KARL Robinson insists Oxford United are ‘overachieving’ as they aim to continue their excellent form this weekend.

The U’s are eight games unbeaten in Sky Bet League One, while they have lost just once since the 1-0 defeat at Cheltenham Town on September 18.

It has lifted them to sixth in the table, ahead of tomorrow’s trip to seventh-placed MK Dons.

Robinson knows United are expected to challenge for promotion after reaching the play-offs in the last two seasons and praised the way his players have responded to that.

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He said: “For us to be where we are, I just keep tipping my hat to my players.

“I don’t know what success is with this team – maybe that’s a strange comment.

“Some will demand automatic promotion, some will demand play-off success, but that’s overachieving.

“This team prides itself on overachieving, so maybe success is trying to get out of this league and that’s got to be our message.

“My players speak very calmly about what’s expected of us externally, but internally there’s a steely determination about what we want to achieve.

“I think that’s the Oxford way.

“We do all our talking on the football pitch in a way that is quite steady.”

Robinson has spoken several times about progress on and off the pitch, revealing in March that he wanted the U’s to be one of the ‘top 30 clubs in England’ in the next five years.

Last month, director and prospective owner Anindya Bakrie targeted promotion to the Sky Bet Championship in the next two seasons to match United’s ambitions of a potential stadium move.

This season’s League One table is packed with clubs who have spent much of their recent history at higher levels, including Wigan Athletic, Sunderland and Sheffield Wednesday.

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But United are well-placed for another promotion push and Robinson feels their achievements over the last two years are worth shouting about.

The U’s head coach said: “We’ve propelled ourselves into a top-eight team, at least, in a league that’s more competitive now than it’s ever been.

“I can foresee this football club going on and once we do I don’t think we’re coming back.

“The timing of that is important – training ground, stadium – when we get there we’ve got to be a team that goes again.

“When that is, I don’t know. In this industry we want everything today, maybe waiting for tomorrow sometimes is a more astute way of doing it.

“Everyone at this football club deserves a mention because we’re a club on the up.

“We’ve been in the mix for three years now and maybe we don’t give ourselves enough positive publicity for how good this team is.”