Des Buckingham hails impressive Oxford performance after win over Stoke

Oxford boss Des Buckingham saluted his players after they saw off Stoke 1-0 thanks to Idris El Mizouni’s strike shortly after half-time.

It has been a perfect start to life at the Kassam Stadium since the U’s returned to the Championship, as they have now won all three home games so far this term.

Norwich and Preston have already been beaten on home turf, and now Stoke were second best against a well-organised and disciplined Oxford outfit.

Buckingham said: “I hope our fans realise that a lot of really hard work has gone in this victory again today.

“It was an overall performance from the team, and this against a very, very good Stoke team.

“I thought the first half was probably evenly-balanced, but in the second half I thought we were really exciting to watch and that’s pleasing for me and our fans.

“We’re putting together a way we want to play – I certainly don’t want any of my players to be robotic in any way.

“Collectively we’ve been impressive again, but I also want the players to showcase themselves as individuals when they can.

“I want them to go out there and play with that freedom and that excitement.

“I suppose that’s the kind of coach I am, rubbing off on them.

“I don’t want us to be a boring team to watch.

“Maybe in the end we should have scored more than just the one goal, but I’m not complaining.

“It’s going to be a squad game this season, and so far we’ve got more right than we’ve got wrong – hopefully that’s going to continue.”

A well-contested first period ended goalless in what was the first meeting of these two for well over two decades.

Mark Harris went closest for the newly-promoted hosts, while the Potters saw Ben Wilmot denied a superb save from Jamie Cumming.

Oxford struck what proved to be the winning blow within three minutes of the restart.

Ruben Rodrigues crossed in low for El Mizouni, and he coolly side-footed home his first U’s goal from just outside the six-yard box.

The Potters struggled to find any way back after that.

Stoke boss Steven Schumacher cut a frustrated figure after the game, and it appears he will be demanding more from his players in the weeks and months to come.

He said: “This is a result that we could end up regretting because I thought it was a big opportunity for us.

“Our performance wasn’t brilliant in the first half, and I said to the lads at half-time that I thought the game was there for us.

“The opposite happened, though, and we concede a poor goal almost immediately after the restart.

“We’ve talked about these cut-back crosses during training this week, so that’s really disappointing from our point of view.

“There are no excuses from us whatsoever, though.

“We try to put a game-plan together during the week and then we try and execute things we’ve worked on.

“We had lots of possession in and around their box, but too many times we were ponderous and wasteful with the ball – we must do better.

“Too many of our players just weren’t on top if their game today – they’ve not performed to the standard everyone expects of them.”