JOE Rothwell believes the confidence generated from Oxford United’s derby win a week ago will see them get off the mark on their travels in Sky Bet League One today.

Defeats at Bristol Rovers, Fleetwood Town and Sheffield United mean all the side’s points this season have come at the Kassam Stadium.

But after producing their best display of the campaign in beating Swindon Town 2-0 last Saturday, Michael Appleton’s men will make their first trip to Milton Keynes Dons full of belief.

Rothwell views the Robins result as a breakthrough and is certain a repeat performance this afternoon will yield a positive result at Stadium MK, where they will be backed by more than 3,300 fans.

He said: “I think it was always going to take a bit of time because there’s a lot of new faces, but I think you need that bit of arrogance.

“We’re starting to find that now, in a good way, and hopefully we can continue that into Saturday’s game.

“MK Dons are a team that are going to be looking to bounce straight back up.

“If you are beating teams like that

it can only keep the momentum going.

“If we play like we did last Saturday I don’t think there will be much stopping us.”

The Dons, relegated from the Championship last season, were expected to challenge this season but have made a slow start.

And United’s hopes of getting off the mark on the road are boosted by the fact Karl Robinson’s side have

not triumphed on home soil since March.

It is three weeks since the last away game, when the U’s let slip a lead at Sheffield United to go down 2-1.

But a hat-trick of victories, culminating in the Swindon game, have made Appleton confident his side would handle the situation far better this afternoon if they could start as well as they did at Bramall Lane.

He said: “It’s a great place to go and play.

“There is an expectation on them which can be difficult, as we found last year in certain games.

“We hope to go there, try and get our noses in front and then deal with it a little better than we did at Sheffield United.”