Oxford United’s title hopes are still alive after Saturday’s dramatic late win over Gateshead.

The 2-1 victory at the Kassam Stadium, although barely deserved, was United’s first win in six matches.

And it sends them into their biggest match of the season, at leaders Stevenage tomorrow night, with confidence buoyed.

Substitute Matt Green was their hero, heading home in injury time.

But boss Chris Wilder admits his players have to show more quality.

“We need to up our standards,” he said.

“I said to the players . . . I’m delighted for you, we’re back in it, but we’ve got to do better than that.

“They might be surprised, and people might be surprised, to hear me say that, but we’ve set our standards high and we’re nowhere near at the moment.

“Hopefully this win will kick-start us. I’ll take any win at the moment, because as you can see, there’s a lot of frustration and a lot of edgy performances.

“Our support was again fantastic and I’ve always said the onus is on the players to give the supporters something to cheer about, and second half we didn’t do enough really to get the win.

“But you’ll always take a win, however it comes.”

Stevenage had what, on paper, was a tricky fixture, but they continued their march with an emphatic 3-0 win at Crawley, with Yemi Odubade scoring two more to make it 19 for the season.

The U’s stay in second place just ahead of Luton, who had an astonishing 8-0 win over Hayes & Yeading, who recently won 2-1 at Oxford. Astonishing because they were seven-up after 35 minutes.

United struggled to their victory because, after James Constable fired them in front early in the second half with his 19th goal of the campaign, they conceded a sloppy equaliser just four minutes later.

“At 1-0 we should have gone on and won that game comfortably,” said the manager.

“And I was looking for us to go on, and maybe the handbrake comes off a little bit and the players start playing with more freedom, a little bit more confidence.

“But yet again we shot ourselves in the foot and we’re chasing games and leaving ourselves open at the back.

“We’ve got some good players and we’ve got to start showing it.

“But maybe the pressure’s off on Tuesday, maybe people will expect us not to get anything from that game.”