This is Des Buckingham's latest column written exclusively for the Oxford Mail.
I hope those of you travelling up to Carlisle today make the long journey in good spirits and come back smiling after a positive performance as we restart the league season.
We have won three of our last five league games and we will hopefully have a more familiar look today after our FA Cup and EFL cup games.
The league is our priority and we are in a good position as we start to welcome back some players and continue to get stronger throughout January.
We will have one or two new faces in the team today.
Jamie Cumming is a very good goalkeeper who was already on the recruitment team’s list, it also helps that our excellent goalkeeping coach Lewis Price had worked with Jamie at MK Dons.
As soon as the possibility of James Beadle returning to Brighton came up we all knew that Jamie was our number one target for that position and that relationship between player and coach will allow Jamie to settle very quickly into our group.
We are delighted to have him in the building and he is joined by Tyler Burey, an exciting winger who comes back to this country from Denmark but who made his name as a youngster at Millwall.
Tyler is quick and direct and that will stretch defences. Both players trained over the last couple of days and will be involved this afternoon.
Greg Leigh is available again for today's game and with Sam Long, Stephan Negru and Josh Murphy looking good this week we are getting players back at a key time in the season, two of those three are looking like they will be part of the squad against Northampton in our next home game.
Whether they are new signings or players who have been here for years, they all know what our goal is this season.
There are 21 league games remaining and we are all working towards being as successful as possible over this time.
It was a busy Christmas period and after five months of the season, we will continue to work hard to ensure we continue to move forward between now and May.
We look to start this second half of the season today, away at Carlisle and with the full support of our fans will do everything possible to return to the Kassam next week with the win.
I just want to pass on my best wishes to Peter Rhoades-Brown who marks 40 years with the club this weekend.
He has represented Oxford United since before I was born and as well as being a very good player (he tells me) I know he was a very good coach because he coached me as a kid!
It’s remarkable to think that he has now been associated with our football club for four decades.
That doesn’t happen too often in any industry, let alone in football, and I hope he marks the occasion with a quiet glass of something nice and a win for the club he has served so well.
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