Adam Murray has been ruled out of Oxford United’s FA Carlsberg Trophy third-round tie at Chelmsford City on Saturday.

The midfielder and skipper has been troubled by a back problem, and manager Chris Wilder says they don’t want to make it worse.

“The only injury doubt we’ve got is Adam Murray, who’s not trained all week because of the problem with his back,” stated United’s manager.

“We’re not going to be taking any chances with it, there’s no point.

“We’re not going to risk it at this stage and that’s how it will be until it’s right.

“He’s having rest and continued treatment from physio Jon Brown.

United will be taking nothing for granted when they visit Melbourne Park.

The Blue Square South promotion-chasers showed in the FA Cup this season how dangerous they can be, especially on their own patch.

They lost to Stevenage Borough 2-1, but only to an injury-time winner from Stevenage sub Peter Vincenti.

And Glenn Pennyfather’s team had led from the 26th minute until the 62nd, and it was only the dismissal of Chelmsford’s Simon Glover shortly afterwards that tipped the balance.

United manager Chris Wilder said: “We’re expecting a tough game, they took on Stevenage in the Cup and gave them a very hard game.

“They’ve got some decent players and it’s an opportunity for them to take a scalp.

“We’ll be overwhelming fav-ourites and expected to just turn up to go through, but football’s not like that.

“We’ll need to be solid, have a good shape, create opportunities as we have been doing, and take our chances.”

The way a strong Oxford United XI were taken to extra time in their Oxfordshire Senior Cup tie at Kidlington on Wednesday night, before winning 3-2, demonstrated that there are no easy games.

By all accounts, a muddy pitch at Yarnton Road was a big leveller.

“The thing is I’ve got players who want to play, whether it’s in a behind closed doors friendly, or the Oxfordshire Senior Cup, or in the league,” Wilder said.

“In difficult conditions, it was a game we possibly should not have taken to extra time.

“But I’m happy the players got some good match practice under their belts.”

The side at Chelmsford is more likely to be the bulk of the team that won 4-0 at Grays last Saturday.

This was an excellent all-round display, capped by goals from Simon Clist, Alfie Potter, James Constable and Matt Green.

“In the performance on Saturday, there were good individual displays all over the pitch,” said U’s boss.

“Collectively, we had a good shape, created plenty of scoring opportunities and restricted the opposition to very little.

“Ryan Clarke really didn’t have much to do.

“I know Grays had five or six making their debuts, but there’s two ways of looking at that . . . first impressions count for a lot so you can be sure they would have been desperate to do well.”

This will be one of Chelmsford’s biggest games of the season, but they too are challenging on two fronts.

“I imagine Chelmsford will have their priorities too because they’ve been doing well in Blue Square South and are looking to go up,” Wilder said.

With former Southend defender and midfielder Pennyfather their head coach, Chelmsford have experience in central midfield in the shape of ex-Dagenham & Redbridge midfielder Dave Rainford.

Rainford became known, when he was with the ‘Daggers’, for being the only semi-professional player in the Football League (he is also a teacher).