Oxford United boss on his side's win over Carlisle United

The manager of Carlisle’s fifth-placed visitors said his side defeated a Blues team who are strong at home.

Two goals from Mark Harris and a third from Tyler Goodrham clinched victory for the U’s despite a late Alfie McCalmont goal for United.

Buckingham was pleased with what he saw from his promotion-chasing players.

“I thought it was really good football,” he said.

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“It’s a tough place, they [Carlisle] are very strong at home, their results show that they’re very different at home than they are away.

“They’ve had four or five new changes to their team as they’re trying to get results.

“But I thought we were very good. It’s a long way to come, but that’s now four wins out of six in the league.

Mark Harris scores his and Oxford's second goal (Image: Ben Holmes)

“We spoke about kickstarting our second part of the season and to do it with a good performance, and a scoreline to match, it’s a good start to that.”

Harris has now scored three goals in two games against the Blues this season, having netted the only goal when the teams met at the Kassam Stadium in August.

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He finished from close range in the first half before running clear of the home defence to score early in the second half.

Harris is now on ten goals for the season having scored four in his last four appearances, following a run of 11 games without a goal.

Des Buckingham (Image: Barbara Abbott)

“What I like about Mark and the players at this club is we speak about standards and trying to do the right things as often as possible,” added Buckingham in a club interview.

“There will be spells where things don’t go your way and things just don’t fall for you, but he continued to work, and you see the support around him.

“Full credit to him. He’s got a new lease of life which is good for him and good for us.”

Buckingham also praised debutant keeper Jamie Cumming for moments when he kept Carlisle at bay.

“He made some important saves, which can get forgotten about in the grand scheme of things but they certainly don’t get overlooked in the staff group or the player group,” added the U’s boss.