Having lost to Arsenal on Monday night Oxford United head for Highbury on Saturday when they travel to Fleetwood Town in Sky Bet League 1 (3pm)
“Everyone saw the effort and commitment we put in on Monday night” Karl Robinson told us. “I thought the whole club did itself proud and there were a lot of good things to come out of the night, not least the way we competed and stuck together as a team.
“It doesn’t matter if you are playing Arsenal or Fleetwood, you need that togetherness and I think we have seen that increasing as the season goes on.
“Now we have to do it again on Saturday. It’s not going to be easy. We used to have a horrific record against Fleetwood and people kept telling me it was a bogey team, but we have done much better in more recent games so hopefully that one has been put to bed, although it’s still a difficult place to play.”
United will be without Marcus Browne (hamstring) and Alex Gorrin (knee) but there is good news on the injury front with strikers Kyle Joseph and Sam Baldock both making good progress.
“Kyle was pushing to be back for the Arsenal game” Karl confirmed. “That came a little too soon in the end but he won’t be too far off, we hope, and Sam is out there on the training pitches as well so we are hoping both will be available soon.
“As we have seen with Josh Murphy and Yanic Wildschut, you need a little bit of patience before players get fully match sharp but we are in a decent place at the moment and we’re really looking forward to Saturday now.”