This is Des Buckingham's latest column written exclusively for the Oxford Mail.

We are all looking forward to another home game today when we welcome Leyton Orient to the Kassam Stadium.

We spoke about keeping ourselves in a strong league position over the past few months and we start the day fifth in League One, well amongst the playoff spots and have welcomed several players back to the first team in recent games.

The most recent run of games has us on a six-game unbeaten run where we should have also taken more points, especially of late but has provided us with a strong platform to now work from.

We had a moment to win the game away at Blackpool but the ball came off the inside of the post at the end of the game and although not at our best against Wycombe could have come away with three points at the end when Ruben was bought down in the penalty box.

Wycombe was a tough, physical and demanding game, even the referee got injured!

We showed a different side to us, one where we will scrap and fight for the ball when we need to and in the end, a point on the road is always a positive.

Then on Tuesday, we had the game won but with three minutes of eight additional minutes to play, we got punished with a late equaliser and had to settle for a point.

One big positive on Tuesday was a first goal for Will Goodwin.

Will arrived with an injury that we knew we needed to manage carefully.

We did that and it has allowed us to ease him into action, always with an eye on the games we now have left. His first goal for the club was a clever header and his power and strength are going to be major assets for us this season and beyond.

The goal came from a cross by Owen Dale who also did well when he came on.

You need players to make an impact from the bench and three of our last four goals have now been scored by substitutes.

It’s a good feeling to know you have players on the bench desperate to get on and win games for the team and it makes us a very dangerous team to play against.

We now have most of our team back for this run of 12 league games and will be doing everything we can from the start to each to come away with a good performance and the points we all want and work so hard for.

Whoever starts or is on the bench today, get behind us from the start and throughout the game as we all work together to get another win on the board.

I was pleased that we announced the arrival of Luke Taylor this week as our head of athletic performance.

Luke will work with Dwayne Peasah and Chris Short in the sport science department at our club and will provide a wonderful mix of knowledge, experience and character in that department.

I have known Luke since we were both part of the Oxford United academy and we have both gone away, learned our trade, and now get to bring those experiences back to Oxford.

Fans won’t notice Luke too much but he has already made an impact within the playing and coaching staff and it’s great to see him proudly wearing that Oxford United badge again.