PEP Clotet urged his players to stay united as they attempt to bounce back from Saturday's record defeat.

The 7-0 loss to Wigan Athletic was Oxford United's heaviest at home for a league game.

There has been little time to put things right on the training field ahead of the Boxing Day trip to Gillingham.

But Clotet believes having another game so quickly is a positive.

The United boss said: "The mood in the dressing room is very simple – we’ve been through this together and it’s happened to us all.

"We’ve got to stick together and work very hard, because that’s what we’ve done from the beginning.

"They are angry because of what happened and are hurt, but I see strength in them as well.

"I think it’s a good thing we’ve got a game on Tuesday."

The hammering at the hands of the Sky Bet League One leaders will have been a shock to the system.

While the magnitude and manner of the result was disastrous, afterwards Clotet sought to look at the bigger picture.

And for him, the real key is making sure the impact of the defeat does not linger with three games coming up in the space of seven days.

He said: "What we lost (against Wigan) is one point.

"We had one point when the game started at 0-0 and that’s what we lost.

"What is very important in football is we understand as a team – I know fans sometimes don’t think like that – but what we lost is that one point.

"We didn’t want to lose it the way we did, but that’s what happened – we lost a point.

"The most important thing to learn from this is to make sure we don’t lose more points because of it.

"That’s the message we had in the locker room.

"It happened, we can do nothing to sort it out so we have to put it aside and focus on the next game."

Clotet did not plan to change United's preparations for today's game and the squad were always due to travel to Kent yesterday.

Although only the most optimistic spectators will have taken anything positive from the Latics thrashing, the Spaniard did salvage something.

For the second half Jon Obika was brought on to play alongside Wes Thomas.

Clotet has rarely used two up front this season, instead preferring to deploy a creative midfielder behind a lone striker.

But with Gino van Kessel back in the squad and Agon Mehmeti very close to a return, the U's boss believes it could be used more often.

He said: "I liked the team much better when we played with two strikers in the second half, because we were able to put more of a threat.

"I always like to play with two men up front, but it changes a lot the way we can control the games.

"You’ll have less control, but sometimes you’ll have more threat.

"What’s fair to say is I really liked the fact we were able to create more problems with Jon and Wes up front.

"Obviously it’s tough when you only have Wes and Jon available, you cannot play with two strikers because as soon as something happens you don’t have anyone.

"But now we’re getting Gino and Agon back that might be a way forward."