PREVIEW Karl Prepares For Pompey

Oxford United will wait on the appeal over Matty Taylor’s red card before they finalise plans for Portsmouth tomorrow night.

Taylor’s red card against Peterborough could mean he misses three games, but Karl Robinson is confident that the appeal the club lodged will help Taylor be available at Fratton Park.

“We are appealing it” Karl confirmed in iFollow. “We had to get that in by midday, which we did. We are hoping they form the board to hear the appeal this evening and then we will be told. As it stands Matty is in the squad and we believe will be available.”

Ten man United were beaten 2-1 on Saturday but not without a terrific fight:

“The players hurt, like the fans” Karl said “but everyone here has been so supportive. Nobody is accepting the results but I thought the fans were brilliant on Saturday in the way they got behind the team. We are gong to need that again because on Tuesday we are going to a very difficult place and we are going to have to be even better than we were on Saturday.

“Fratton Park is an outstanding place. The people there and the fans. It’s absolutely brilliant. My first game as Oxford Manager was there and we are very proud of what we have achieved here since that day.

“What you are seeing on the pitch is so far off what we want to be right now but perhaps that’s part of the process you have to go through with it’s many peaks and troughs. It’s never plain sailing - if you look all the way back to Jim Smith’s time at the club there were so many ups and downs even back then. Years later people forget the troughs but right now the line we are progressing along means nothing to people. It is all about getting results. Hopefully we can start that again on Tuesday.”

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