Michael Duberry says he will relish Saturday’s derby clash – because he hasn’t got many big occasions left as a player.

The 36-year-old admitted he knew the Oxford-Swindon rivalry was fierce, but it wasn’t until he stepped onto the pitch at the County Ground in August that he realised just how intense it was.

The U’s recorded a 2-1 victory that day, and Duberry says he and his teammates will be going all out to do the double over the npower League Two leaders.

“I love matches like this,” he said. “You can see the finishing line as a player so you love everything to do with the big games.

“You want to savour games like when we won at their place, walking up to the fans at the end and being part of history.

“These games are brilliant and you want as many big moments as possible and this is one of them.”

Duberry says although the players will try and look at it as just ‘the next match’, they know that it is far more than that.

“You can’t treat it as just another game,” he said. “There is so much going on that you can’t ignore what a huge game it is.

“But the victory there won’t decide whether we are going up or not, and the game here won’t decide whether we go up. But what it will affect is our momentum.”

He added: “When I signed, the thing people said to me was ‘you have to beat Swindon’.

“I knew it was a big game, but when you got on the pitch there, that sea of yellow and blue was amazing.

“I’m sure it’s going to be just as good on Saturday – the place will be roaring here.”

Duberry has been involved in several derby matches during his career, and says they are always special occasions.

“I played a few London derbies for Chelsea, against QPR, Arsenal and Spurs and then for Leeds I played against Man United, which is a real biggie,” he said.

“They all have their own history and niggles that make them special games.

“If you smash someone in a tackle in those games you get that extra roar; you score the winning goal then you are forever in the history books.

“I’d love to score in that match, but I love keeping clean sheets as well and stopping scoring own goals is the first port of call right now,” he laughed.