OXFORD United spent 15 weeks waiting for a game – and now they are preparing for a second test in 24 hours.

Karl Robinson’s side were edged out 2-1 by what he described as a very strong Reading line-up who scored through Charlie Adam and Danny Loader and had a penalty saved by Simon Eastwood.

And in an echo of the U’s head coach’s normal pre-season preparations, the squad will be asked to go again today with another trip to Sky Bet Championship opposition.

It is all part of their build-up to the League One play-off semi-final with Portsmouth, with the first leg now only ten days away.

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While it has been a long wait for everyone at United to play external opposition, none have had to show the patience of their goalscorer.

It is almost nine months since Ben Woodburn suffered the first of two broken bones in his feet, but the Liverpool loanee put the visitors ahead in style.

Robinson said: “It was a great goal. He hit a volley as well which the keeper made a great save from, so he looked bright and sharp.

“There’s aspects of his game that are still way off the Ben Woodburn that I know, but nothing in my mind has been picked yet, there’s still a lot of work to be done.

“He will see this as an opportunity to be on a level playing field as everyone else, whereas he would have been way behind everybody before.”

All the players were due to report their status last night as United figure out how to approach their second game.

Robinson said: “What we knew as right (before the lockdown) is out the window, it’s almost now on ‘how do you feel?’

“It was really surreal to watch, more than 100 days since we last played.

“Aspects of our game looked OK, some weren’t what you’d expect.

“But we were going in to play against a team that was littered with players who have Premier League experience and it was our first game back after two weeks of training.

“I’m not getting carried away, or too down with the bad things either.

“It’s all part of the new us, not getting frustrated with anything, because you can’t.

“In the play-offs there will be a lot of mistakes.”

Elsewhere, Portsmouth have announced loan extensions with Barnsley and Glasgow Rangers for Cameron McGeehan and Ross McCrorie respectively to cover the games against United.