The U’s head to Peterborough United this evening with the 1-0 advantage secured on Saturday night, thanks to Elliott Moore’s second half header.
The first leg was cagey at times, with clear chances at a premium.
With the Posh needing to score in the second leg, and with a home crowd backing them, the expectation is that Darren Ferguson’s side, who finished as the leading scorers in League One this season, will take the game to United.
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Asked if the U’s will aim to defend what they have for 90 minutes, Buckingham responded: “I think we’d be naive to try and do that. I’ve never done that, and I don’t want to be that type of coach.
“We’ve got players that I’m sure wouldn’t want to do that, and the fans certainly wouldn’t want us to do that.
“We’ve got a way that we want to play, and we will try and do that when we go to their place.
“I think when you defend against a very good team in Peterborough, and the players they have, it becomes a matter of time before you give them half a chance, and that’s sometimes all they need.
“We’ll pay them the respect that they rightly deserve, but we’ll make sure we also try and get our game plan right.”
Buckingham compared tonight’s clash to when United headed into the final day of the regular season at Exeter City, when the U’s knew the permutations to clinch a play-off place, and focused on their own game.
“It’s similar to going into Exeter, that we know what we have to do going into this. As long as we concentrate on that, we’ll put ourselves in the best position possible,” said Buckingham.
“I’ve spoken a lot now about the players knowing what we do and how to do it, but we just need to perform on the evening.
“If we stick to what we have control of, we’ll put ourselves in that best spot.”
For the first leg, Buckingham named an unchanged line-up from the side which won at Exeter, and kept his cards close to his chest when it came to his team selection for tonight.
He said: “We have to pick what we feel is the right personnel and the right team. It can’t be because we did well last time.
“If we feel there is the opportunity to make small changes in personnel or the way that we set up, we’ll certainly look at that.”
He added: “These are the games that you want to go into. You’ve worked so hard, and the players have had 60-odd games to get to this point.
“To arrive at this moment, we’re all really just looking forward to what will be an exciting game.”