Danny Cowley is realistic about his Braintree Town team’s chances of upsetting Oxford United on their own turf when they meet in their FA Cup first round replay at the Kassam Stadium tonight.

A second round home tie against Forest Green Rovers is the prize awaiting the winner of the replay that is required after the Iron and the U’s drew 1-1 at the Avanti Stadium ten days ago.

It was a heroic performance by Braintree’s players to come from behind and match a side who are flying high in League Two and even though Oxford were down to ten men for the final 20 minutes, Cowley feels his players should be confident in the replay.

He said: “We won’t be tested like that all season in the league and you learn a lot about yourselves mentally, physically, technically and tactically.

“We will take loads from that game.

“Watching it as a coach and as a manager, I learned loads so it was a fantastic game to be involved in.

“We have to draw confidence from it because Oxford are a marvellous football team and we drew one-all with them.

“We have to take confidence from it but also learn at the same time because there are things that we can do better.

“I really think that and we’ll keep watching the games back and feeding back information to the players.

“We are trying to evolve and improve all the time and we have some really good qualities in the group.

“There is a lot of platform to build from, but we’re being demanding on ourselves and trying to improve.”

However, the Iron boss knows Oxford will be even more impressive on their own patch.

“If we’re totally realistic, the first game was probably our best chance,” he added.

“That’s the reality as I’ve seen their pitch and watched Oxford in quite a lot of footage and they move the ball very well on that pitch.

“I think what we saw in the first meeting will be even further magnified in the replay.

“But we have to enjoy the challenges.

“It will be really tough but you have to enjoy the questions, especially tactically and technically, that they ask of you.

“Particularly without the ball, they move you around.

“I have never seen a 4-4-2 formation with as much rotation as they had in the first game.

“It was like a choreographed dance.”