Oxford United may be light on numbers but they won’t be lacking in spirit when they welcome Crystal Palace to the Kassam Stadium in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday evening (7.45pm)
Boss Karl Robinson was still in a very positive mood when he spoke to iFollow today despite having eight senior players missing for the second round game.
“It is what it is” he said. "It’s part of football. Obviously having players injured doesn’t make us any stronger but our attitude, determination and positivity won’t change.
“The players are giving everything and we have been dominating games just not taking chances or putting the ball away at vital moments, and then when the opposition go down the other end the ball goes in! You find yourselves in these moments and because it is at the start of the season it looks a lot worse.
“We have Palace tomorrow and Cheltenham on Saturday. We don’t want to go into those games with eight players out, but if we do then we are good as a club at reacting when things go against us. That’s an Oxford United trait.
“We know tomorrow will be one of the most difficult games of the season and what we have out injured is extraordinary but you can only play the cards you are dealt and you have to find a way of making it work for you.
"It may give young players an opportunity, it may give players who have been out of favour the chance to show they should be involved, but we will all look at it as an opportunity to do our best to get into the next round, and you can’t ask for more than that.”
See the full interview in iFollow now.