Justin Merritt has backed goalkeeper Mark Scott to deliver the goods, despite Oxford City's red card woes.

Scott will be between the sticks for tomorrow's home clash against Lowestoft Town in Vanarama Conference North.

City have had their goalkeeper sent off on the previous three Saturdays.

Scott saw red in last week's 5-0 win at Brackley Town, with Salva De La Cruz given his marching orders the previous two weekends.

  •  Latest Sport news

But Merritt said he doesn’t expect Scott’s dismissal last weekendto dent his confidence.

“He was obviously disappointed, but it’s just one of those things that happens in football,” said Merritt.

“Mark is coming back after quite a while out of the team and we’d planned to give him a run of three or four games and then reassess the situation.

“Obviously that can’t happen now because he’ll be suspended next week, but players have to respond to the ups and downs that come their way and we expect him to be professional about it.”

A much-changed City side were surprisingly beaten 2-1 at Evo-Stik Southern League Premier Division basement boys Banbury United in the Oxfordshire Senior Cup quarter-finals on Tuesday.

But after naming several fringe players and selecting others in unfamiliar positions, Merritt played down the significance of the result as City’s focus now shifts solely to the league and on closing the four-point gap to the play-off positions.

“Tuesday was a disappointing performance and result for the players, but it was never part of our build-up for the Lowestoft match,” he insisted.

“The application and work-rate was lacking from our players throughout.

“Credit to Banbury, because they deserved the result, but maybe that will be a lesson to some of them that no matter who the opposition are, if you don’t do the fundamentals you’ll never win games of football.”

Tuesday’s goalscorer Paulo Mendes, defender Helge Orome and striker Greg Pearson have all been released.

Darren Mullings will travel to St George’s Park next week for rehabilitation on the hip injury which has kept him out since last November.

TOMORROW’S SQUAD

Oxford City (v Lowestoft Tn, home): from Scott, Coulson, Stonehouse, Fofana, Henderson, Lapoujade, Jackson, Pond, Yussuf, Rodriguez, Benjamin, Winters, Santiago, Wilson, Barcelos, Del Alamo.

  •  Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed.