DES Buckingham says Oxford United will try and play their own game when they welcome a vastly experienced West Bromwich Albion side this afternoon.
The U’s are unbeaten at home this season, with three wins and a draw in Sky Bet Championship, plus the first round Carabao Cup victory against Peterborough United.
Buckingham’s team host a Baggies outfit sitting inside the top six, and boasting an array of experienced players.
The likes of Kyle Bartley, Darnell Furlong and Mason Holgate in the Albion defence represent the experience levels in the Baggies dressing room, while further forward, there are two obvious threats.
Josh Maja is the equal top scorer in the Championship so far this season, with seven goals to his name, while England Under-21 international winger Tom Fellows has recorded five assists, more than anyone else in the division.
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United head coach Buckingham said: “They’re a really good team, as we’ve seen with Burnley. They’re a team that I’m sure will be expecting to go up and get back out of this league.
“They’ve got a good coach and good players, but we’ve already shown at home, regardless of who comes, we’ll do as much as we can to try and play our game in front of our own fans.
“What type of game that turns out to be, we’ll see on Saturday, but I think we’ve shown already we can be confident going into the game and we’ll try to put the best account of ourselves across.”
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Asked about the experience that Albion will bring to Grenoble Road later this afternoon, Buckingham responded: “We say it every week. Some teams will be better stacked than others, but every team in this league has already shown the quality in their level.
“People who have come to whatever game that may be, certainly the home ones, will have seen a massive jump in the quality of the game, but that’s exciting for us.
“We’ve said we want to attack that head on, and we want to challenge ourselves, and we can do that again on Saturday, and put ourselves in the best spot possible.”
Buckingham also highlighted how well-balanced a side Baggies head coach Carlos Corberan has built, having guided the club to the play-off semi-finals last season, where they were beaten by Southampton.
“They’re a very well-balanced side is probably the best expression of that,” said Buckingham.
“They’re very well coached and clear on what they do, but we’ll have our own game plan to try and stifle as much as that as we can, whilst also trying to play our game.”
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