Oxford United welcome Exeter City to the Kassam Stadium on Saturday in Sky Bet League 1’s match of the day.
Fourth placed Oxford take on the second-placed Grecians and as Liam Manning has been telling iFollow, competition is fierce to be part of his starting eleven for this game.
“We’ll be without Mark Harris but Greg Leigh can play” he confirmed “so that’s an extra body back and that’s good news. We wanted competition and recruited hard to make that happen this summer. One challenge is to make sure everyone understands that we all put the team first and if you aren’t playing then it’s how you cope with the disappointment and turn up and be the best version you can be to help the team.
“I want people to be annoyed and disappointed if they are not playing but the number one thing is that they respond in the right way. That’s how you train, how you conduct yourself, and I will give the lads credit for that because people have been excellent in that situation and that has to continue if we want to be successful. Players have to be ready, mentally and physically, to be in the best space possible so when you do get that opportunity you grab it.”
Both sides lost in the EFL Trophy in midweek, but Liam believes that those results mean nothing ahead of Saturday.
“Results in the Trophy have no bearing on Saturday at all. We were all frustrated with our result but they are really challenging games. The defeat wasn’t for a lack of effort or attitude. At times we were probably trying too hard to make things happen so we won’t read too much into those games. I know what those players are capable of, I see it in training every day, so I’m not going to make any rash judgements after one frustrating evening.
“Exeter will be the same. We are seven games in with 39 remaining so it’s certainly not a ‘six-pointer’ yet. But they are in good form, we are in good form and that should make for a good game. We know the fans will back us in numbers and be right behind us so it’s one we are really looking forward to.”
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