Oxford United go into Saturday's game at Northwich knowing they can take nothing for granted.

Most of the leading teams in the Blue Square Premier have found winning at places like Droylsden and Northwich a piece of cake.

But the U's haven't been impressive on their travels all year.

They lost 1-0 at Northwich at the end of last season and have already suffered several nightmare away trips this campaign, defeats which played a large part in Jim Smith stepping down.

United have improved over the last few weeks, and would dearly love a similar result to the one they achieved at Kidderminster, but manager Darren Patterson is telling people to think again if they reckon three points tomorrow is a foregone conclusion.

"Northwich beat Rushden a couple of weeks ago, who as we all know snuffled us quite easily, drew away last week, and went to Cambridge and got narrowly beaten - I spoke to the Cambridge manager afterwards and he said they were fortunate - so it's going to be no easy game.

"If we get a win, it's an excellent result. It's a tough game and we'll go into it with that mentality.

"We're not good enough to go into these types of games just thinking we can win it. You look at Histon and Droylsden away . . . we've got a not very good record this season against this type of side."

So although they are propping up the table, Northwich in December are very different from the side they put out in August/September.

"I watched them early season and, without being disrespectful, they were poor," Patterson said. "I watched them at Stevenage two weeks before we played them in the Cup, and they were greatly improved.

"And when they played us, I thought they did OK on the day, and the results have gone well since we played them, and the reports are that they're getting better and better.

He added: "The report I've got on them is a very good report actually. They're progressing every week, similar to what we've done, they've changed their system and it's helped them greatly."

Northwich, as Oxford found out three weeks ago in the FA Cup, are no push-overs.

They may have won only once this season, but they have been improving steadily.

And 6ft 3in striker Lucas Akins, who is on loan from Huddersfield, is likely to be quite a handful for the U's defence.

Akins, pacy and skilful, will probably link up with ex-U's striker Lee Steele The consortium which has just bought debt-ridden Northwich is likely to hand manager Dino Maamria an extended contract.