Year to savour for United's boss (From The Oxford Times)

Year to savour for United's boss

8:00am Monday 21st December 2009 in

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IT’S one year exactly that Chris Wilder has been in the Oxford United hot seat.

He took over in the week before Christmas 12 months ago, and his first match was the Boxing Day game at Salisbury.

And what a year it’s been since then.

His league record is a remarkable 33-8-5 from 46 games, and a total of 107 points at well over two points per game.

There were many things that Wilder addressed when he came in.

And I asked him recently, what had he paid particular attention to improving?

“The work ethic of the team and the humility of the team,” he said. “I think the commitment and workrate is evident, and we’ve got some good players.

“In and around the club, we try to stress we’re humble. We’ve not achieved anything, but we’re going in the right direction.

“I think the supporters have cottoned on to that and whatever we have to do to be successful, we’ll do it.

“We’re happy with where we are, but know there’s still a hell of a long way to go in terms of getting the club to where we feel we should be.”

Under Wilder, United have not gone over-the-top in their reaction to any defeat, nor have they gone out to boast about their triumphs, like beating League One Yeovil in the FA Cup.

“I said that we won’t get carried away because we believe, with the size of the club and the structure, it is apparent that we should be in and around the position where Yeovil are, and with the possibility to progress from there,” Wilder added.

“That’s something we’ve got to work hard to achieve.”

The final two games of 2009 are all tough, but the U’s have looked fit and strong this season, and they will want to finish the year on a high.

Wilder admitted: “I think we look strong in games – strong physically.

“We’ve got athletes in the side, we’ve got competition for places and we’ve got goals at the top of the pitch.

“And at the other end, we’ve got players that want to defend, and two excellent goalkeepers.

“We do look strong in games, and we’ve got to make sure we keep that going.

“The players work very hard during the week. Obviously, the supporters don’t see that, but it’s all helped to put us on the front foot in the back end of games, and that’s down to the work the players put in during training and the way we set training up during the week.”

Wilder’s signings have been good – or 90 per cent of them, at least, which is an impressive percentage – and there have been many highlights in his first year.

Putting five goals past Ebbsfleet in his first home game, winning eight and drawing one of the nine league games that began with that 5-1 success, spoiling Burton’s end-of-season party, and this season stunning home wins over Luton and, in the FA Cup, against Yeovil.

Away from home this season, Oxford have been very professional, and that last-gasp comeback win at Crawley will be remembered for a long time by those who were there.

It has been a remarkable year, statistically one of the mostsuccessful ever for Oxford United.

“The big thing is that we compete,” Wilder said at theweekend.

“That was what was good about our performance against Hayes & Yeading in the Trophy, coming just four days after that disappointing Tuesday night defeat at Barrow.

“It was a reminder that you have to compete. We have nearly always done that, and we need to keep doing it.”