MANAGER Malcolm Shotton says Oxford United are going to have to treat every one of their last ten matches as though it is the FA Cup final itself.

United's failure to beat Huddersfield at home on Tuesday, plus Port Vale's surprise win at Norwich, has put Shotton's team under great pressure.

And they enter tomorrow's Division 1 match against Watford at the Manor Ground with the boss demanding that they become mentally stronger.

"We've got ten games left and all ten are massive games," Shotton said. "We've got to treat every one of them like Cup Finals.

"I was pleased with the way we played the other night. We played some very, very good football.

"That was what was so disappointing. The two lads up front worked hard but we had three or four chances that other teams would have taken. We had three one-on-ones in the first half alone and I thought we should have had two penalties, but we're not getting anything from the officials at the moment.

"It was a game we should have won because we might easily have been three or four up by half-time. We have got to be mentally stronger and more clinical - at both ends."

Shotton was so upset at dropping two points to a late penalty in the 2-2 draw with Town that he stormed off at the end of the game.

Yesterday, the players were again put through morning and afternoon training in a bid to get it right on matchday.

Shotton is expected to name an unchanged line-up, giving another chance to the front duo Andy Thomson and Matt Murphy who were full off good running, and now need to bury their chances.

Dutch defender Brian Wilsterman, who injured his thigh in the 2-1 defeat at Ipswich last month, has been ordered to rest one more week after having some blood drained from the muscle at a clinic at Nantwich in Cheshire this week.

The U's have now gone five games without a win. But opponents Watford have lost their last three, equalling their worst sequence of the season.

However, the last time they suffered three successive defeats they bounced back in style by winning three on the trot to move to second in the table.

Since then they have slipped to eighth, one reason why tomorrow's game is no longer all-ticket.

Hornets striker Gifton Noel-Williams is out with a thigh injury. Richard Johnson is expected to return to midfield following a pulled hamstring, replacing the Israeli Alon Hazan.

UNITED centre back Phil Whelan has joined third division Rotherham United on a month's loan following a change of heart.

Story date: Saturday 13 March

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