Oxford United chairman Kelvin Thomas has urged supporters to stay upbeat.

Chris Wilder’s men are approa-ching a key part of the season and it’s important, Thomas believes, that fans remain as positive as they were in the first half of the campaign.

The U’s are still ahead of target, the club’s chairman stressed, even though Stevenage have sneaked a point ahead of them in the race for automatic promotion. Oxford have two games in hand.

Saturday's first home defeat of the season, 1-0 by Tamworth, has inevitably led to some worried fans recalling how United fell away after leading the division four years ago.

But the current staff and players can’t do anything about the club’s recent poor history, and they are focusing their efforts on fighting off the challenges of Stevenage, York, and others to secure a return to the Football League.

“We’re still way ahead of where we were expecting to be, or hoped to be,” Thomas said.

“I think the second half of the season is going to be an exciting one, we’re going to have to continue to work hard on what we’re trying to achieve.

“The first two months were our best two months,” he admitted. “The players really came out of the blocks, they should be proud of what they’ve done.

“It think it’s got a little bit harder now, we’ve had two or three injuries and it's been very stop-start the last month, and that’s affected everyone.

“But overall, when you look at the points total we have now, we're in good shape.”

The togetherness shown by fans and the club has played a significant part in putting Oxford in an excellent position, and Thomas says it is vitally important that the trend continues.

“What we’ve got here at this football club, and it’s been shown with the 12th Man Fund, with clearing the pitch last week and that kind of stuff . . . the unity is here.

“This club’s been through some pretty tough times, but we have to be positive and look forward.

“Even in my short time here, in those 14 months, we’ve had some pretty dark days, and the way we’ve got through that is with positivity.

“Positivity’s infectious – we’ve improved as a club because we have a positive feeling within us, and the team is the same thing.

“It's incredibly key to success. There are going to be highs and lows, we have to try and stay on as even a keel as possible. Enjoy the highs, don’t get carried away, and definitely don’t get carried away with the lows. And we haven’t had many.

“Have we lost a bit of momentum? With three weeks off, and everyone paralysed by the snow, I think the country lost a bit of momentum.

“Everyone seems to think we’ve had this massive dip. We haven’t, it was just that we had such a good start. And people’s expectation for Saturday's game got a little bit carried away because of the break.”

l Wilder names strong team for tonight’s FA Trophy tie – page 31.