BEFORE the season began, most of us would have had the same thing at the top of our Oxford United wish-list: start better.

We all know the U’s have been slow out of the blocks in the last three years, but this campaign has so far been a welcome change.

Karl Robinson targeted eight points from United’s first five Sky Bet League One fixtures and they can achieve that with a draw against Lincoln City tomorrow.

The U’s claimed seven points from their opening three games – for reference, it took them nine matches to reach that tally last season, eight the campaign before, and 13 in 2018/19.

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In that context, United have already started well but it adds an extra dimension to the visit of Lincoln.

You only begin to look at the table after the first ten games, as the old saying goes, but all we really want to see is United challenging towards the top – whether we are five, ten or 40 matches into the campaign.

A win tomorrow would put the U’s on ten points and almost certainly in the top six – that would be impressive, when three of your first five opponents were Charlton Athletic, Bolton Wanderers and last season’s play-off finalists.

It is an arbitrary line to draw, but a positive result against Lincoln would surely banish the ‘slow starters’ tag.