U's boss Buckingham opens up on ‘dark days’

Des Buckingham led Oxford United to promotion from League One to the Championship last season

Oxford United head coach Des Buckingham said he suffered some “real dark days” before winning promotion to the Championship last season.

The 39-year-old led the U's to a 2-0 victory over Bolton Wanderers in the League One play-off final in May and has enjoyed a promising start to the new campaign.

But Buckingham endured a difficult four months after he arrived at the club on 16 November last year to replace Liam Manning who had left for Bristol City.

Oxford were the early pacesetters alongside Portsmouth, however Buckingham won only five of his first 19 games in charge and the club slipped to seventh by March.

“I won’t beat around the bush with it, the first couple of months were very tough," Buckingham told BBC Radio Oxford podcast The Dub.

“There was a point come February, March where there were some real dark days.

“I’m not stupid enough and naive enough to have not known that and seen that.

“I don’t need to see social media. I’ve got enough family around this area and I know enough people in Oxford to not shy away from telling me what they think.

“There were moments and some spaces I’d never been to before, both in my life and in my coaching career, which were extremely challenging."

Buckingham said both his life and coaching career was "extremely challenging" last season

Buckingham said it "really grated" him at the time that he had not been able to show people what he could do as a coach, particularly because of working in his home city.

A strong run of form in the final 10 games rescued a play-off spot for Oxford before a semi-final victory over Peterborough United en-route to going up.

"The pleasing thing was kind of how it all played out," Buckingham said.

“To finish the season the way we did, to enjoy that day and the way we played at Wembley was arguably the best game of football I’ve ever stood on the sideline and coached.

“And to be able to do that in front of 35,000 Oxford fans and to do that on a stage in front of the rest of the country, it was a nice moment.

“That moment when the referee blew the full-time whistle... I can’t quite describe the feeling I had. There are no words. That’s probably the most special thing for me, you can’t describe it.”

Oxford are currently ninth in the Championship with three wins from their first six games and host Burnley on Saturday.