JOE Bennett is hoping to use his status as one of the more experienced heads in the Oxford United dressing room ahead of the first leg of their play-off semi-final.

The U’s welcome Peterborough United to Grenoble Road tomorrow night, with a Wembley final the reward for whoever comes out on top after both games.

Bennett played alongside current United teammate Josh Murphy, when Cardiff City lost 3-2 on aggregate to Fulham in the 2019/20 Sky Bet Championship semi-finals.

The left back played the full 90 minutes for the Bluebirds in both matches.

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He said: “You’ve just got to go into the game and perform like you do on any other game.

“Obviously it’s a big occasion, but you’ve got to try and do your best, and make sure you’re ready, and go into the game all guns blazing, and try and get a result. That’s all you can do.

“If you’re a footballer, you’ve got to deal with pressure. It’s part and parcel of the game.

“I think pressure is a good thing. Pressure is when you perform your best, or for me, that’s when I perform my best, when there’s pressure on something.

“It gets you up for the game and gets your adrenaline going. There’s no shame in having pressure, and being able to deal with it is very important.”

The U’s thrashed the Posh 5-0 only last month, but Bennett won’t be factoring that result in when the sides meet again tomorrow night.

Asked whether it’s possible to read anything into the recent meeting, Bennett responded: “I don’t think you can because they beat us away pretty easily to be honest. You just don’t know what’s going to happen, and that’s the beauty of football.

“You’ve just got to be ready, and get as much detail in, to what we’re trying to do, and what we’re trying to achieve.

“We’ve said that we want to play a certain way and we’ve just got to stick to that, and our principles, and hopefully that gets us over the line.”

He added: “If the two games are anything to go by, it should be a good game. I’m looking forward to it.

“They’re a tough team and they’ve got a really good front three, which is going to be difficult on the night.

“They’re a good team, and they’ve shown that. They’ve been in the play-offs for the majority of the season. We need to be ready for what they’re going to bring.”

Praising the support United have received in recent weeks, Bennett said: “They’ve backed us home and away. The away following has been unbelievable. People don’t think it helps, but for players, I think it does.

“I think you underestimate sometimes how big a difference fans makes, and on Saturday, it will be very important.”