Wilder's warning (From Herald Series)

Wilder's warning

8:00am Monday 8th February 2010

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Oxford United manager Chris Wilder has called for calm heads, especially at home, after his team went back to the top of the league.

The U’s returned to the Blue Square Premier summit following Saturday’s 0-0 draw against Kidderminster at the Kassam Stadium, because Stevenage lost 1-0 at Tamworth.

But in-form York have closed to within a point for the top two after their 1-0 victory at Kettering.

There was disappointment in United’s camp that they couldn’t capitalise more with all three points, and Wilder admits everyone’s a bit edgy in home matches.

“I’m delighted that we’re top of the league, but know that we’ve got to be a little bit calmer at home,” he said.

“We need to pass the ball better and make more right decisions at the top of the pitch.

“While Kidderminster were dangerous, we had four or five really good chances, and one was maybe good enough to win the game.”

Recalled Jamie Cook squandered a great scoring opportunity in the first ten seconds, and then others were missed, with Jack Midson passing up two good chances, and Sam Deering and James Constable making a mess of a glorious break in the second half.

Wilder said: “We’ve got to be better at home.

“We’ve got a great home record and we’ve taken a lot of plaudits here this season, and have to take the criticism when it comes our way.

“We’re playing a little bit edgy at the moment. That’s obviously off the back of losing the one game we have done.

“We’ve got to still keep believing in ourselves and in what got us into this position. It’s all about the accumulation of points by the last game of the season at Eastbourne that puts you where you are.”

United missed back injury victim Adam Murray, but they still did most of the attacking, and just needed someone to stick the ball in the net.

The U’s boss added: “We’ve played 4-4-2 with Sam in behind, we’ve played with width, which is what everybody seems to want us to do . . . we’re just a bit edgy at the moment.

“I think that does change with a decent result, and maybe the ball hitting the back of the net in the first 20 seconds settles it down.

“The longer it goes, everybody gets edgy.

“We’ve got to make sure we overcome that, because this place is going to play a major part in us being in the position where we want to be – we’ve got the most home games left – and we can’t all of a sudden turn this into an edgy place.

“The players have got to play their part with their performances, they understand that.

“They’ve got to have the nuts to get on the ball and make decisions, and block other things out. Hopefully, when we start flowing again, we’ll be back moving forward – even though we’re top.”

Top-scorer James Constable collected his tenth yellow card of the season on Saturday, which brings him a two-match suspension and rules him out of both tomorrow night’s game at Luton, and Histon’s visit to the Kassam Stadium on Saturday.

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Your Say YourOxfordshire

Richard Wickson, Ellesmere Port says...
9:13am Mon 8 Feb 10

I am often, no, frequently accused of being negative but there is one person in the oxford camp that is far more negative than me and that is Chris Wilder. When OU were chasing the pack last back end he was very positive as we had everything to gain and nothing to lose, now the role is reversed, we had led from August 18th and i feel the pressure has told, now we need to get things rolling again he seems confused and to play 1 up front, you cannot say Deering was a striker on saturday is to me, very negative tactics, playing not to lose as opposed to playing to win. Kiderminster were a shell of the side that put us to the sword at their place but to be honest we were woeful. We cannot afford any more days like that and CW needs to look at himself before b£ll£cking the players, i know it wasnt him that made Cook or Midson miss the best 2 chances of the game but his tactics created the tension on the pitch.