Oxford United’s hopes of being handed a good – preferably home tie – in the FA Cup first round went for a Burton yesterday.

They were drawn away to fellow League Two club Burton Albion, with the tie scheduled for the Pirelli Stadium on Saturday, November 6.

The U’s have already played at the Staffordshire club this season, drawing 0-0 at Burton in their opening match of the season.

That should give them heart that they can at least bring Paul Peschisolido’s men back to the Kassam Stadium for a replay.

Both Oxford and Burton registered excellent wins at the weekend, with the U’s 3-1 victory at home to Northampton Town lifting them to 11th in the table.

And the Brewers recorded a 3-0 win over Bradford City, who are United’s next opponents this Saturday.

The first-round draw, which was made live on ITV, was presented by Oxford United director Jim Rosenthal.

The draw put a slight dampener on what had proved a hard-fought npower League Two success over Northampton a day earlier.

And United’s assistant manager, Mickey Lewis, said the team showed good character to bounce back from last week’s defeat at Macclesfield with some excellent goals and great defending in Saturday’s win.

“All that mattered was the result,” Lewis said afterwards.

“We’ve got a young team, they’re an honest bunch and they want to learn.

“They don’t get everything right all the time, it’s a learning process for them, but they showed a really good resilience to do that.

“In the second half Northampton came at us a lot, which they’re going to do, but we’ve defended well and then got a goal on the break, which has happened to us when we’ve been in that position and pushed forward.”

Lewis said the impact the three subs had on the final result was evidence of how important it is to have a strong squad.

Mark Creighton replaced Harry Worley for the last 25 minutes, and attacking subs Matt Green and Simon Clist linked up to earn the U’s their match-clinching penalty, tucked away by Tom Craddock.

“The squad is vital, we keep stressing that to the lads,” said Lewis.

“Big Harry’s had a really good season up until now and with them just having a big powerful striker who can cause problems, perhaps it was right for Creights to come on.

“He won a few headers, which helped make a difference, and the other two boys who came on combined for the penalty, so they did well. We were well pleased.”