Oxford United defender Rob Dickie believes the U’s could be in for an exciting season.
Following their opening day draw at promotion hopefuls Sunderland, the defender felt his side deserved more and wasn’t surprised about avoiding defeat to the Black Cats.
Dickie told the Oxford Mail: “It’s pleasing for us. We’re not going to go to Sunderland and be intimidated. We’ll come to these places and try to put our stamp on the game, which I feel like we did.”
The 23-year-old put on a solid display both defensively and offensively, and even had a goal ruled out in controversial circumstances.
He added: “It’s how I thought it would go, I honestly think we’ve got good players in the squad. I’ve seen the standards we’ve set in training. Anyone can say that obviously, but I really feel we’ve set a good standard and we’re going to stick to it by training how we play. I’m very optimistic about how the season can go for us.”
For Karl Robinson’s side, it was a completely different start to the campaign from last season where the U’s suffered a heavy 4-0 defeat at Barnsley, who gained promotion to the Championship.
Following that defeat at Oakwell, Oxford then lost another three games in succession before a win at home to Burton Albion, and Dickie added that he believed the squad were determined to avoid a similar start.
“In a way, the Barnsley result might have helped us going into this game because looking back maybe we were a bit naïve going into the game. We were really prepared for it today. All the boys are really fit, we had a good game plan and we stuck to it.”
Oxford will be looking for their first win of the season when they host Peterborough United this weekend, with the opponents again a side that is pushing for promotion to the Championship.
