A dramatic late winner from Ciaron Brown gave Oxford United a Boxing Day win against Cambridge and kept them well in the chase for promotion as the season reached half way.
For Boss Des Buckingham the win went some way to easing the pain of being on the end of last second heartache in their previous game at Northampton and he was quick to pay tribute both to the character of the players and the support of a sold out crowd at the Kassam Stadium.
“It was cruel at Northampton and the feeling was like being kicked in the gut” he told iFollow."More so because of the timing of conceding the goal. But that’s football isn’t it and the pleasing thing was to see the reaction today
“In the first half, we were slow to get going but the second half, that's more us and that's where we need to be and how we have to start against Derby on Friday
“We started slowly and sluggish today. We we still played OK but we needed to be far quicker with the ball and a lot sharper. The pleasing thing was we spoke about it at half time and the players responded from the moment we kicked off in the second half
“We had seven players out today and you need character and you need a squad that's going to help get you through tough moments. And these are tough moments for us in terms of squad selection with four games in 10 days. But we came through it and we're in a strong position to go in to the second half of the season because players will come back and we can hopefully strengthen as well
“You also need the crowd behind you in tough times and we couldn't have fitted any more in today. Every home seat was sold in the stadium and I thought they were exceptional. We know we need to give them something to respond to as well. That's why I'm pleased with the second half. First half we could sense the frustration, but again, it's about us trying to remain calm and stick to what we wanted to do and then second half we used that emotion of the crowd and used the support.
“After the first goal they were willing us on and almost sucking the ball in to the goal. It took until the 94th and Ciaron's winner to give us a much better feeling leaving this game than the last.
“We want to bring people to the stadium to enjoy what they see on the field so let’s see if we can start against Derby the way we started the second half and play like that throughout the 90 minutes. I think the 10,000 people that were here today will certainly want to come and watch that.
“Derby are another tough team and they'll be up and around it at the end of the year, but we'll make sure we're as prepared as we can be to try and put on the same type of performance as we put on in that second half.”
See the full interview plus extended highlights, all in iFollow right now