PAacy Oxford United forward Alfie Potter admits it’s a weight off his shoulders to have got off the mark with his goal against Northampton on Saturday.

The 21-year-old former Peterborough player has scored some famous goals in his time, notably for Havant & Water-looville against Liverpool at Anfield in the FA Cup, and the decisive third at Wembley for Oxford United against York.

That Wembley clincher in the Blue Square Premier play-off final, which sealed promotion to the Football League for the U’s, was the perfect way to finish last season.

But he had yet to get on the scoresheet this campaign, until he turned in James Constable’s cross in the fourth minute of United’s 3-1 victory against the Cobblers at the Kassam Stadium at the weekend.

“It’s about time I scored, I’m due one,” Potter said.

“Me and Beano linked up well and it fell nicely for me. It was harder to miss, really.”

It was a relief to convert the chance, Potter said, because he had spurned a good opportunity at Moss Rose seven days earlier.

Everyone in the Oxford United camp appreciated the importance of bouncing back from the shock of losing 3-2 at Macclesfield, and two defeats in a row.

“It wasn’t a good week last week,” Potter admitted. “The Macclesfield performance was well below our expectations and for everyone at the club it wasn’t good enough.

“We’ve just got to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“But against Northampton it was a lot better. They’ve got the players to be much further up in the league.

“But the subs that came on for us did well, Clisty (Simon Clist) won the penalty and Tom (Craddock) put it away to seal it.”

Josh Payne also notched his first goal of the season, with his superb free-kick, while Craddock’s penalty (regular spot-kick taker Constable was off the pitch at the time) took his tally to seven, with two having come at his former club Luton.