Oxford United manager Wilder says no let-up

The players trained hard on the softer area of the Kassam Stadium pitch on Tuesday afternoon and early evening after referee John Farries called off that night's FA Trophy game against Woking because other parts were still frozen.

Striker Matt Green said: “We trained on one of the softer parts, and worked hard. The intensity is still there.

“We trained till late at night. If that meant getting stuck in the evening rush-hour traffic, well that’s the sacrifices you have to make if you're trying to be successful.”

He added: “In training we are playing matches and training really, really hard.

“We’ve been doing lots of running.

“Anyone from outside who comes to see us train can see how hard we are working in training and that we are trying to make up for lost time.

“Obviously it is frustrating having matches called off.

“All we can do is keep the hammer down and not ease up.”

Wilder said there is good reason why the U's are maintaining a high tempo on the training ground.

“We don’t want to chuck away all the work we’ve put in through the first half of the season by taking our foot off the gas,” he said.

“The players have had the rest in this time but when they’ve come in to work, whether it’s in the gym, in the Dome at Milton Keynes, or on the pitch like on Tuesday afternoon, they’ve worked hard.

“We’ve got to hit the ground running. We’ve got to make a fast start when we do get going, we can’t afford to start slowly.

“After the Woking game was called off we trained on the half of the pitch that was OK from having had covers on.

“It’s the first time we’ve really been outside for any length of time, and we just got the maximum out of it that we could.

“Even towards the end of the training session, it was getting pretty hairy.

“But, fingers crossed, with a 3 o’clock kick-off on Saturday for Tamworth it will be OK – we’re desperate to play.”