It's Cup Carnage As The Big Boys Are Demolished By Underdogs

ALL OVER: Oxford United’s Shandon Baptiste scores their fourth goal against West Ham and, Inset below, Tariqe Fosu celebrates scoring their third of the night

- John Lyons

OXFORD, Colchester, Burton, Sunderland and Crawley led the way as a host of shocks brought the Carabao Cup to life.

And Rochdale and Reading came within a penalty shootout of adding to the tally as the big boys were given a fright.

Oxford welcomed West Ham, fresh from their 2-0 win against Manchester United, to the Kassam Stadium, but didn’t stand on ceremony. After a goalless first half, the U’s ripped through the Hammers in the second half to record a stunning 4-0 victory.

Defender Elliott Moore fired home the opener on 55 minutes and sub Matty Taylor turned in the second on 71 minutes. Oxford added salt to West Ham’s wounds with two more goals in the closing stages – sub Tariqe Fosu, who had bagged a hat-trick in the 6-0 romp at Lincoln at the weekend, raced clear from deep to coolly net the third on 84 minutes and the impressive Shandon Baptiste put the icing on the cake with an injury-time fourth.

The Londoners can point to the fact they made nine changes to their starting line-up, but it should also be noted that U’s boss Karl Robinson made half a dozen changes of his own.

Ecstatic goalscorer Moore said: “We started off very positive and we went in at 0-0 at half-time, which I think everyone would have taken.

“But then we came out in the second half and put them under pressure, and scored four goals. It was a brilliant performance from everyone.”

Colchester, meanwhile, took the scalp of Champions League finalists Tottenham. The U’s had already knocked out Crystal Palace on penalties after a 0-0 draw in round two – and they repeated the feat against Spurs on Tuesday night.