Karl Robinson hails two-goal James Henry as Oxford make point

Posted Sunday, December 09, 2018 by PA

Karl Robinson hailed leading scorer James Henry after he climbed off his sickbed to earn Oxford a precious point in a 2-2 draw at Peterborough.

Henry levelled in both halves and, but for a raised flag, would have been celebrating a hat-trick.

Oxford fell behind to Ivan Toney’s 10th-minute strike before Henry flicked in a Marcus Browne cross from an offside position.

But he refused to be denied and struck a fine 25-yard equaliser four minutes before the break.

Posh regained the advantage thanks to Siriki Dembele’s stunner with 15 minutes to go, before substitute Jason Cummings fluffed a golden chance to seal victory.

Oxford were then gifted a late equaliser from the penalty spot when Colin Daniel chopped down Gavin Whyte and Henry made no mistake to score his 10th goal of the campaign.

Robinson said: “James has scored a lot of key goals for us during my time at the club – even when we were fighting to stay up last season – and he is worth his weight in gold.

“He has been ill during the week and wasn’t in on Tuesday or Thursday. We had to give him his own room last night (Friday) and pamper him a bit as well.

“He has climbed out of his sickbed and become a real stalwart for this club. He gets a bit of criticism from me sometimes and can look like he’s not bothered, but everyone can see from how he celebrated his goals that he certainly does care.

“I think the offside goal he scored was borderline as well. Sometimes you get those decisions, sometimes you don’t.

“We’re getting players back fit after a really tough time with injuries and we’re looking such a better team.”

Posh boss Steve Evans admitted: “It’s game over if Colin doesn’t have a rush of blood.

“That’s three times this season he has given penalties away by diving in when he has no need to do that. Once is in accident, twice becomes an issue but three times is way too many.

“It would also have been game over at 3-1 had Jason not missed the sort of chance where it looked easier to score than miss.

“But we still should have seen it out from there and it’s disappointing to have to settle for another draw in a game where we have been comfortably the better side.

“We’re not getting the rewards we deserve at home and there were big factors in that.

“There were missed chances, a bad individual moment of madness to concede a penalty and an extremely poor referee who made it more of an equal game than it should have been.”