Oxford United’s play-off opponents Rushden will be faced with hundreds of Chris Wilders in the two-legged semi-finals!

Supporters trust OxVox have had a mass of Chris Wilder masks produced, and fans have been snapping them up for the 12th Man Fund.

Many supporters plan to wear the masks of the U’s manager at the Blue Square Premier play-offs.

They cost £3, with the money raised going towards the club.

The masks were the brainchild of OxVox committee member Simon Bradbury.

He said: “I was just scanning other websites and saw some pictures of other team’s managers and players, and that gave me the idea.

“It was initially going to be something for after Christmas to celebrate a wonderful 12 months for the club with Chris Wilder in charge.

“I had four or five pics but didn’t have a good one of him smiling, so emailed United begging them to send a nice photo of him, and they did.”

He added: “We’ve had 1,500 produced and there’s an order of another 1,500, or as many as we want really, ready if we get to Wembley.”

Wilder himself, who drew the headline “The Rott-Wilder” midway through the season after he blasted his players when their standards slipped, laughed that it wasn’t so unusual to see him smiling, as the mask depicts.

“I’m quite a happy, jovial person actually,” he said. “Now and again I bark, but I’m happy a lot of the time, and I’m happy where we are and we’re looking forward to the play-offs. We’ve given ourselves an opportunity of getting out of the league and we’re all positive here.”

He added: “The 12th Man have been unbelievable this year in the way they’ve helped out the club.

“We’re looking forward to close on 3,000 Oxford fans at Rushden.

“I’m desperate to repay them with what they want, and the players are as well. If we can put it all together, hopefully we can give the fans a memorable end to the season.”