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Oxford United coach opens up on ‘important’ Wales decision
Gunter joined the U’s in the summer alongside new head coach and former Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey, and continued his coaching role with the Welsh youth setup until last month.
The 37-year-old has stayed at the club during the international break, with Oxford set to travel to Exeter City on Tuesday evening in the Jersey Mike’s Trophy.
Fellow assistant Tom Hutton has also remained with the club who currently lie 10th in League One.
Ahead of the Trophy clash with the Grecians, Gunter opened up on his decision to commit to the Yellows.
“There was obviously the conversation in the summer when I joined the club and as the weeks went by and the schedule was spoken about; there was a decision that was important to me and to this club as well,” Ramsey’s assistant, who earned 109 caps for his country, explained.
“This is my main focus and an important period of time coming up for the team. So to go away and miss seven to 10 days at this stage wasn’t one I thought was best.
“Full respect to the way both the FAW and the club handled it.
“I wish all the boys that I’ve left behind in that age group really well.
“They’ll be absolutely fine, they’ve got good people around them but it was important for me to be around the club every day.”
The trip to St James Park is the first EFL Trophy fixture of the season for the U’s who have also drawn Tottenham Hotspur Under-21s and League Two side Cheltenham Town.
Gunter insists that the team will treat the competition the same as they would with the league.
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“I can honestly say that we haven’t prepared for this game any different than the last league game or what we’ll do for next Saturday.
“But also in that we didn’t do that in pre-season and any game that we play is important.
“The manager spoke to the squad today around some of the things that we want to do but his first and final message to them was this is a game that we’re going to do exactly what we do every other week.
“It’s an important one for us and whoever’s on the pitch and, whatever it looks like, it’s an important one because whatever game of football, any competition you’re in, we want to do really well and tomorrow night is no different.
“We’ve also had two weeks without a game and it’s a real good opportunity now before we get to the weekend to blow some of the cobwebs out and make sure we’re ready to go on Saturday.
“But honestly if he was inside the training ground you wouldn’t know if it was a cup game or a league game.”
Marriott is set to miss ‘a number of weeks’ with an ankle injury after a knock against Wycombe Wanderers.
The injury means the striker will likely miss the Royals’ visit to Oxford on November 4 after he did not feature in last weekend’s 1-1 draw with Bradford City.
The 32-year-old is the League One top scorer with eight goals in eight games and will be a big loss for Leam Richardson’s team over the next few weeks.
Richardson told BBC Radio Berkshire: “He had a scan late last week which wasn’t great.
“It’s not great news as he’s going to be out for a number of weeks, that being said somebody’s disappointment is another person’s opportunity.
“We have a squad to make sure that we can cope and deal with situations like this and that’s what we’ll try to do.
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“It won’t be months and months but I think he’ll be out for longer than a couple of weeks.”
Marriott joins former West Bromwich Albion and Bristol City midfielder George Earthy on Reading’s injury list.
The 22-year-old is also set to be out for a ‘number of weeks’ after being absent against Wycombe.
Richardson said: “George is going to be out for a number of weeks, so we’re still waiting on that one.
“I think he’s torn the plantar fascia, in the medical term, so that’ll be a number of weeks, which is disappointing.”
Michael O’Neill’s men stormed to a comfortable victory in Group F of the UEFA Nations League thanks to two goals from the Yellows centre back and a strike from West Bromwich Albion midfielder Isaac Price.
The result saw a second win and third clean sheet in three matches for Brown’s nation with Northern Ireland sitting top of their group on seven points ahead of Ukraine and Hungary on four and Georgia rock bottom with one.
Brown picked up the Player of the Match award for a stellar performance at both ends of the pitch, scoring his first after just nine minutes.
The 28-year-old tapped in from close range in the opening stages to put his nation into the lead.
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Price added a second in the 22nd minute before Brown bagged his team’s third just after the hour mark with a bizarre goal after goalkeeper Dmytro Riznyk fumbled the defender’s header.
U’s teammate Brodie Spencer also played the full 90 minutes at the Štadión Antona Malatinského.
Brown was bemused but bouncing after the match, telling the media: “If I’m going to talk you through the second (goal), I don’t have a clue.
“We’ve worked on set-pieces a lot and I’ve gone to flick it on.
“To be fair, big Ruairi [McConville] has done me a massive favour and left it. He’s a better guy than I am and I can only thank him.
“I thought Ruairi tapped it in, but I was just buzzing for the fact that we got another goal.”
Aldridge played for Oxford for three years after joining from Newport County in 1984, scoring 52 goals for the club before leaving for boyhood side Liverpool.
The 67-year-old spent two seasons with the Reds before moving abroad to Spanish outfit Real Sociedad.
He then saw out his career with Tranmere Rovers as a player-manager.
Speaking exclusively to the Oxford Mail, on behalf of betTom, Aldridge recalled his time playing in La Liga.
“Anfield’s my number one [favourite stadium. My number two would be the Camp Nou,” the former Republic of Ireland international disclosed.
“I played there three times.
“The first game, it was just amazing. We drew 2-2 and I scored two.
“Then we went again in the cup. After losing 1-0 at home, we won 3-2.
“We got to extra time and I scored another two.
“Then the last away game of my Spanish career in Sociedad was at Barcelona.
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“A week before I’d scored the winner against Atletico Madrid, 1-0, which won Barcelona the league.
“We went there in front of 110,000. We clapped them on the pitch.
“We beat them 3-1 and I scored another two. I scored six goals in three games.
“At the Bernabeu [against Real Madrid], I scored one when we won 3-2. That was amazing.
“It just didn’t have what the Camp Nou had.
“The Camp Nou was more natural to me.”
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