Head coach Des Buckingham said he had no doubts about Hidde ter Avest’s quality after the Dutch defender scored on his Oxford debut to give his side a 1-0 win over Hull.
It was a first win in nine games for the U’s, though Buckingham played that down.
“It’s funny how things can be spun because one media outlet said we hadn’t won in eight, but we’d also only lost two in eight.
“This year has been about picking up points as we go and we have managed to do that in seven of the nine that we have played.
“The win is always better and we know how important that is to keep us where we want to be.
“But it was a different type of performance and a different set-up, but the pleasing thing is that we have got the result.
“We knew that Hull would want to play and we worked a lot on it.
“I had no doubt about Hidde’s pedigree. He has played in Italy’s Serie A against some very good players.
“I’m delighted for Hidde getting the goal in his first start. He told me he was starting to cramp up after about 70 minutes but I’m not surprised because it was his first start.
“We know we are one of the smallest clubs, if not the smallest, in our league for many reasons, and we have to be extremely smart about how we set up because of that.
“There will be games where we don’t have a lot of the ball and there will be games where we look to break on teams.
“We are a very together group. The squad is going to be so important for us this year, with players having to come in and step up to the mark.
“I’ve got too many names on my injury board, though. We are eight or nine starting players light which impacts us a lot more than other teams in this league.
“Louie Sibley went over on his ankle in training yesterday (Monday) so he’ll be out for 4-6 weeks, and Ben Nelson has come off tonight injured. We’ll send him off for a scan if we feel he needs it, and assess him.”
Victory enabled Oxford to leapfrog Hull in the Sky Bet Championship table.
The Tigers have not won in six games and their fans voiced their clear unhappiness throughout the second half and again at the final whistle.
Under-pressure boss Tim Walter said: “I’m disappointed with the result but not the performance because we played quite well – but we could not score.
“If you can’t score then one moment for the opposition can hurt you – that’s football.
“We had a lot of chances and if we score goals then everything is different.
“And we couldn’t find the answer after losing a goal.
“Unfortunately at the moment it’s hard for us but it’s a young team. It’s all about development and improvement and I can see the signs that they are improving, but at the moment things are not on our side.
“For a young squad it’s important to be resilient. We have to stay together.
“We do everything together. Yes there was a mistake when we conceded a goal, but it was just as much of a mistake not to take some of the good chances we had.
“The only good thing is that we have a short turnaround to our next game against West Brom.”
