We’re looking forward to today and a chance to play in front of another big crowd when we welcome Ipswich Town to the Kassam Stadium.
We only played them away on Boxing Day so we know they are a good team, but we also know we will be a lot better ourselves today and it’s a game we are really looking forward to.
After the spectacle and atmosphere against Arsenal in our last home game, you couldn’t really have had a more contrasting match than our trip to Fleetwood last Saturday.
It was freezing cold, the rain was slanting in to the dugout almost horizontally and most of the crowd were trying to find shelter from the elements!
“It’s that weird time of the window where everyone has that little rush at the beginning, then there’s a lull and a rush at the end.”
— Oxford Mail OUFC (@OxfordMailOUFC) January 20, 2023
Karl Robinson is expecting a quiet spell in the transfer window before some late activity at #oufc https://t.co/jGyx7GF0SJ pic.twitter.com/34u8Ruvygu
Luckily our players are strong characters and even in those most testing conditions, we found a way to win.
Okay, it wasn’t the prettiest game of football but you can’t always play the way you want to.
Sometimes you just look for a bit of grit and character, and on Saturday I thought we did that all over the pitch.
The two goalscorers deserve special mentions.
Kyle Joseph has been a big miss for us over the last eight weeks but he came on and within sixty seconds had got us level.
He basically ran through people to get his goal, and his energy and persistence will be most welcome in the second half of the season.
Ciaron Brown then scored the winner at the end of such a difficult week for him. To do that on his birthday was great to see.
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The win left us in 13th, or as somebody said ‘top of the bottom half’!
I think we have been making steady progress and had we converted a few draws into wins before Christmas, then we would be right on the heels of the play-off chasing teams.
The gap is slowly closing and we have now started to find a little bit of consistency.
We have players back from injury and I can only repeat what I have been saying: if teams write us off then great.
We know what we want to achieve, and we still believe we can do it.
Away from the pitch there is a very big week ahead with a key decision on the future of the whole club when the council meets to discuss our proposals for a new stadium.
The way we have worked on this project for the past year has been incredible and so many people have put in so much hard work.
All I can do is repeat what we have said all along: Oxford United need a new home.
Oxford, the whole of Oxfordshire, should have a stadium that serves the whole community and that everyone is proud of.
If you read this and can help get that message across then please do so this weekend.
I loved the banner that the fans showed against Arsenal: Support our Stadium.
A big game for the team today, a big week for the whole club.
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