DARREN Ferguson says Oxford United will begin as favourites when the second leg of the play-off semi-final against his Peterborough United side kicks off next week.

The U’s will take a slim 1-0 advantage to London Road, thanks to Elliott Moore’s second half header last night.

Posh boss Ferguson is taking confidence though from how his team ended the game, as they penned United further and further back, although without carving out a serious chance of note.

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He said after the match: “The tie was never going to be settled in one game. Oxford will start as favourites next week because they will start the game in front.

“That’s the position I would rather be in, but we have been good at home, the atmosphere will be great and hopefully we will get the job done.

“We wanted to take no risks in the opening 10 minutes or so because we knew they would fly at us, which is why we were hitting the ball longer than normal, but we then didn’t help ourselves by continuing to hit the ball too long too early.

“We weathered the frenetic start, but right up until they scored, we weren’t good enough in possession. We were solid out of possession, but with the ball we didn’t play like we can.

“The goal was disappointing. When we look back at the end of the season, the way we have defended set pieces will be seen as our Achilles heel, or at least one of them.

“One of the smallest players on the pitch has won the first contact because one of our players had just let him run off him.

“But we then got our passing game together and we were very dominant in the final 35 minutes. If we play like we did in that spell I would be very confident we can get through.”