This is Des Buckingham's latest column written exclusively for the Oxford Mail.

It was a late night on Thursday with deadline day coming to a close, but I am delighted with the way things worked out and the hard work everyone put into this whole window will hopefully pay off.

I think people watch Sky TV at home and see the clock counting down towards the deadline but they don’t see the people still hard at work behind the scenes to make things happen.

For example, when Jay Matete joined on Thursday evening he had to drive down from Sunderland with his agent and didn’t arrive until late evening.

Inside the building, I met him, along with head of recruitment Ed Waldron and two of the recruitment team who had helped get us to that stage.

Amy Cranston, our head of medical then stayed late to conduct a thorough medical, at which point the paperwork could be completed by secretary Vanessa Gomm and Mick Brown, who has probably been involved in more transfers than most in football.

Then Jay had to meet the photographer, do interviews and meet the local media while we waited for the forms to go through.

Meanwhile, we had to sort him somewhere to stay and co-ordinate the announcement with Sunderland.

That’s a lot of people working until midnight to get things done but the main thing was the planning that had gone into it for weeks that makes it a slightly smoother end to a busy January.

Some clubs leave it late but we had done most of our business earlier in the month. Joe Bennett extended his stay, Kyle Edwards joined full time and then we added Will Goodwin, Jamie Cumming and Tyler Burey to the squad last week.

On Thursday we signed Jay and Owen Dale so that’s six or seven really strong additions, with none of our permanent players heading out.

Over the next week we will also have Billy Bodin, Will Goodwin, Josh Murphy and Sam Long in contention again and when you add all of those things up it can only give us new impetus as we head for the final third of the season.

We start to show our depth in the squad again and that draw against Portsmouth on Tuesday will hopefully be just the start of a run of positive results at the most important part of the season.

These are genuinely exciting times and what better way to kick things off than a home game against local rivals Reading.

We can’t wait, so come along, sign your hearts out, and let’s turn a good week into a great one.

Today is a game I know the fans have been looking forward to.

It’s amazing that Reading has never played at the Kassam Stadium in the league and I am sure the atmosphere will be electric, just as it was at their place back in December.

The players know what it means and understand the rivalry and they will love the noise and passion from another huge crowd.

Please, if you are coming, respect each other and make sure the passion is channelled in a good and positive way to all.

Enjoy the game.