Oxford United will be determined to end their long winless run when they welcome Portsmouth to the Kassam Stadium on Tuesday evening (7.45pm)
Defeat against Bolton Wanderers left the U’s outside the relegation places only on goal difference and as midfielder Marcus McGuane told iFollow, they will need to start better against Pompey after a slack first quarter of the game cost them on Saturday.
“The first 25 minutes were poor from us” he said. “We came out really slow. After that we regrouped and got together and the second half was a lot better but at the end of the day we need to put the ball in the back of the net.
“I can’t tell you why that first 25 minutes happened but I can tell you it’s not good enough. We know we have to start sharp and we know the Gaffer told us to start well, start in their half of the pitch, and we did none of that.
“There was a decision that went against us, I’m not too sure I want to talk about that, but it got the crowd right behind us and got us going, but it shouldn’t take that to get the boys up. We know where we are and we know we are in a dogfight.
“We need to get around each other and stick together. I know the fans don’t want to hear us say that but we do know what we need to do to get out of this. That starts against Portsmouth on Tuesday. We will get in to training the next couple of days, get ourselves totally together and we will be ready for Tuesday night.”
See the U’s against Portsmouth on Tuesday evening.
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- Call 01865 337533
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