Oxford United boss Karl Robinson's verdict on Portsmouth as his side recover from player losses to reach play-offs

The U’s boss believes it’s a sizeable achievement for his men to make it to within three games of the Championship in a campaign where they’ve lost a host of top players.

And Robinson stated he would be floored if his team were now to come up short as they lock horns with Kenny Jackett’s men at Fratton Park.

He said: ‘We've been speaking about what an incredible year it's been.

‘It's important people realise we've lost Gavin Whyte, Tariqe Fosu, Shandon Baptiste, Chris Cadden and Nathan Holland – all players that should be available for the play-offs and we've still managed to go on cup runs and get where we wanted to. So I'm immensely proud of the players here.

‘Equally I'm fully respectful of Portsmouth. I think we both know we've got a difficult job on our hands but we'll have full belief in our own players. We're looking forward to it.

‘If two teams play well then it's very fine margins. If we don't achieve this year I will be devastated, I really will.

‘This has been the hardest one probably because I know what's gone into it. I know where we've been, I know how far away we've been and the players deserve it so much.’

Despite his pleasure at Oxford’s achievements, Robinson believes it would be remiss of him not to acknowledge the efforts of his opponents along with Fleetwood and Wycombe in reaching the play-offs.

He added: ‘I've been in these situations before and every player and fan wants it really badly.

‘We have tremendous respect for everyone who has got this far. That's where the play-offs are different, because you're playing against teams that have won a lot of games and have achieved great things.

‘To be building yourself up and not talking about the opposition is a bit narrow-minded and naive.

‘We all deserve to be there, however we've got there. We've just got to make sure we're fully focused on the job in hand.’

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