Oxford United player redemption will continue to haunt Cardiff City given current frustrations: View
Mark Harris is currently enjoying the form of his life for Oxford United in the Championship, having emerged as a talismanic figure at the Kassam Stadium following his arrival last summer.
The Welsh forward joined Oxford after being released by Cardiff City and provided the requisite goalscoring form to help propel his side back to the Championship.
He scored 19 times across all competitions as Des Buckingham’s men achieved promotion via the League One play-offs.
His potency in front of goal has promptly translated to the second-tier, which will prove crucial to Oxford’s ambitions of achieving survival while encouraging a source of frustration back in the capital of Wales.
Mark Harris’ Championship form for Oxford United
Oxford have faced natural trials and tribulations upon their long-awaited return to the division and their opening encounters have provided a variation of circumstance.
Harris’ strong showings though, remain a premium constant for the newly-promoted outfit after scoring against Norwich City, Coventry City and Blackburn Rovers.
Indeed, he has scored three times in as many outings and his strike against Blackburn on Saturday afternoon is the pick of the bunch. Though Oxford eventually ended up losing 2-1 at Ewood Park, Harris handed the visitors a short-lived lead when he opened his body up to receive a chested-down pass from Matthew Phillips before unleashing a venomous first-time volley from more than thirty yards out, leaving Aynsley Pears helpless between the sticks en-route to finding the top-right corner of the goal.
His strike over the weekend will take some beating and it may well go down as one of the division’s goals of the season. It is certainly the finest Harris has scored throughout his career, which was marked by inconsistency at the Cardiff City Stadium before going into lift-off last year.
The five-cap Wales international is ascending to fresh heights by tallying such rich form in the Championship and that will only serve as a slither of frustration – while posing a series of much-needed questions – for Oxford’s divisional rivals in Cardiff.
Mark Harris’ Oxford United form will frustrate Cardiff City
Cardiff allowed Harris to leave on a free transfer just over twelve months ago now, and it goes without saying that they could not have possibly envisaged his success in Oxfordshire. It can be easy, and often biased towards recency, to undertake genuine revisionism over such scenarios and Cardiff’s decision to part ways with Harris was undoubtedly vindicated at the time.
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