Last year's Oxford United top scorer, Rob Duffy, is convinced he'll be better equipped to last the whole of the season this time.

The 24-year-old striker finished with 21 goals last term in his first full season at the club.

But the former Stevenage and Rushden player's form did dip in the second part of the campaign, when he was in and out of the team.

The Welshman, signed by Jim Smith after a successful trial spell with Oxford in the summer of 2006, admits he didn't have the stamina to last the distance in what proved a mentally as well as physically-draining 2006-7.

He said: "With this being my second full season, I'll hopefully have a bit more stamina to go the whole way.

"I felt after Christmas I fell off a bit last season, but there's no reason for that now and hopefully I can go through to the end.

"I don't know what the reason was. I'd been injured, I'd been out of the game for two years and I hadn't before done a full pre-season.

"I got a good start and by January or February I was probably feeling the effects of it all.

"Until that time, I was up front a lot on my own, because that's the way the manager had decided to play.

"And because it was my first full season, I was feeling the effects of it.

"I was in and out of the team in the second half of the season. I wasn't happy with it at the time, but looking back at it now, I probably could have done with it a bit earlier - and that would have maybe revitalised me for the final push.

"It didn't happen. I was the top scorer, was scoring regularly so I had to be playing.

"Once that stopped, it made it a bit easier for the manager to swap it around."