We look ahead to the final pre-season test for the U's
Oxford United conclude their pre-season fixtures with a friendly against Coventry City on Saturday afternoon. The match will be played at Nuneaton and gives Head Coach Michael Appleton one last chance to fine tune his line-up before the season kicks off against Crawley the following weekend. Yellow Player caught up with Michael yesterday as the squad went through their paces on a two day training camp at Bisham Abbey
“I think it’s gone quite well” Michael said. “We set out to make sure we hit all the areas we wanted to with the squad. We had a great start at the RAF base for a day and a half and then a fantastic week in Austria, and now we will top that off with three good sessions at Bisham.“
Michael comes up against an old friend in Sky Blues Boss Tony Mowbray, who he worked with at the Hawthorns earlier in his career. He is someone that Michael has a lot of respect for.
“I know Tony very well from our days at West Brom and I expect his sides to play good football and be challenging this year. I’d expect them to have a little bit more of the ball than we will on Saturday and I’d fully expect it to be tough but it’s all about continuing to progress and getting the right performance, and if we can end pre-season with another positive performance then I’ll be delighted.”
The United line-up has had a familiar look over the last week or so, but there is still time for players to force their way into Michael’s plans for the season opener at the Kassam Stadium on August 8th.
“I don’t think my team will change too much” Michael told us. “We have been quite deliberate in getting the first eleven playing minutes together, but I would also say that I have been delighted with the attitude of the players who have been knocking on the door. Some of the performances that they’ve produced in the games against Benfica and at Thame have been fantastic, so long may that continue and they keep pushing for places.
“We just want to make sure the finer details are in place but we are in a good place at the moment and we’re looking forward to Saturday.”
See the full interview plus the thoughts of Danny Rose and hear the whole game LIVE only in Yellow Player.