Oxford United boss hopes momentum will prove crucial for his 'massive' club against Peterborough United

The first leg takes place in Oxford on Saturday (7.45pm kick off) with the second leg at the Weston Homes Stadium on Wednesday, May 8 (8pm).

Posh finished seven points and a place above Oxford in the final League One table, but today’s hosts finished the season in better form. They sneaked into the play-off places with a last-day win at an Exeter City side who hadn’t lost any of their nine previous matches.

The Oxford fans have played a huge part in the club’s success this season, according to manager Buckingham.

“To sell out as quick as we did for both legs shows how big this club is,” local man Buckingham told the Oxford Mail. “This club is massive, and people want to come and see this club do well. It’s something that we now need to harness. There’s a real positive atmosphere that bounces around the ground. That’s the Oxford United I knew growing up, and that’s the feeling I have now standing on the sideline as a manager.”

Buckingham has urged his players to take confidence from the recent 5-0 win over Oxford, but that they shouldn’t expect a repeat scoreline.

“You don’t want people to forget that scoreline,” Buckingham added. “And you don’t want people to forget our 5-0 defeat at Bolton either. You learn from those games.

“As for the one against Peterborough, we’d been playing really good football and played some teams down the bottom, and got some really good scores.

“And the Peterborough game allowed the players to see that they’re more than capable of playing that type of football against a very good team with very good players. We don’t want them to forget that, but we also need to be realistic. That was a very good day for everybody, but the chances of that happening again on Saturday are very different. We take the learnings from it, the good learnings, as that reinforces what we’re trying to do here.

“I’m really excited, as the playing group, and everyone associated with this club, are about the play-offs. It’s something we’ve worked extremely hard for. You look at where the club was 12 months ago, celebrating staying in the league, and now we’ve put ourselves in a position to try and get out the league.

“To finish in the play-offs after what has been a very up and down season, in terms of challenges and changes, and then to arrive at them in a good space, playing some really good football, and with momentum behind us, is a good achievement.

“It’s now about being clear on what we do, and how we do it. We’re at home, we’ve got a full house, and we’ll do everything we can to play the game we want to, but we know we’re up against a very good Peterborough side, who will make it very difficult for us.

“We know the dangers of their front three, or front four, regardless of who starts or who comes on.

“We’ve been pretty solid ourselves defensively. It’s important going into the game that when we don’t have the ball, that we defend as well as we did in that last game, to try and restrict what we know will be a very dangerous front line.”