MARK Sykes is relishing the last two weeks of the season after Oxford United hauled themselves back into the play-off picture with a 3-1 win over Plymouth Argyle.
Matty Taylor’s second-half double sent the U’s fifth in Sky Bet League One, after Niall Ennis had equalised an own goal by visiting captain Joe Edwards.
It was important United capitalised on defeats for top-six rivals Blackpool and Charlton Athletic, who each have two games in hand.
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The U’s only remaining matches are Saturday’s trip to Shrewsbury Town and the visit of Burton Albion on the final day, but Sykes would rather have points in the bag.
He said: “There’s two weeks left so there’s going to be teams playing Saturday-Tuesday – too many games.
“We’ve got a lot of rest in between, so there will be no complaints about fatigue.
“I’m sure the manager will have that drilled into us anyway.
“We’ve got every chance of getting into those play-off places, so I’d rather be us.”
The midfielder was instrumental again, providing the assist for Taylor’s first goal – four minutes after Ennis had drawn Argyle level.
Sykes had no complaints about the equaliser, with Plymouth the better side in the early stages of the second half.
The 23-year-old said: “We let ourselves down after half-time, we started quite slow.
“I think it takes them to score for us to react and when they did score we reacted well.”
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United should have been well ahead by half-time, with Sykes among those thwarted by Argyle goalkeeper Mike Cooper.
It means the midfielder is yet to get off the mark in 38 games this season.
He said: “I know I should be contributing more, but I’m just focusing on the performances and I feel like I’ve been playing well.
“If I can play that well every week and I don’t score I’d be happy.”
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