SAM Long is ready to keep upping his game as he gets set for a milestone appearance in Oxford United colours.

The 29-year-old academy graduate will make his 250th appearance for the U’s if he features at Coventry City in the second round of the Carabao Cup tonight.

Long made his United debut in April 2013, and aside from loan stints with Kidderminster Harriers and Hampton & Richmond, the Bicester-born defender has only ever played for the U’s.

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He said: “At the start of my journey here, it was probably a distant ambition of mine. I’m really proud and happy to get there, and to hopefully achieve that.

“Earlier on in my career, I had a few battles with injuries, and I had to fight my way back and prove to people that I’m good enough to play for this club.

“To play 250 times for this club, I’m obviously doing something right, and hopefully there are many more to come.

“Every time I step on the pitch, I always give 100 per cent for the club. I love the club and I’ve grown up since I was eight years old playing for them.”

This is Oxfordshire:

United have come a long way since Long’s debut from the bench at Accrington Stanley in a League Two clash, with the club now competing in the second tier for the first time since the 1998/99 campaign.

Long said: “You always improve when you’re playing with better players. With the experience that I’ve had coming up the leagues, and the amount of games that I’ve played, you’re only going to improve.

“I’ve done that, and I’m learning every day around better players, and you have to up your levels. That’s what everyone is doing, and I’m no different.

“The club has come so far, from the move from the old training ground and little things around the training ground with the improvements on and off the pitch, and we’re back in the Championship after 25 years.

“We know that we’ve had a good start that maybe could’ve been a bit better with results from the performances that we’ve put in, but it’s fine margins.

“We need to find a way to flip those fine margins in our favour, and if we can do that, I think we’ll be fine.”

In the absence of Elliott Moore due to a knee injury, Long skippered the U’s last time out at Blackburn Rovers.

He said: “It was a really proud moment for me and my family that I captained the club in the Championship.

“It’s a club that is very special to me, and to be able to do that was a really proud moment.”