Oxford United may be in top form but they are about to enter a new phase of their Sky Bet League 1 season, starting at Rotherham on Saturday.
That’s the view of boss Karl Robinson
“We are about to enter the proper season” he told iFollow this morning. “ The first three months, August, September and October are for manoeuvring and are the ‘pretty months’ then November, December, January are the ‘dark months’ where you roll your sleeves up and show what you are made of.
“Then February, March and April is what you have got left in your tanks and what have you really got left in there to push. So we are about to end the nice months and from now on I will leave my house in the dark and come home in the dark too. It’s a different mindset and our players have to have that switch to know that now it is going to get rough.
“On Saturday I’m up against Riche Barker who probably knows more about me than any other man in football! We worked together for four and a half years, maybe five, so he knows all of the frustrations and all of the good things we went through together. Paul Warne is one of the nicest men you will ever meet but they will have their team revved up and ready to go. So there will be two teams revved up and ready to go on Saturday. I think they have one defeat in eight, we have none in seven, so looking at the form-teams there is Ipswich and then probably us two going head to head at the weekend.
“It’s a good game for us at a good time. If anyone dares get carried away around here then there are enough people in the building ready to remind them that we still have work to do.”
See the full interview plus a much interrupted Preview Show, all in iFollow.