Bowyer pepped up for a thriller

Clotet’s U’s travel to Bloomfield Road this weekend and have, like Pool, lost only one of their seven league games.

Spaniard Clotet’s side like to play passing football from the back, and with Bowyer’s team also liking to keep the ball down and play on the grass, the Pool boss is anticipating an aesthetically pleasing affair at Bloomfield Road.

Pool are on a fine run of form themselves and unbeaten in six, and Bowyer said: “It will be a different type of game than Plymouth. Oxford are a very good footballing side, who play the right way and have a foreign manager who has got them really playing well.

“He is very ably supported by Derek Fazackerley, who has been there, done it and seen it all. We are very aware of the challenge ahead but we enter the game full of confidence.”

Blackpool welcomed 13 new arrivals during the summer and Oxford have 14 new faces, though Bowyer says the visitors do have the advantage of knowing this division better.

He added: “Unlike us, they have experience of being in this league last year.

“Like us they have had a high turnover of players and I am expecting a really entertaining game of football.

“We know what they are about and that we are going to have to stop them.

“But we have options of our own going forward and we are confident.”