Oxford United look to make their Christmas Extravaganza a day to remember on Saturday when we welcome Burton Albion to the Kassam Stadium (3pm).
There are festive activities including reindeer, Christmas Carols, half-time Karaoke and a Christmas Market at the ground in the build up to kick-off, and as Head Coach Des Buckingham told us today, the players will then be looking to send their fans into the Christmas period with a win as they take on the Brewers.
“It’s great to see the Christmas activities happening,” he said. “It’s a great time for families to get together and go watch the football. We have a responsibility to put on a performance and entertain people, but it’s important to make the day feel special even before kick off. I know there is a teddy bear collection for Helen & Douglas House, and my family have given me five or six to donate. It’s set up to be a good day and the important thing for me is that we put on a performance that then makes people want to come back and see us again.
“We have had a lot of away games and whoever we were playing on Saturday we would still be looking forward to playing in front of our own fans.
“We took 3,000 to Reading and they were loud and supported us extremely well. We look forward to seeing them again on Saturday and we are hoping to give them something to get excited about during the game but also send them home with a positive result to talk about as well. It’s been three weeks now and it’s time to make an impact. We have started that process and will continue to work on things that will put us in an even stronger position”.
There was potential good news for the U’s from the treatement room, with Portuguese playmaker Ruben Rodrigues close to a return after an ankle injury saw him miss the midweek trip to Reading.
“Ruben just took a knock in the Peterborough game,” Des said. “He has responded pretty well and trained today. We just need to see if there is a reaction tomorrow. Hopefully he is in contention on Saturday. Billy Bodin didn’t start on Tuesday either, he also has a slight knock that we are having to manage, and Joe Bennett is getting closer all the time; he hadn’t trained for a few months, so we are working to build him up and he is close to being available to start a game.”
See the full interview in iFollow.
Find out more about the Christmas Extravaganza and how to join the fun right here:
