OXFORD United boss Karl Robinson felt his players needed the intra-squad game last night to stay sharp.

The late cancellation of their Sky Bet League One clash against Crewe Alexandra potentially posed a problem ahead of Saturday’s trip to Peterborough United.

With United tailoring their training schedules around taking on the Railwaymen in midweek, giving the players yesterday off was not an option.

Neither was a regular session, given the timing of the announcement and the lack of floodlights at their training ground.

Robinson said: “We’ve prepared ready to perform.

“That means we’ve come off them on Sunday and Monday, so if we didn’t do anything on Tuesday then fundamentally they’re going through a period in the week where they’re not hitting the levels we need.

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“The problem with a game is you’re always suspect to knocks and kicks, we understand that, but you get them in training.

“By the time we found out it was too late to get players in before it got dark, so we wouldn’t have been able to work at the training ground.

“We played under the lights here, which is nice.”

They opted to split the squad between hosts Oxford United, with the other half of the squad playing as Headington United.

“We thought we’d have a bit of fun with it,” Robinson, who opted to watch from the stands as Craig Short and John Mousinho took charge of the sides.

“In the midst of all this craziness it’s Oxford against Headington.”

James Henry did not feature due to a sore knee, although he would have featured against Crewe if the game had gone ahead.