NANA Owusu made a goalscoring return to help Oxford City climb to fifth in Vanarama National League South with a 2-1 win at Braintree Town.

The striker missed Saturday's draw with Welling United through suspension for breaking Covid rules, but netted the equaliser before Lewis Coyle bagged the visitors' winner.

City boss David Oldfield named Owusu and Jacob Bancroft on the bench after they were omitted from the weekend's squad for failing to wear a mask at a service station.

New signing Sam Cartwright made his debut in defence, while in a last-minute change to the line-up Owusu replaced Pablo Martinez.

Josh Ashby almost opened the scoring when he hit the bar from an early free-kick, but the hosts took the lead when Correy Davidson struck after 11 minutes.

As the half-hour mark passed City were still behind, but they turned the tables before the break.

First Owusu tapped in from six yards out following great work from James Roberts, before Coyle found the target from the edge of the penalty area nine minutes later.

Both sides went close in the second half, but City held on to cement their position in the play-offs.