AMID the jubilation after the final whistle at Kenilworth Road which confirmed Oxford United’s place in the Checkatrade Trophy final, one man was developing a headache.

How exactly do you fit in all the preparations for a trip to Wembley at a month’s notice amid the busiest schedule anyone can remember?

The job falls under the remit of Crawford Chalmers, United’s head of football operations.

He said: “I remember thinking the night we won at Luton we had eight games to play before turning our attention to Wembley.

“There has been a countdown to Wembley going on in the background and you can’t deny it.

“There’s no point in saying ‘don’t talk about it’, because everyone is thinking about it. It’s only natural.

“In my role I’ve got to make sure Wembley goes as smoothly as possible and is planned as well as possible,” said Chalmers, who took on the role last autumn.

The one big benefit is United can use last year’s visit to Wembley in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final as a blueprint.

As a result, much of the itinerary in the build-up will be a repeat of 12 months ago.

The squad’s final two training sessions will be spent at Bisham Abbey, before a tour of the stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The challenge is to find details to tweak which build on last year and can work – the idea of the players walking from to the stadium with fans forming a guard of honour was considered, but had to be rejected because their hotel is next to the Coventry end.

Chalmers said: “However well things go there are always things you can improve on.

“At the end of the day you want to take on board what worked well and then add a little bit you think personally will add some value.

“It’s a nice problem to have.”