I’ve been made very aware, don’t worry, who Oxford United’s rivals are and what a derby game is.

But there’s still an extra bit of excitement when we make the short trip down the M40 to play Wycombe Wanderers.

We sold out the away end ten days in advance, our fans will be loud and proud and it should be a fantastic game of football.

Tactically, it’s always an interesting battle and matches between us have been really close over the last few years.

I don’t think more than one goal has decided any of the league games.

Wycombe was actually one of my first away matches with Oxford, a 0-0 draw all the way back in September 2018.

I think the progress we’ve made as a club since that day is amazing.

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On the pitch, we were struggling after a slow start back then, but are now able to stay in the play-off places even after a defeat at Lincoln last week.

I mean off the pitch as well. We hadn’t fully moved into our training ground at that stage and had to use a cricket pitch because things were still being finished!

Now we’re much more at home and we own our training ground at Oxford Sports Park.

That has made such a difference to us already: imagine what could happen if we own our own stadium as well?

I’m not going to say too much on that because you’ve already read the plans and I know how excited the fans are by such a move.

There’s a long way to go and we maybe need a little bit of caution, because at the moment all we have is a signal of our intent.

But I’ve been overwhelmed by the love and support that people have shown towards the project.

It was an incredible response, not just from our own fans but also from the whole city.

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I wrote last week about the growing number of yellow shirts I see around Oxford and the county but there are so many more people who have the club in their hearts and who follow us from afar.

Our job over the coming years is to get them back to actively following us, being part of our story, and with a little luck ready to watch us in a new home.

I wrote last week about coaching the women’s team because their manager Liam Gilbert was self-isolating due to Covid.

I am pleased to report that I’m unbeaten with them as the match got called off because of a waterlogged pitch!

As has become the usual pattern, we put on an extra coaching session for them on Thursday and then they trained that evening with the full squad.

I know from speaking to them how frustrated they were with the game being called off.

Hopefully they can channel that the right way.

They were in great form before Christmas and after a little break I hope they can pick up where they left off when they play Cardiff City at Court Place Farm on Sunday.

If you can, go and support them. They play good football, they’re chasing promotion and hopefully they can win and make it a doubly good weekend for the club.