Louie Sibley reaps reward in Oxford United breakthrough

United’s 3-0 victory over Burton Albion on Saturday displayed the rebirth of several formerly forgotten U’s players.

The three goal scorers at the Kassam Stadium – Siriki Dembele, Louie Sibley and Gatlin O’Donkor – were all nowhere to be seen during the second half of last season.

The trio made a combined three appearances from January onwards.

Dembele was not named in the Yellows’ 25-man squad named by former head coach Matt Bloomfield after the January transfer window shut, whilst Sibley was shipped out on loan to Bradford City where he only managed four appearances.

Meanwhile, O’Donkor was hit with injury struggles.

But now, all three are playing and scoring in Aaron Ramsey’s new-look Oxford team.

Oxford United midfielder Louie Sibley (Image: Oxford United)

With Dembele starting all five League One games so far and O’Donkor thriving with three goals off the bench, Sibley has seen slightly less action.

The 25-year-old’s first appearance of the season came in the 2-1 win over Stevenage which preceded a nine-minute and four-minute cameo in each of the last two fixtures.

Coincidentally, those three matches are the three that Oxford have won so far this season.

The Burton-born midfielder broke through at Derby County and went on to play 173 times for the club, becoming a regular feature and important player.

After rejecting a contract offer from his boyhood team in 2024, he joined Oxford but struggled to ever make an impact.

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He was sent out on loan to Rotherham United in the second half of his first season and played only five times before his underwhelming spell at Bradford.

With the U’s currently under a temporary transfer embargo, Sibley may be the biggest beneficiary of the club’s misfortune.

With such a lack of minutes and seemingly well out of favour, it looked like the former Rams man may have to take a step down in standard wherever he ended up next.

But, under Ramsey, Sibley has had faith put into him once again and scored a peach of a goal against the Brewers.

“For me, Sibs is a really important player for us,” the Yellows head coach emphasised.

“I see every day in finishing, he’s got one hell of a left foot on him.

Louis Sibley in action for Bradford City (Image: Thomas Gadd)

“He can create a lot of power from a short back lift and seems to find the net a lot of times.

“When he had that ball on the edge of the box on his left foot, I sort of knew this was going to end up in the bottom corner.

“I’ve seen four of them go in yesterday in training.

“It was really nice for him to have that moment.

“Obviously, everybody wants to play and start games and things, but for him to come on and then have that reward for it is really encouraging for him.”