Oxford United may have had a clear week to prepare for the trip to Accrington Stanley on Saturday but boss Karl Robinson insists that the hard work has really gone up a notch after a week that saw them win 6-0 at Lincoln, beat West Ham and then beat Gillingham 3-0 to make it five clean sheets in a row.
“We are on a good run” he told iFollow “but you always want to win the next game. We have had a free week so we allowed ourselves to enjoy Saturday’s win but then from Sunday onwards I started watching Accrington and preparing; there is always work to be done.
“Accrington are a very good team and they work very hard and the opposition have to be really competitive just to match them. They are such an honest team and have players who can manipulate the ball so it is always a very difficult place to go and play.
“So we will be prepared but you have to enjoy runs like we have been on. I was told today that we have picked up 70 points from the 46 games since this week last year, so our form over the last 12 months has been play-off form. If you look at the back four recently we have kept a lot of clean sheets but I think all of the players have responded to anything that has been thrown at us and there has been a consistency about our performances.
“We have done well but you can always learn and I have been asking for more from the players and more from the staff. When you are in a moment like we have found ourselves then I think that is an ideal opportunity to try and work harder.
“So we have had a busy week and worked hard to try and go there and get another positive result at Accrington at the weekend.”
See the whole interview including Karl’s thoughts on the club’s future, plus Josh Ruffels, Matty Taylor and Slavi Spasov, all previewing the game in iFollow right now.