Oxford United boss insists he doesn't need former Blackpool coach Chris Short to get lowdown on the Seasiders

Terry McPhillips will be reunited with his former colleague when Pool face Oxford at the Kassam Stadium on Saturday.

Short spent five months at Bloomfield Road, originally working as first-team coach before later occupying the role of fitness coach.

He then departed to join Robinson’s backroom staff at Oxford in a sports science role back in November.

“If I have to lean on him then that means I haven’t done my homework,” Robinson told Oxford Mail. “I’ll watch it independently and then I’ll ask him.

“We have to be respectful as well because they were very good in the transition of him coming here.

“I’ll ask questions obviously, but I’d like to think I’d know most of the players and their strengths anyway.

“They’re very fit – it’s one of the reasons why we brought Shorty in. They’re very well coached and they have a way of playing which is difficult to play against.

“Armand Gnanduillet (who had a loan spell with Oxford in 2015) is a handful and they certainly get it to him very quickly. They’re a little bit like Shrewsbury in some ways where they have an amazing ability to get around him very quickly and make it difficult for you to play out. They can make the game hard.

“There’s an honesty to Blackpool and there’s talent in their ranks as well. They flood boxes to score goals, so we’ll have to be as good as we were at the weekend (when Oxford drew 2-2 away at Peterborough) to get a result.”