Justin Merritt is backing his Oxford City side to continue their run of bouncing back in style in Vanarama Conference North at Lowestoft tomorrow.

Third-placed City were on the end of a 4-1 home defeat to Solihull Moors last week, their third heavy loss of the season.

The other two occasions have seen Merritt’s team respond immediately, and he is hoping for more of the same tomorrow.

An 8-1 defeat at home to AFC Fylde was followed up by a 7-2 victory at Boston United, and after a 4-0 defeat at Guiseley, City’s next league match saw them defeat Colwyn Bay 5-3.

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“Every time we have had a knock, we have asked the players for a reaction,” Merritt said.

“And we have got the response we have been looking for.”

Merritt was particularly disappointed by last week’s display, in which his team abandoned their usual passing game to try and match Solihull’s long ball tactics.

“I can accept losing a game if you’ve done so in the right manner,” he said.

“But we succumbed to trying to compete with a team who played direct, so we have been working hard to put that right in training this week.

“We need to find a way, when our opponents adopt that style, to still play out from the back and do the things we want to do.”

He added: “Realistically though, we are a little bit ahead of where we thought we would be at this stage with a new team.

“We have scored plenty of goals which is good, but have conceded too many, so there are lots of little targets we have set in order to maintain our position.”

Alejandro-Adrian Santiago is back after recovering from a calf strain meaning City are almost at full strength – Ander Del Alamo (ankle) their only absentee.

Oxford City (v Solihull Moors, home): from Scott, Stonehouse, Pond, Lapoujade, Green, Santiago, Rodriguez, Barcelos, Mullings, Yussuf, Benjamin, Winters, Wilson, Brown, Henderson, Isaac, Hoban, Jackson, Hall.

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