Oxford United are South-ern Softies no more!

Chris Wilder’s team showed they have that grit, determination and steel you need if you want to be successful, to go with their attacking flair, with a performance of great resilience at York on Saturday.

And U’s boss Wilder acknowledged how important that aspect of a team is as he saw his men stay seven points ahead of the pack following the hard-fought 1-1 draw at KitKat Crescent.

“There was all this talk in the pressabout us getting beaten up – and we’ve stood up to that physical challenge,” he said.

“We’ve tried to play when we could, and we were up against a decent side.

“It was a backs-to-the-wall performance where we have put ourselves on the line and where the defenders have come out with the credit.

“We were pretty ordinary on the ball second half – I thought we moved it around really well in the first half – but whereas it was the forwards getting all the glory last week, it’s the Fosters, Bulmans and Clists this time.”

It wasn’t that many years ago that some clubs regarded Oxford as a soft touch when they went away, especially to grounds in the north where they would be physically over-powered or struggle to cope with the conditions.

That even happened at the start of last season at Barrow.

But this season’s team have come through unbeaten from four games in six weeks at Wrexham, Gateshead, Barrow and York.

And Wilder has laughed away some of the attacks on Oxford United, like one from Luton’s Andy Burgess, who said he thinks they will fall away, just as they did three seasons ago.

“There’s been a lot of talk during the week,” Wilder said.

“People like to make a lot of comments about our football club. We just like to keep stum and get on with the job.

“We were not at our best. Last week yes, this week not. But our desire to get something from the game was tremendous.

“To get to 40 points by mid-October and 17 games is not a bad return.

“My experienced boys were really good. Foster, Bulman and Clist, are under-rated and not eye-catching, but just go about their work.

“We talked at the start of the season about bringing people in that had experience of these situations.

“Not many people will come here and have it their own way. York are a very physical side, so we’ve had to stand up to that test and we’ve got a good point from a tough game.”