Aaron Ramsey names key factor in Oxford United success

The Yellows have won three of their opening five league fixtures, losing just once, including securing back-to-back victories without conceding a goal.

Recent wins over Leicester City (4-0) and Burton Albion (3-0) have propelled the U’s to sixth in the table early in the campaign.

Of those seven goals in total, six have come in the second half.

Ahead of the welcoming fourth-placed Cambridge United to the Kassam Stadium, Ramsey spoke about United’s late flourishing in recent matches.

“We go into every game putting out the starting XI that we believe is best to go on and win that game and cause oppositions problems,” the former Arsenal midfielder said.

“We’ve got a squad where everybody is more than capable of producing performances and being ready to start from the off.

“But also, we’ve been really good in our players coming on and affecting games and winning games for us late on.

Ex-Arsenal man Aaron Ramsey is favourite to become Oxford United’s next head coach (Image: David Davies/PA Wire)

“We’ve got the balance there, the squad there, that are fully committed and all have a responsibility to play.

“It’s a big game for us to finish off this period before the international break so we want to end it the right way.

“We’re fully concentrated on doing that and producing another strong performance.”

The U’s have had a stop-start beginning to the season, with a game against Reading being postponed last month meaning the club had a 10-day wait until a fixture before a run of three consecutive away games.

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Oxford will have another extended break after the Cambridge clash with two games called off due to five Yellows players being called up for international duty.

Ramsey’s men are hoping to go into the break with the momentum of three consecutive wins.

“There are two sides you could look at it,” the 35-year-old continued.

“But we’ve had the opportunity to work in between games and really try and get across some of the details that we want, and the boys have bought into it.

“The flip side is that you always want to be playing as regularly as possible when you are enjoying it and you are producing performances and getting results.

“It’s nice now that we can finish off this little period because I know then that the games will be coming thick and fast after the international break.

“We work really hard day in, day out and that’s evident now on the pitch.

“We’d really like to have the games but we know it’s another period as well where we can work on things and try to improve our game further because the games will come thick and fast then.”