Buckingham warns Cobblers that Oxford United now 'a very different side'

Tyreece Simpson netted a dramatic winner six minutes into stoppage time as Town snatched victory on that occasion, and not less than a month later the team square up again, this time at the Kassam Stadium.

And Buckingham believes he and his players are in much better shape than they were at the back end of 2023, with a sprinling of new players having come through the door, and key men back from injury.

The Us have signed signed goalkeeper Jamie Cumming on loan from Chelsea and landed winger Tyler Burey from Danish Super League team Odense, while another winger, Kyle Edwards has made his loan switch from Ipswich Town permanent.

Oxford have also welcomed key men Greg Leigh and Sam Long back into the fray after injury, while striker Mark Harris, who was in the middle of an 11-game goal drought when he rocked up at Sixfields, has netted four in four since the turn of the year.

“We are a very different side now to the one that played that day," declared Buckingham, who took over the Oxford hot seat from Liam Manning back in the middle of November.

“We are very clear on what we want to do, the players are much clearer about the way I want to do things.

"We have players back in the squad after injury, we have new faces and I think we have a little bit of momentum now after a couple of away wins and four wins in six games.

“We have played some good football in amongst that and now we need to do that more often and more consistently over 90 minutes rather than in patches or halves of games.

“We have started to do that now and you can see the belief and confidence.

"Couple that with the fact we are welcoming players back at the same time, big players like Greg Leigh, who played at Carlisle, and Sam Long who will come back into the squad this weekend, and then you add in a couple of fresh faces as well.

“We have competition and players fighting for places.

"If we are going to achieve what we set out to do this season then you need players to be challenging each other. The players are driving each other forward on a daily basis."

Oxford go into Saturday's game in sixth place, just three points off the automatic promotion places, while the Cobblers are ninth - 12 points behind Saturday's hosts.

But over the past 10 games, Town have claimed six more points than the Us, and Buckingham is wary of the threat Jon Brady's side possess.

“It will still be a very hard game on Saturday," the Oxford boss told oufc.co.uk

"The manager at Northampton has got them playing some good football, and they are picking up results.

"They are up there in the form table with us so it should be a really good game."