Des Buckingham urges Oxford to enjoy play-offs

Des Buckingham urged Oxford to enjoy the experience as they booked a place in the play-offs with a 2-1 win at Exeter.

United capitalised on two defensive howlers from Exeter to score through Mark Harris and a Cameron Brannagan penalty before Millenic Alli pulled a goal back for Exeter early in the second half.

The Grecians went on to dominate the rest of the game but could not find an equaliser, meaning Oxford will now face Peterborough in the League One play-offs.

“We will enjoy this now as it has been a long season for everybody but a season we now get to continue,” Oxford boss Buckingham said.

“I thanked the players as it has been a fairly turbulent season. The manager left and I thanked the players for sticking together and with me. They are a good group of players.

“We had a plan and we do all the ‘what ifs’ in our planning, based on how scorelines went.

“We did that last night, we were prepared for any situation should results be going certain ways. We had changes planned and I did ask a few more questions than I thought I might. The fans gave us a hint when they started to cheer for a couple of Portsmouth goals.

“We need to enjoy it, so many people came here today and experienced it.

“We will get ready for what will be a very good game against Peterborough next Saturday. It will be a sell-out and I have no doubt that the atmosphere that has been created over the last couple of weeks has driven us on to what we have done and we have seen that again at Exeter.”

Exeter manager Gary Caldwell was disappointed to finish the campaign with a defeat, which ended a nine-match unbeaten run for the Grecians.

“We tried something a bit different, but we changed after 25 minutes and I thought we looked a bit better after that and we went back to what we normally do with wing-backs high,” said Caldwell, whose side finished 13th in the table.

“We had more threat and with the changes in the second half, I thought we were much better.

“We got back into the game and showed a lot of spirit, but we just ran out of legs after a long season and didn’t recognise where we could win the game.

“Overall, I am really pleased with the season. We had some really difficult moments this season but came through it with a spirit, a resilience and a quality that showed progress from last season, but today showed that we have to improve.

“The challenge for whoever wants to be here is to come back on June 20 ready to work and be even better because we have played a team that have got into the play-offs and even though we were poor first half, there is very little in the game.”