THERE is nothing like a derby game to get everyone buzzing, but today’s game at Swindon comes at the end of a terrific week for everyone at Oxford United.

It started with a fantastic win over Newcastle in the FA Cup. You may remember me saying if we were to win the game then Simon Eastwood needed to be man of the match and the other players needed to be 9 out of 10. I wasn’t too far off was I?

The only thing I may have got wrong was there were four or five candidates for man of the match really.

I thought the attitude was spot on. Newcastle are a Premier League side in waiting, but we took the game to them rather than sit back and see what happened.

In the second half, we took the game away from them and played some great football and I thought fully deserved to go through.

We now play away at Middlesbrough in the next round and I’m sure the fans will travel in numbers and love seeing us take on Premier League opposition again.

We spoke after the Newcastle game about keeping the celebrations fairly muted.

I know that may have been difficult, but we had another massive game coming up on the Tuesday against Bradford City and we needed the players to regenerate and refocus as quickly as possible.

I was absolutely delighted with the way they did that and I thought the win on Tuesday was an outstanding result.

It isn’t easy to go from a capacity crowd to a much quieter atmosphere, but the players rose to the occasion and got us through to move within one game of a Wembley final. What a great day that would be once again.

Having said all that, there were still people who weren’t satisfied by beating Newcastle and getting through to the semi-final!

Everywhere I go people keep telling me that beating Swindon is the biggest result of the week.

Trust me, I get what you are saying! The players are also very aware of the rivalry and we know what it means to you all.

It’s not going to be easy, but these are the games you want to be involved in and I know we will rise to the occasion once more.

We trained yesterday and will join the rest of you on the A420 today, hoping to turn a great week into a fantastic one.

TWO of our senior players moved on this week with Ryan Taylor and Alex MacDonald joining Plymouth and Mansfield respectively.

Those are two excellent pros who have been great for us on and off the pitch – and I know that Macca in particular was a big favourite with the supporters.

They were not easy decisions – they were two players who I knew I could turn to when I needed leaders on the pitch.

We wish them well, but it gives some of the younger players the chance to now step up and show their own leadership qualities.

I know they have the character to do that, hopefully starting today at Swindon.