DES Buckingham has reiterated that Oxford United are in the market for more attacking players, while he hopes to get them in sooner rather than later.

The U’s have already made four signings so far in the January transfer window, in goalkeeper Jamie Cumming, wingers Tyler Burey and Kyle Edwards, plus striker Will Goodwin.

However, Edwards will be unavailable until the end of March due to a hamstring injury, while Goodwin will join full training later this month, as he shakes off a quad problem.

Further injuries and fitness issues with Billy Bodin, Marcus Browne and Josh Murphy leave United head coach Buckingham with limited resources for the time being.

He said: “We’ll still go after attacking players, that’s what we’ve set out to do. We’ve got 19 games to go, and we’re a team that wants to go forward, put pressure on other teams and score goals.

“We’re going after two more forwards. Ideally a centre forward and a wide right forward.

“Obviously we lost Stan Mills in that role, so it’s to make sure we’ve got what we need to fire us through and finish where we want.”

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The U’s have two games left before the transfer window slams shut at 11pm on February 1.

United travel to Bristol Rovers on Saturday, before welcoming current Sky Bet League One leaders Portsmouth to Grenoble Road next Tuesday.

Buckingham said: “If we can, we’ll try and bring them in as soon as possible because we’ve still got two games to play before the window closes.

“If we can get them in earlier, they’ll be able to play a role in those two games.”

Buckingham’s comments echo those from his pre-match press conference on Monday afternoon, prior to last night’s 1-0 defeat at home to fellow promotion hopefuls Barnsley.

“At the moment, up front, we’re a little bit light in the frontline. Josh Murphy is still out and we’ve obviously lost Stan Mills,” Buckingham said earlier this week.

“Kyle Edwards, Marcus Browne and Billy Bodin are still out as well, so what I’d call five potential starting players out.

“We’re still looking to recruit in the frontline, to complement what we have.”

Oxford Mail:

Against Barnsley, the U’s struggled to get to grips with tricky weather conditions, whereas the visitors were able to mix their play up using the height and presence of strikers Devante Cole and John McAtee, plus half-time substitute Sam Cosgrove.

Asked whether games such as last night would be the ones where Goodwin might be able to boost United, Buckingham said: “The what ifs, but he wasn’t available, so I don’t want to delve into the whats and the ifs.

“The good thing is that Will will come good in the next couple of weeks, and we’ll have other options as well, especially in that frontline.

“You can see in the second half when we brought Tyler Burey on, it just gives us different options and a bit more pace.”