Oxford United midfielder reunited with shirt after club appeals on social media

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Oxford United midfielder Shandon Baptiste was reunited with the shirt in which he scored his first professional goal after the club put out an appeal on social media.

Scoring your first goal in professional football is special for any player, but when Oxford United’s 20-year-old midfielder Baptiste bagged his first goal on Tuesday night in the Carabao Cup second round away at Newport, he couldn’t have foreseen what would happen next.

At the final whistle of Oxford’s 3-0 win, the player, encouraged by his manager Karl Robinson, threw his shirt into the away crowd to thank the 282 hardy souls that had travelled to South Wales to support their team.

After the game the player obviously regretted giving away the shirt he was wearing when he scored his first ever goal at a professional level, and the club started a campaign on Twitter to get it back.

Oxford have struggled at the start of the season, losing their opening four league matches before beating Burton Albion 3-1 last weekend.

The match against Newport, who were unbeaten at Rodney Parade this season before the arrival of Oxford, was always going to be tough but two goals inside the opening four minutes settled any nerves the League One outfit may have had, and in the end they went on to win the game comfortably.

Baptiste, an academy player who signed for Oxford from Reading, has featured a couple of times this season but he had an excellent game and scored with a thumping 20-yard effort after just four minutes.

Speaking to the club’s iFollow after the game Baptiste said of his goal:

“Yeah it was a good goal, a great feeling.

“They told me before the game to drive forward at their defence and that’s the first thing in my mind and that’s what I did. I’m just happy it went in.”

At the end of the game the Oxford players went to thank the fans for their support and Baptiste gave his shirt to one of the supporters who later gifted it to their child.

Oxford put out an appeal on social media after the player realised that he wanted the shirt back, offering to replace it with a signed one as compensation.

Happily, the club reported their efforts to recover the garment for the player were successful and that all parties were happy.

The draw for the next round takes place on Thursday and Baptiste is hoping for a big club.

He added: “Hopefully Man United or Man City. Anyone who’s in the Prem. It would be good either home or away.”

Oxford travel to high-flying Sunderland this Saturday as they try to get back-to-back wins in the league for the first time since April when they beat Southend and Rochdale.

Twitter reacts to the Baptiste’s shirt problems

Although many Oxford fans were sympathetic towards the Oxford player, equally there were many who thought he should have realised he wanted to keep his shirt before throwing it into the away end.

The post Oxford United midfielder reunited with shirt after club appeals on social media appeared first on Squawka News.



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