Keeper’s eyes are on prize

IT HASN’T been your average run to Wembley, but Simon Eastwood is still preparing to enjoy Oxford’s League One play-off final to the maximum after a semi-final like no other.

Eastwood (above) was Oxford’s hero against Pompey, saving Cameron McGeehan’s penalty in the shoot-out to seal their big day out against Wycombe tomorrow night.

Eastwood’s intervention was the critical moment after 210 minutes of deadlock between two sides who also finished the league season level on points.

It was an especially sweet moment for a goalkeeper who played for Portsmouth in 2012/13.

Now, having knocked them out, he’s looking forward to one final adventure in a season like no other.

“The whole season has been so strange,” he said. “When the season finished, we didn’t think there were going to be any play-offs – we thought that was that.

“Then you wake-up and read on Twitter that we’re going to be playing again.

“Suddenly we were getting changed in a bar behind the goal at Fratton Park. We couldn’t even shower after the game, we just had to get straight back on the coach.

“The prize is at the end of it all, though, and getting promoted would be massive for this club.

“Last season we were in a relegation fight and it was only a great run at the end that pulled us clear.

“So to be where we are now is incredible. It would be nice to have the fans there at Wembley, but if we go up that won’t matter.

“I’m hoping that in five or 10 years’ time we’ll remember the match itself and not the fact we played at an empty Wembley.”

If Oxford did go up, it would see them compete in the second tier for the first time since 1999. While promotion for Wycombe would take them higher than they have ever been.