We’ve gradually inched our way closer to home in the last seven days: Sunderland, Doncaster and now Milton Keynes in a game against a club close to my heart.

I’ll always be grateful to MK Dons for giving me the opportunity to manage them and I’m very proud of everything we achieved there.

If I have one regret, it’s not being aggressive enough in the transfer window after we won promotion to the Championship, but we still created some amazing memories and I look forward to seeing some old friends again today.

But I’m going there as Oxford United manager and with more than 2,000 fans singing their hearts out in the away end it will be an amazing occasion.

If you also travelled to the Stadium of Light and the Keepmoat Stadium, then I hope we can turn a good week into a great one today.

People talk about tiredness when you play three games in a week, but you also have to guard against being mentally drained from all that travelling.

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We switched things around and trained late in the afternoon on Monday, grabbed something to eat and then travelled up to Doncaster the evening before the match.

It just allowed everyone to get a good night’s rest, a day to prepare without being on the motorway for half of it, and in the end it paid off with another excellent win.

On Wednesday, the players had the option of coming in to use the cryochamber: think of it as a ‘walk-in freezer’ which is set to around -90 degrees.

Two minutes in there gets the heart pumping and the blood flowing, which helps your recovery.

I think most fans experienced similar temperatures when we played Rotherham the other week!

After that, we’ve trained with tremendous intensity over the last two days and we’ll make the short journey to MK in really good shape.

If we win, we’ll be in a wonderful position with just three games left until the January transfer window opens and we can hopefully strengthen a very strong squad.

We have very exciting plans, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Like we always do, we’ll take each game as it comes, give it everything we have, and let’s see if we can send 2,000 people back across the Buckinghamshire to Oxfordshire border with smiles on their faces.

Match report: Penalty heartbreak for Oxford United Under 18s after Youth Cup thriller

There was one other game this week: I went across to Cambridge to watch the Under 18s in the FA Youth Cup.

From 1-0 down, they went 2-1 up with two minutes left and then conceded in stoppage-time to send it to extra time.

I was thinking of warming up in the cryochamber at that stage!

As often happens, the energy they put in meant both sides ran out of steam and the game was decided on penalties.

That was a cruel way for our young players to go out of the competition and they were really down in the changing room after.

I was gutted for them and could see the hurt and pain on their faces, not just those who missed the penalties but every one of the players in the squad.

They have to use that pain and let it drive them forwards.

There’s so much talent in the academy and it’s often how you use the setbacks and learn from them that defines you.