DES Buckingham has suggested he will not make wholesale changes when Oxford United begin their Carabao Cup campaign this evening.
The U’s got off to a flyer in the 2024/25 season, with a 2-0 win at home against Norwich City in their opening game of the Sky Bet Championship campaign.
Mark Harris and Cameron Brannagan netted for United, whose attention now turns to Peterborough United, prior to a trip to Coventry City in league action on Friday night. Get unlimited U’s news in biggest flash sale of year
The U’s of course overcame the Posh in last season’s League One play-off semi-finals, and head coach Buckingham wants his side to keep up the momentum from the opening weekend.
He said: “It’s come at a good time. We want to carry momentum from what was a wonderful start on Saturday, both in terms of result and performance.
“We know Peterborough have been a wonderful side for many seasons. They’ve got good players still, a very good coach, and a proven track record.
“It’ll be another test for us, and one where we want to take momentum from Saturday into.We want to progress through thi
s competition as far as we can, and this gives us our first test in that, but it also prepares the players to go again on Friday.
“That’s the grounding that we have, in terms of hard work. That’s a non-negotiable for how we want to play.”
United have signed 11 players so far this summer, meaning competition for not just a place in the starting line-up, but the wider matchday squad itself, feels significantly higher than what it was last season.
Asked about rotation going into the Posh fixture, Buckingham said: “There are a couple of players that we’ll rotate, and a couple of players that we’ll change.
“It’s a combination of trying to carry through momentum and giving players that didn’t play Saturday an opportunity to show what they can do.
“It’s about making sure we’re smart in how we rotate certain players because we want everyone available and ready to go for what will be a challenging game on Friday.
“We’ve tried to move in a way that we’ve got two good players in every position that we want to play.
“That in itself drives the internal competition. You only have to go watch one of the training sessions, and the quality level, the energy level, and competitiveness compared to four or five months ago is significantly different.”
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