SIMON Eastwood reached a milestone for Oxford United at the weekend – but his focus is on another figure.

The victory at Coventry City was his 150th start for the U’s, making him only the seventh goalkeeper to reach the landmark in the club’s history.

It is an impressive figure given his debut came less than three years ago, but is exactly what he set out to do.

Having spent much of his career as back-up – including an entire season at United as understudy to Ryan Clarke without playing – Eastwood was determined to finally nail down the No 1 jersey.

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The 29-year-old allowed himself a moment of satisfaction on Saturday, but the side’s ongoing relegation battle takes precedence.

“It’s a nice achievement for myself,” he said.

“I came here to play and be the No 1 and I’ve done that.

“I’m happy with how it’s gone, but I suppose you look at the season we’ve had and we’re still in the thick of it.

“You don’t want to get carried away, we’ve done nothing yet.

“You look at the season and it’s been very poor, all in all.

“We’ve never been out of the bottom six until now but you can kind of say we’ve done that with a bit of a fluke with how strange the league is, but I don’t think we’ve ever pushed to where we want to be this season.”

The win at Coventry lifted the U’s to 13th place, but they are only four points above the relegation zone.

Also read: Simon Eastwood delighted to reward huge travelling support with win at Coventry

Eastwood believes six more points will do the job – and given they visit leaders Luton Town on the final day he believes it is vital to get safe before May 4.

He said: “I think 52 points would be enough, so that’s two more wins in seven games.

“I’ve said we want to do it before the Luton game because we don’t want to be going there with too much riding on it.

“Hopefully we can get it done in the next three games, you’d think there’s half a chance of doing that.

“For everyone’s sake the quicker you get safe the better and then you can start building for next season.”

While Eastwood was typically reluctant to sing his own praises, others at United were happy to emphasise just how important a role he has played.

“Easty’s the best goalie in the league,” U’s boss Karl Robinson said. “He’s unbelievable.”

Curtis Nelson has played in the vast majority of Eastwood’s 150 games and has got used to him making the sort of crucial saves he made at the Ricoh Arena on Saturday.

He said: “We know how good he is and I wouldn’t have expected anything less. He’s a great pro, a great lad and he’s a really good keeper.

“I think that shows when he makes saves like that I don’t think ‘unbelievable save’, I’m expecting it.

“He does it every day in training.”