massimo Luongo were all among the subs.
Hirst came in as the central striker with Freddie Ladapo dropping to the bench with the rest of the XI unchanged from last week’s 1-1 draw with leaders Plymouth.
Sone Aluko was back on a much-changed bench with Kane Vincent-Young, Cameron Humphreys, Richard Keogh and Kyle Edwards dropping out of last week’s 18. George Edmundson, Greg Leigh and Gassan Ahadme also missed out on a place in the matchday squad.
In cold conditions and a thickening fog, Blues keeper Christian Walton was first called into action in the fifth minute when he rushed off his line to clear a Sam Long ball down the middle for Wildschut to chase.
The home side were having the better of the early stages and in the seventh minute, the Blues initially failed to clear their lines with the ball flashing across their area before it was looped back in from the right and Walton claimed under his bar at the far post.
Despite still not having got going, the Blues forced the game’s first real save in the 12th minute. A cleverly-worked corner on the left was played to Lee Evans on the edge of the box from where the Welshman struck a low drive but straight at Oxford keeper Simon Eastwood’s chest and the loose ball was cleared.
In the 17th minute, Conor Chaplin won the ball midway inside the Oxford half and brought it forward to the edge of the area before playing a pass into the path of Hirst’s run, however, Long had read it and got in front of the Blues striker.
Oxford were continuing to have the better of it with Town unable to break out of their own half, giving the ball away too easily, but while preventing the U’s from creating a clear-cut chance.
However, on 24, the Blues went very close to going in front. Wes Burns was sent away on the right and exchanged passes with Sam Morsy as he looked to get in behind his defender. The ball ran loose to Marcus Harness, who struck a snap shot which flew only just over Eastwood’s cross bar. It was a decent chance and one the former Pompey man will feel he should have taken.
With the fog getting ever denser, the white ball was swapped for a luminous one, then in the 28th minute Cameron Burgess flicked a header into Eastwood’s arms from a Morsy cross following a Town corner.
The Blues were getting on top and a minute later they should have scored. Chaplin played a great ball into the path of Burns on the right and the Wales international took it on into the box and burst between two defenders before hitting a shot which beat the advancing Eastwood but scuffed the top of the bar on its way over.
Like Harness, Burns will feel he should have scored, while Hirst made no secret of the fact that he’d liked the ball cut across to him on the edge of the six-yard box.
Town threatened again on 33, Davis crossing from the left and Chaplin flicking a header goalwards.
The Blues had got on top and had started to take control but a minute later, the U’s took the lead.
Wildschut somehow managed to battle his way through challenges by Donacien and Luke Woolfenden on the edge of the area, took the ball on into the box and past Burgess before slipping it past Walton.
But the Oxford lead wouldn’t last long. Four minutes later, Harness wafted a ball from the edge of the area on the right to the far post where Davis nodded his first senior goal across Eastwood and into the corner of the net. The left-back, who said recently that once he scored his first goal more would follow, was mobbed by his teammates.
Billy Bodin curled a free-kick over for the U’s on 43 with the Blues ending the half on the front foot, Hirst just failing to find Burns with a pass into his path down the right.
The scoreline wasn’t an unfair reflection of a half in which Town had badly struggled to get going and had never been at their best.
However, they had got on top prior to Oxford’s goal and had had two very good chances to go in front which Harness and Burns would have been rueing when Wildschut was allowed to break into the area and score.
Harness went some way to making amends for his miss by creating Davis’s goal, which the full-back took like a player accustomed to nodding in equalisers at the far post.
Oxford: Eastwood, Long, Moore (c), Brown, Fleming, Bate, McGuane, Brannagan, Anderson, Wildschut, Bodin. Subs: Plumley, Negru, Findlay, Goodrham, Joseph, Taylor, O’Donkor.
Town: Walton, Donacien, Woolfenden, Burgess, Burns, Morsy (C), Evans, Davis, Chaplin, Harness, Hirst. Subs: Hladky, Clarke, Luongo, Aluko, Jackson, Broadhead, Ladapo. Referee: Bobby Madden (Cumbria).