Manager Karl Robinson was quick to praise the amazing support that his team got as they beat Lincoln City 1-0 on Boxing Day.
For the fourth time n five home games the U’s had over 10,000 people at the Kassam Stadium to roar them on and Karl told iFollow:
“I want to say thank you for that support. To get over 34,000 fans to the last three games and to hit those numbers at this time of year when we know how hard it is, that’s an amazing achievement from the fans. We are in a wonderful position but we have a long way to go so we are going to need them.
“It has been a fantastic start to Christmas. Credit to Lincoln. I always knew that when we played them away our finishing was brilliant. Our end of season ‘Goal of the Season’ vote is just going to be goals against them!
“We were way off it today. I can say now what I wouldn’t have said if we lost: five of the players have been ill or had knocks. People will say you have others available but we want to keep the stability if we can. The last 48 hours have been hard and I probably would have taken a point, weirdly. Tariqe, James Henry, Cadds, Cameron, Jamie Mackie: they have all been struggling and before the game it was like a chemist's in there!
“We rode our luck at the end but I don’t think they had a chance before the Akinde header and then the second cross that came in. When you are bad, deny opportunities for the other team to score. I thought we did that really well and stopped them at their source earlier than most teams would have. I said to the players afterwards that talent is not enough without hard work, but when you add hard work on top of your talent then you deserve the luck that you get.
“We rode our luck in the last minute but we also created four or five good chances in the first half and I don’t overly remember a shot on target against us so we were strong in possession. Shandon got Man of the Match for his goal but I thought John Mousinho was the best player on the pitch today.
“Teams will frustrate us and come and sit deep here but we can reinforce in January and if we can keep the players we have got and add reinforcements then I believe we can go again. We have two hard away games now but we go there in good spirits so let’s see if we can keep this run going.”
See the full interview plus extended highlights in iFollow