Oxford United boss Des Buckingham pinpoints key to comeback win over Preston North End

Oxford United manager Des Buckingham admitted Preston North End took his team by surprise, initially, on Saturday afternoon.

But, it was the hosts who went on to win 3-1 at the Kassam Stadium - in the first meeting between Oxford and PNE for almost 25 years. Emil Riis fired Preston ahead, after just three minutes, in the second league game under boss Paul Heckingbottom.

Mark Harris headed in the equaliser for Oxford mid-way through the first half, before Tyler Goodrham’s sublime strike turned the game on its head. Then, in the space of 60 second half minutes, Liam Lindsay was shown a second yellow card and Greg Leigh tapped home number three for the U’s.

“When you’ve got a very good manager, who’s done a lot at this level and above before, and he’s only had one game in the league with this team, it’s very difficult to know how they’ll set up,” said Buckingham post-match. “They set up differently, or played slightly differently, to how we expected.

“It took us time to get to grips with that and be clear on how we dealt with that. Once we did, I thought the game balanced itself out. In the first 10 or 15 minutes, they had the better of the game. We managed to get a message on, get some changes into that, which I think balanced it up.

“It got us back into the game, and got us the goal. There were a couple of things at half-time which we changed, and really helped us in the second half. It was a very tough test. That is not, by any stretch of the imagination, an easy win. And, none of the games this year will be, in this league.”