Bloomfield wary of

Matt Bloomfield is wary of Blackburn's Rovers manager Michael O'Neill's 'unique' connection to the Oxford United squad.

The two clubs face off tomorrow in an important game around the Championship relegation zone as the 23rd-placed U's take on 20th-placed Blackburn with just four points splitting them.

Rovers boss O'Neill is also manager of the Northern Ireland national team of who Oxford have four current Green and White Army players in their ranks.

"It’s a fairly unique situation I would suggest," Bloomfield pondered in his pre-match press conference.

"It’s not very often a manager has a club and an international job and comes up against a team with so many players from the nation.

Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill during a press conference (Image: Niall Carson/PA Wire)

"Michael will have a big know-how about a lot of our players and I’m sure he’ll be using that to the best advantage that he can.

"We’re going to have a tough game.

"Michael’s an extremely experienced manager who sets his team up.

"They look really well-organised, really diligent in their defensive shape.

"It’s not going to be easy for us to break them down at all."

Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill (Image: Niall Carson/PA Wire)

The Northern Irish contingent in OX4 consists of Ciaron Brown, Brodie Spencer, Jamie McDonnell, and Jamie Donley, with all but McDonnell having played for the senior national team under O'Neill.

The Rovers manager has overseen five game so far after taking charge in February, winning his first two and losing the following two before drawing 1-1 with fellow relegation-threatened side Portsmouth last time out.

Meanwhile, the Yellows have won their last two games with a victory over West Bromwich Albion preceding Friday's impressive 3-1 win away at Preston North End.

The club and city now has a restored sense of belief going into the last couple of months of the season.

"If you hear what was going on in the changing room after the game on Friday, with our supporters around, speaking to people around Oxford and bumping into people, it’s been lovely to do," U's boss Bloomfield continued.

"And I feel like there’s a confidence and a belief coming back to our football club which is what we’ve been searching for.

"There’s been an increase in performance level. We’ve looked like we’ve had a good consistency about us.

"I think there’s been a repetition about our in-possession and out-of-possession shapes and what we’re going after and that’s starting to come through.

"I really want to give our supporters something to cheer about tomorrow night but it’s going to be a tough game against really stern opposition, so we have to make sure that we perform properly."