Oxford United

United look to bounce back to winning ways tonight as they travel to Cheltenham Town. An uncharacteristic three defeats in a row have seen United slip out of the play-off places but Manager Chris Wilder is looking for his side to show a positive reaction as they make the short trip to the Robins this evening.

“It is a big game for both teams” Chris told Yellow Player. “They’ve lost two on the bounce as well and have not been flying either. A win for us takes us back into the play-offs so we won’t get carried away after Saturday, we have to be sensible about things. We know that Saturday wasn’t good enough from our point of view. For me to say it was one of the most disappointing afternoons I’ve had in four and a half years here tells a tale.

“We have a lot more fight about us than we showed. We have to show more intensity and play with a quicker tempo and if we do that then we always look a decent side. We need to show that Saturday was a one off.

“ I can handle individual mistakes or maybe over-committing against Exeter or trying to get back from 3-0 down to 3-2 and showing great desire, but one thing I don’t accept is when we are not fully committed and trying to make contact with the game. The players know that. It happened last year and we recovered from it, when we ground out a result at Morecambe. It happened the year before when we went to Chesterfield and beat by far the best team in the division that year. We have to show the same attributes to go and get a result at Cheltenham on Tuesday night.”

Cheltenham have also lost ground on the leaders in the last week or so but Chris expects Mark Yates and his accomplished team to be promotion contenders come May:

“I know Mark and they have signed good players and have a strong squad. They will be looking to do well again this season and we respect that and we know what’s coming, but I’m just looking for a reaction from my own players. As quickly as we have gone from winning three games to losing three games we can turn it around again just as quickly, that is the nature of the game.”

See the whole video interview, and hear the whole game live in Yellow Player tonight.