It’s advantage Oxford as Posh boss Fergie bemoans setpiece woe

U’s were on a poor run when they lost at Pompey, now they’re leading going into play-off semi-final second leg

Oxford boss Des Buckingham believes their narrow 1-0 lead is a “good advantage” to take to London Road for the second leg of their League One play-off against Peterborough. U’s captain Elliott Moore headed the only goal of the first leg eight minutes into the second half, nodding in from three yards after Cameron Brannagan headed Josh Murphy’s corner back from beyond the far post.

Buckingham said: “It’s only a slim advantage but I’m happy with what I’ve seen.

“Overall, it’s a good advantage to take to theirs because they’re a very good team.

“We want to play exciting football and get at teams. We don’t want to come into these games trying not to lose.

“And for the second leg on Wednesday we won’t be sitting back – we will go to try to win the game.”

Oxford only sneaked into the play-offs on the last day of the regular league season after winning at Exeter while Lincoln lost at home to Pompey.

When Oxford lost 2-1 at Fratton Park in early March, they had only won once in 10 league games and were three points behind sixth-placed Stevenage having played a game more.

But six wins in their last 10 fixtures kept alive their chances of returning to the second tier for the first time since 1999.

Peterborough boss Darren Ferguson said: “These semi-finals are always quite frenetic, you almost want to make it a bit dull, especially away from home.

“Conceding from set pieces has probably been our Achilles heel and, when the season ends, I will look back and say that there were certain things where we were nowhere near good enough.

“The smallest player on the pitch has won the header and one of our players has let him run off him. It needs to be perfect in these games and to lose a game to that goal is just not good enough.”

In the other semi, Bolton take a 3-1 lead into their home second leg against Barnsley tomorrow.

Enjoy more of the best football writing from a fans’ view online at 3 Added Minutes