• Wed. Feb 19th, 2025

Winger admits to ‘difficult’ time with U’s so far

Byoxfordnewspaper

Jan 14, 2025

MATT Phillips admits he has found his time at Oxford United difficult, particularly due to an earlier lengthy injury lay-off.

The 33-year-old winger arrived as a free agent at the start of August with a sense of expectation following eight years at West Bromwich Albion.

Phillips featured four times for United at the start of the season, but was forced off during the first half of the 3-1 win at home against Preston North End on August 31.

He made his return as a substitute when the U’s were beaten 6-2 at home against Middlesbrough on November 23, and has now featured 14 times in all competitions for United.

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Phillips said: “If I’m honest, I’ve found it difficult, especially coming back from my recent injury. I haven’t played a lot of football in the last year or so.

“I’m working on it, I’m getting my fitness back and confidence in my body again. I got some more minutes for myself, and I’ll keep working hard, and keep going.”

Phillips opened the scoring as the U’s ultimately suffered an Emirates FA Cup third round exit at Exeter City, rounding off a sweeping counter-attack.

“I thought for the first half an hour, we looked comfortable, but then we’ve got lads who haven’t played a lot of football,” said Phillips.

“Lads are coming back from injury, but there are no excuses not to win the game. Hopefully those minutes in the tank will stand the lads in good stead moving forward because we’re going to need everyone.

“The thing coming into the game was that we were going to continue the run that we’ve been on since the new boss has come in.

“The boys that have been playing have been at 100 per cent, and some of them have been given a rest, and it was an opportunity for the lads coming back from injury that haven’t really been involved much to go and get some minutes, and go and win a game of football.”