There always seems to be a little more attention than usual when we play MK Dons based on me having been boss there; my first managerial role.

I’ll always be grateful to Pete Winkleman and the people at MK who gave me that opportunity and I spent ten happy years there in total.

But that all goes out of the window today, because I am manager of Oxford United now and we have a job to do.

We always stay on an even keel and one point from our last two games won’t throw us into a spin or cause us to change our basic beliefs or way of playing.

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We work so hard to get the DNA of the club across and have a specific way of playing.

We won’t shy away from losing or make excuses, but I don’t see any unbeaten teams in the EFL this season: losing is part of the game and it’s how you deal with it that matters.

Having strong core values is essential in doing that.

The game on Tuesday could have gone either way, in truth.

The last minute was incredible: we had three brilliant chances and didn’t take any.

A draw would have been fair, I believe, but football isn’t always fair and there are probably a couple of games earlier in the season where we nicked all three points late on.

We get a chance to put things right today, but will have to do it without Marcus McGuane.

He’s going to have to sit out the rest of the season with a thigh injury.

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I don’t think he will mind me saying that it took him a little while to find his feet at the start of the campaign.

That’s understandable: he hadn’t played in a while and it takes time to get your rhythm back: Brandon Barker, for example, hasn’t played 90 minutes in something like three years, but we know what a threat he will be once he gets going.

Marcus has such technical ability, but also a power to go past people in midfield.

At this stage last season, Marcus Browne was doing that role for us and before him Shandon Baptiste.

We don’t have that type of player naturally available right now, but I tell you what we do have: players with different characteristics, different attributes, who will now get the chance to step up and make a big impact as we head towards the last third of the season.

Tuesday was a double header for a number of us, with the youth team at home in the afternoon.

It gave us an opportunity to watch them before heading to the Kassam Stadium to take on Portsmouth.

What a game it turned out to be for the youngsters: a 3-2 win with our last two goals in injury time!

I enjoyed watching that and wish them all the best as they go to Newport today knowing that a win would give them the league title.

They say the position in the table isn’t important at that level of football, it’s more about development.

Correct, but I also saw plenty of that winning mentality on Tuesday that those young players will need as they look to further their careers.