Des Buckingham praises backroom staff for set piece which led to winning goal

DES Buckingham praised his backroom staff for working on innovative set pieces, one of which handed Oxford United the advantage in their play-off semi-final.

The U’s beat Peterborough United 1-0 in the first leg of their Sky Bet League One play-off clash, with the only goal of the night coming from Elliott Moore.

It was a move seemingly straight off the training ground, as Josh Murphy hung a deep corner towards the back post, where Cameron Brannagan had peeled off to head across goal, with Moore able to nod in from close range.

READ ALSO: Des Buckingham reacts to play-off semi-final first leg victory

United head coach Buckingham said: “I’ll give full credit to Lewis Price, our goalkeeping coach, and Joe Moore and Isaac Alder, our analysts.

“They work very hard at that, and it’s good to see. We said how important set plays could be through the play-offs.

“Defensively, I thought we did very well, and to get a goal from them gives us an advantage, but we’re only halfway.”

He added: “We’ve got two or three that we want to work on. We’ve done certain things all season, which can become predictable, so we knew coming into these games that doing something slightly different may give us an opportunity.

“It’s good to see something come off in that respect, to give us the lead, and full credit to the staff.”