Oxford United's key defender Luke Foster says all the players are firmly behind manager Darren Patterson to get the U's back up the table.

Last season's player-of-the-year returned from a four-game suspension to play his part – and a significant part it was too – in United's televised 3-1 win over Cambridge United at the Kassam Stadium on Tuesday night, a result and performance which might just have saved Patto's job.

And Foster says he feels this can be the new start of his own season, not just the team's.

"We're all behind the gaffer, without a doubt," said Foster. "No-one else can do the job for us when we get past that white line, it's down to ourselves.

"And a lot of us, including myself, haven't been up to scratch performance-wise, especially as a team.

"Against Cambridge we showed what we can do. But it's all about consistency . . . we have to keep that up now for the rest of the season."

It was the first time since pre-season that Patterson has been able to put out almost his first-choice team, and having Foster absent for five games after his two red cards hasn't helped.

But the defender knows he has to regard that as water under the bridge and look forward.

"There's no point making excuses for the sendings-off, they're gone now. I've got to forget about that, and hopefully keep in the team and keep the level of consistency that I had last year, and move on from that.

"I'd not played with Karleigh (Osborne) before, but we did well together. I'd been out for a few games, but it felt good in the game. I've just got to keep improving – not just myself, but the team as well.

"A win like that's been well overdue. If you take away the Eastbourne game, there have been a lot of disappointing performnaces, especially on Setanta, so we needed that for our confidence.

"It could have been more than 3-1. Cambridge had one shot and a couple of half-shots, but nothing more, and we created five or six chances against a top side, and one that's going to be there or thereabouts at the end of the season."