WE have already covered plenty of miles this season, but today we make the relatively short trip to Bristol Rovers.

I am sure the Yellow Army will be there in numbers to back us.

We do appreciate that it’s the last Bank Holiday of the summer and there are plenty of other things going on, so we are especially grateful to everyone who follows us to the Memorial Stadium today.

We go there on the back of two disappointing defeats this week.

READ MORE: Ben Woodburn looking forward to 'feisty' clash

Blackpool was a really dominant performance – I don’t think I have ever seen such a one-sided second half!

We did everything but score so I couldn’t be too harsh with the players, and I then accepted the responsibility for Tuesday night’s defeat at home to Burton.

In a league of such fine margins, you have to get every decision spot on – but I should never have made the double substitution I made.

We lost our shape and lost the game and I was left kicking myself.

Now we have to make sure the last two matches are just a bump in the road.

This is an extraordinary group of people and if anyone has a copy of the Oxford Mail from last week laying around, then dig it out and you will see that after we got off to such a good start to the season I was still pretty level-headed and reminding people not to get carried away.

The same rules apply this week – believe in what we are building, keep your eyes on the bigger picture and don’t let one or two results derail what has still been a very positive first month.

Obviously plenty of focus has been on Matty Taylor signing this week.

But quietly in the background we had some more good news with Shandon Baptiste playing a game for the first time in eight months.

Shandon was part of our under 23 side at Bournemouth on Tuesday afternoon and did really well.

He will start coming in to our plans over the next couple of weeks.

With Dan Agyei also pushing for a place we have two very talented young players ready to start pushing those in possession of the starting places right now.

It will give me a headache in terms of selection, but what a headache to have!

That’s a part of management I enjoy and I hope the competition spurs the players on to a good win this afternoon.

AS you know, I like to connect the club and the county.

This week we introduced the players to that fine Oxfordshire sport of aunt sally.

The Golden Balls pub in Littlemore lent us all the equipment and everyone, from staff to first team and then the youth team, had a go.

It’s a lot harder than it looks!

I managed to knock a couple of dolls off, but there were plenty of players who looked way out of their comfort zone.

One or two were downright dangerous!

It was just a bit of fun and you could hear the laughter all the way through the building so it did its job.

May morning, fantastic museums, and a sport all of your own with leagues and reports in the local paper?

There are so many things I am finding out about Oxford.

What else have you got for me?